The 22nd annual Sierra Nevada World Music Festival returns to the Boonville Fairgrounds this month for the 10th time. Or, as the old cliche goes, time does fly when you're having fun.
After a dozen years at two previous sights in the Sierra foothills, the weekend musical extravaganza relocated to the friendlier Anderson Valley and has stuck ever since. The first year was plagued by a scorching heatwave that left many wondering if they'd ever brave the event again; the second year featured a firestorm of lightning strikes all over the county that, by the closing Sunday show, brought a wall of smoke that warranted surgical masks, goggles, and upon departure, headlights and crawling speeds on the roads in full daylight. But since then it's been a beautiful third weekend in June each time, and this is now one of the biggest events of the year for the county fairgrounds.
Festival honcho Warren Smith, along with partner Gretchen Franz and a core staff of organizers, corral at least a hundred other workers and volunteers to make sure things run smoothly. But as this festival is very much about the music, and offering not only well-known stars but new and unique acts, often for the first time in this country, Smith actually works pretty much year-round, online and by flying overseas, to corral the forty or so musical artists who fill out the lineup. It starts Friday evening with a blessing and dancing from local Pomo Indian tribal representatives and runs through 10pm on Sunday. Two stages run simultaneously, with a late night Jamaican-style "dancehall' Friday and Saturday nights for the real diehards. Children's entertainment and participatory fun takes place all days on the weekend, and food vendors from near and far line the path between the two stages.
World music and reggae festivals have proliferated like weeds in recent years, and the competition has gotten tough for both musical acts and attendees. Fans get picky and many must prioritize where to spend their limited free time and funds (and there is always a fun and contentious ongoing debate on the SNWMF.com website "phorum" about the comparative pros and cons of the musical lineups and much else). But Smith, a veteran promoter since the 1970s, is well known for his musical knowledge and integrity in making things work. The SNWMF, for those in the know, has a longstanding reputation as one of the very best there is, for both the musical menu and the "good vibes" (And yes, I wrote and said this sort of thing many times before I became one of the festival's masters of ceremonies, making a fool of myself onstage to help keep things rocking and flowing. It's an honor).
Here's what Smith has to say by way of preview to this year's festivities...
So, are we expecting another good weekend, climate-wise?
Well, yeah, we certainly hope so, but of course we are all at least a little bit worried these days about the drought too. Everybody's going to have to be extra careful.
You still have a 5,000 ticket maximum, right?
Yes. It would be nice to get to that, too.
There are some plans to turn the musical volume down a bit this year too.
Yes. We'd been getting too many complaints that it's too hard to carry on a conversation even in the back of the bowl, and it can just be tiring overall to have that loudness all day long. It had even set off some car alarms. Mainly we are a family-friendly event and people with young kids understandably do not want to expose their kids to that too much. Anyway I don't think it will be anything dramatic; we're just trying to make the main bowl a little more user-friendly. Other than that it's pretty much all the same arrangements as things seem to have been working really well.
So, musically, who are you most excited to be bringing this year?
Well, once again we have some new acts coming from far away. I'm really curious to see Ras Muhamad, coming from Jakarta, Indonesia, a really strong roots reggae performer and personality. Melbourne Ska Orchestra has been up for "best live band in Australia" and I believe about 18 of them will be here. They are quite phenomenal to see and a lot of fun, I've seen them several times. Another one I'm really excited to have, for their first time in America, is Gentleman's Dub Club - a bunch of young kids out of Leeds, England. They are reminiscent of the 'two-tone" era of punky ska, with full horns and a lot of fun.
Are you still finding a lot of these groups on your travels?
Yes, that and along with talking with other festival promoters about who is best.
For reggae, you've got both new and old stars coming again.
Yeah, we've got a lot of the new "revival reggae" artists, I'd say five of them. Jesse Royal will be making his west coast debut. Hempress Sativa will be here for the first time as well. Pentateuch is a really young band out of Kingston, Jamaica, very much roots reggae. A very interesting group that comes from the theatre world is No-Maddz, a five-piece group we're excited to have. And we have Nattali Rize, an Australian but with a band from Jamaica called Notis. And then of course Jimmy Cliff is coming back to headline Saturday night, and we have a very special show, which we've tried three times to do, with Max Romeo, making his first ever west coast experience. He's a living reggae legend with songs that will live forever. Also for the first time is Yellowman, a dancehall pioneer. Luciano is returning, and Ken Boothe and Big Youth, and we've got Admiral Tibet, plus the world-famed reggae icons Third World and Steel Pulse, with some seminal harmony groups The Melodians and The Itals. And some of the vintage artists from Jamaica even before their time will be B.B. Seaton, Keith and Tex, and Monty Morris.
That Sunday session on the smaller Village stage with some of the early Jamaican pioneers has become something of a tradition - I think of it as "Early Reggae Church time."
Yep, and this year it's actually a "rock steady" Sunday - the soulful Jamaican sound that came in the mid-sixties and turned into reggae. And, our closing headliner, Thievery Corporation, has a worldwide following and it should be a very interesting close to the weekend on Sunday night.
So you're expecting a good crowd this year?
Well we hope so. It takes some convincing for some folks to come all the way out on the winding roads - that might be our only real obstacle we have here.
But really it's not that bad and people certainly do it to go wine tasting and all that...
Right. Our other constraint is limited lodging and camping, and some locals might want to consider that if they have a big back lot or something like that, they could have people stay in their campers or mobile homes and charge some fee and make some money, while getting to know this great group of people who show up.
There are some locals who do that - I've even met folks who just let somebody park it in their driveway for a fee.
Good - whatever might work!
Is there still some kind of a deal for locals on tickets?
Yes, there's a fairgrounds price, they just need to ask and have ID, and if they live contiguous to the fairgrounds, they probably don't even have to buy a ticket to get in.
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So, for all information, take a look at www.snwmf.com.
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