Rick Bryant never thought he'd have a job that required a pick-up truck.

But not only does being the executive director of the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts require him to have one, he's carried almost everything imaginable in it -- from ice and sand to sculptures and people.

"When I was a kid, I thought I'd be like my father and have a briefcase," he said.

Bryant doesn't need a briefcase, though, to be an integral part of what made this weekend's five-day festival run smoothly.

He doesn't need to wear a suit to be a recognizable person for festival attendees to ask for help or to be the overseer for other directors who recognize a problem.

Bryant not only performs the jobs of a traffic cop, a chauffeur and a tour guide wearing shorts and a T-shirt, but he also does it all wearing a smile.

An example of a less stressful task in an Arts Fest day for Bryant is driving with a fellow volunteer to the State College airport to return an artist's rental car.

"That's the most relaxing hour we've had in a very long time," said Jeff Miller, Bryant's right-hand man.

Bryant has held the position of executive director since 2005, making the career switch after selling insurance for more than 20 years.

"I kind of decided, you know, I don't like my job very much," he said, adding that he didn't care about his paycheck. "I'm not putting a kid through Harvard."

At his college reunion this year, Bryant surprised former classmates with what he does for a living.

"People ask 'Oh, what do you do?' And when I say I run an art and music festival, they tend to say 'Wait. That's a job?' " he said.

However unconventional, his job is important to the hundreds of artists, performers and community members who take part in the festival each year.

Bryant not only guides artists to their booths, but he knows stories about their families and remembers details down to what month they had gall bladder surgery.

"God, you are the pulse of everything," Robert Villamagna, an artist stationed on Burrowes Street said to Bryant, realizing the many tasks Bryant sets out to accomplish each day of the festival.

But Bryant said he's a bit scared of being everyone's go-to guy.

"I don't know as much as people say I know," he said.

What he does know is how to handle the problems that arise to the best of his ability, most of which he can plan around, he said.

The problems Bryant can face on a festival day range from mismarked visitor parking to just how much the festival is being affected by the current state of the economy.

Day in and day out, the process of putting on the festival that draws 125,000 visitors, students and alumni to State College for something other than a football game has also made this team of directors into a close knit group.

"I've lived here a long time, and in my career and in my personal life I've done a lot of stuff where I've met a lot of people," Bryant said. "During Arts Fest time, the directors are my family."