On the last Saturday in October, at least 200 people flocked to the Madrona Music Festival at the Key Peninsula Civic Center to hear local and regional musicians perform. If the team that organized the event had its way, it would be the first of many.
Music played from noon until 9 p.m. with soloists and larger groups all performing original works. The audience ranged from 4-month-old babies to retirees. Some came to see the Flaming Fingers String Band, a group of local musicians who inspired a floor full of contra dancers. Others heard about the festival through The Seattle Times and wanted to hear free music in a location they had never seen. Still others came to see specific musicians from the region who have loyal fans. Dean Johnson, Eli West, Sera Cahoone, Ollella, Alessandra Rose and Nathaniel Talbot, all highly regarded musicians from Seattle, Bremerton and Whidbey Island, performed.
Workshops for string bass, banjo and guitar, and a jam session ran in the nearby Whitmore Room.
“I give it five stars, the best festival I’ve been to,” said Tom Zim, string bass player for the Flaming Fingers.
“It was good to get out, and rural places are often more intimate, you get to meet people,” said Seattle-based Ellie Barber, who performs as Ollella. She trained as a classical cellist and now performs her own songs using looping — a technique that allows her to record and playback live, to accompany herself.
The idea for the festival started with discussions around a neighborhood bonfire. Matt Hildreth, who moved to the Key Peninsula in 2021, played a central role.
“The KP is pretty divided politically, and we talked about wanting to bring the community together,” he said. “Sometimes people get segmented into their own comfort zones. Music can break that down a little bit.”
Hildreth was raised in a small town in South Dakota and met his wife, who grew up in Issaquah, in college. After 13 years they decided to move to his wife’s home state. The Key Peninsula fit the bill for them. It met Hildreth’s desire to live in a rural community but still offered some urban proximity.
Hildreth describes himself as a social entrepreneur and is the founder and executive director of Rural Organizing, a nonprofit advocacy group focused on rebuilding rural economies. His passion project, though, is Yonlander.com, an online platform to celebrate the things that he loves about rural communities like backyard homesteading, outdoor recreation and country music.
Hildreth plays the banjo, and soon after he arrived he met Dan Whitmarsh, the pastor at Lakebay Community Church, who introduced him to local musicians. He helped organize the Old Time Fiddlers, which now meets monthly at The Mustard Seed Project. Members of that group, along with his neighbors, formed the local connections for the festival.
Hildreth met two others with a passion for music. Devon Leger is a Seattle-based Arcadian fiddler and music publicist, and Sean Jewell, from Bremerton, is a music producer. Together they had a large network of performers and Jewell was excited about bringing an event to the “other” side of Puget Sound.
A grant from Trust for Civic Life made the Madrona Music Festival possible. It meant they could offer the festival for free, pay for the space, a sound system, the musicians, and the production team. “We couldn’t pay them what they were worth,” Hildreth said, “but if it is going to be sustainable, the work of putting a festival together needs to be a job and not just depend on volunteers.”
Music Festivals of the Past
Edie Morgan and Mark Runions can attest to both the joy and work involved in putting on music festivals.
Morgan and her husband Tom, a professional drummer, moved to the KP in 1981. They got to know neighbors Charlie and Melissa Morgan (no relation to Edie or Tom) through their kids. Other artist and musician friends joined in get-togethers. Tom was working in Seattle and Charlie had started bringing reggae musicians to the region from Jamaica.
“We all knew musicians and bands and had contacts and so we decided to put on a dance at the Longbranch Improvement Club. We all loved that hall,” Edie said. They charged a small entry fee to rent the hall, pay the band, and break even. About 200 people came and everyone had a good time. There is nothing like having a good time with music and dancing.”
“Somewhere in there we decided we needed to have structure if we were going to continue,” she said. “We were the young ones in those days. We came up with the name Longbranch Arts and Music Association – LAMA.” Rivka Sweedler, a weaver, and her husband and Walter Barkas, a wood sculptor, were early members, as were pianist Mark Runions and his wife Reni Moriarty.
“Charlie was really the leader, but there was a synergism with bouncing off ideas,” Edie said. She edited their newsletter, the LAMA Gnus. They created tee shirts and stationery.
They raised some money from the summer dances and decided to use the proceeds to hold an annual music and arts festival. Barkas created a life-sized llama with a fleece of cedar bark. “After about three years, we got burned out,” Edie said. It didn’t help that someone in the LIC was clearing out storage and burned their mascot. The LAMA Music and Arts Festival came to an end.
Runions could not forget the allure of a festival. In 2007 he spearheaded Beyond the Borders, a free arts and music festival held each August for about 6 years. He wanted to bring world music to the Key Peninsula, along with an art show, activities for kids, food, and a beer garden. His only rules were no blues or rock and roll.
“The usual suspects, including Phil Bauer, were involved,” he said, but Runions was the grant writer and found all the musicians. Eventually, he wore out, and Beyond the Borders ended in 2013.
Dreams for the Future
The Madrona Music Festival team is reviewing feedback from the musicians and attendees and figuring out what comes next, but Hildreth hopes to organize another festival. They offered only 500 tickets to comply with fire safety regulations, but they know they can offer more next time. Ticket holders came and went all day and only about half of those who reserved tickets showed up — a pretty standard turnout, according to Jewell. They are considering charging an affordable price that will lead to a lower no-show rate.
“We want to have cool events in unlikely places,” Jewell said. “It’s important to have a new place to play. Anytime you can bring musicians in a rural setting, magic will happen. In the city, the music industry focuses on making money. We want to have a community.”
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