American Festivals Project

The only photo from Breyerfest 2009

The energy in the parking lot of the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington this weekend wasn’t just palpable, it was written all over the cars and trucks parked next to us: “I’ve been counting down for 168 Days…”; “Happy Birthday Breyer!”; “If you can’t cure the obsession, FEED IT!!”; “Breyerfest or Bust!!”

Our enthusiasm for plastic model horses was substantially more subdued, however.  We had been told the night before, as we drove through Missouri, we weren’t welcome at the 20th Breyerfest Birthday Bash.  The company who organizes and runs the event, Breyer, wasn’t interested in being associated with our project and the small festivals we’ve previously documented.  The crux of issue was that the AFP declares it is “in search of America’s small, hidden, and bizarre festivals.”  And Breyer doesn’t want to be considered “small,” “hidden,” or “bizarre.”  Nor did they want virtual company with the Prison Rodeo, the Coondog Graveyard, or presumably any other event we’ve photographed.  So, the report from Lexington is…BUST.

Disappointment would be an understatement of our reaction to Breyer’s decision.  And since they gave us only a day’s notice, it was impossible for us to find an alternative festival for the weekend.  That’s the reason we showed up anyway, hoping to convince the Breyer folks of our intentions.  We even got to the top, discussing the issue with the patriarch of plastic quadrupeds, the president of Breyer.  But his convictions were firm.

The bitter taste of rejection was on our tongues all weekend.  It was the AFP’s first encounter with corporate interests.  The battle between controlled corporate marketing and journalistic intent played out right before our eyes.  Breyer has lofty dreams to be “like Disney.”  They want all the commercial wheels greased, and they saw no benefit to AFP’s coverage of the event.  They want to be seen as mainstream and as accessible to all, but the truth is that Breyerfest is not like visiting Epcot Center.  Sheik the Danish Knabstruffer and Idocus the Warmblood Bay are not Mickey and Minnie Mouse.  Even if Target carries them all on Aisle 8, the world of Walt is just a few body lengths in the lead on that race.

So let’s play out a scenario.  A few thousand people from around the country and even a few from international countries converge on a single location to purchase a specific maker of collectible toy horses, talk about their collection of rare breed replicas,  offer advice for building a collection (aka “stable management”),  and learn techniques for making custom miniature saddles, harnesses, bridles, and other tack.   Many of the participants are young girls but the age of the attendees spans all ages.  A good percentage of them are wearing sweatshirts and t-shirts embossed with horse portraits.  They paint on their car windows and they shell out hundreds of dollars all to satisfy their passion for collectible model horses.  Now tell us, is this not a unique group of people?

We’ll be honest, we’re not model horse collectors.  Although Ross is a good jockey size and Andrew has broken his back shoveling out horse stalls over the years.  We’re photographers.  And for this project, we are photographing unique human gatherings that say something about they way Americans live today.  Going to these events and festivals is like seeing life in fast forward, like witnessing American traditions, rituals, and values in their most dense visual form. So why Breyerfest?  Why did AFP want to be there in the first place?   Why was it on the shortlist of festivals to attend?  Two reasons.  The first, perhaps no nation in the world hordes things like the US.  Cars, coins, teddy bears, family heirlooms, t-shirt collections, middle school essays, high school swimming trophies…it pains us to throw things away.  And many of us at some point or another in our lives have little collections of specific things.  For Ross it was rocks, buttons, baseball cards, and foreign coins.  For Andrew it was football cards, He-Man action figures, and toy race cars.  Creating a collection is part of growing up American. The second component of Breyerfest is the horse.  What animal is more accessible to the collective American memory than the horse?   What animal in the American consciousness is revered with as much grandeur and mystique as the horse?  From the Spanish conquistadors to Buffalo Bill, the horse is the animal that conquered the New World.

Who knows, maybe in a hundred years, we’ll all see that it was the Breyer horse that conquered the hearts and imaginations of young girls of the 21st century in a way that Barbie did in the 20th century.  Shirking off adorable bowtied mice and well-intentioned journalists will have presented no challenge, and the right of passage for all Americans will be a bareback ride to PasturePlanet. The AFP wishes Breyer all the best of luck, and we fully understand their point of view.  But it’s our duty as journalists to call a spade a spade.  And we’re sorry we couldn’t introduce the passionate, if not unique, world of model horse collecting to our faithful and engaged audience.