Festival Fever, and More Entertainment Matters

As early autumn eases in, so do a whole bunch of longstanding outdoor weekend festivals in our area. The Goleta Lemon Festival, now in its 33rd year, takes over Girsh Park on September 25-27, where it takes the concept of “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade” to extremes in creating a massive two-day festival that celebrates all aspects of the fruit and much more. It’s also about paying tribute to the Good Land’s heritage as a once-thriving haven for lemon groves with a citric-centric weekend. One of the South Coast’s most happily and heavily attended fests draws over 40,000 residents and visitors, as well as representatives of nonprofits, community leaders, and others in Goleta’s largest community event of the year. 

More than 80 booths represent nonprofits, local arts organizations, craftspeople, and commercial enterprises, most of them offering swag as well as information. The extensive food court features a bevy of lemon-oriented food and drink (lemon ale, anyone?) as well as plenty of other choices for tart-haters. The Lemon Fest also boasts an impressive lineup of local bands delivering virtually nonstop tunes both days, spanning rock, country, blues, funk and more, including the traditional Saturday afternoon’s headliner in the ever-popular dance band Area 51, while Sunday’s final act is the homegrown Goodlanders. Meanwhile, a separate community stage now known as the Point Market Stage brings more local flavor with performances by local groups, clubs and schools, although that stage has also stepped up with more commercial bands. 

The Lemon Fest is also the site for the 19th Annual Goleta Fall Classic on Saturday only, when the showcase of a variety of classic cool cars including Corvettes, Camaros and trucks and, new this year, European and Japanese imports. Meanwhile, Safety Street is the name for the event’s annual interactive display of Fire, Police, and Emergency Services vehicles, the largest in the county, where visitors can meet the people who help keep us safe and get an up-close look at their state-of-the-art vehicles and technologies. Also on hand: the Sheriff’s Mounted Enforcement Unit. The Lemon Fest is also a truly family-friendly festival, with games and activities that range from mini-golf to inflatable bubbles to archery tag in the Kids Zone – not to mention a daily pie eating contest – with an optional all-inclusive activity wristband providing endless fun for the wee folk. Free admission.

Visit https://lemonfestival.com

Head North or South for More Festival Fun

The first weekend in October is the time slot for two additional longstanding festival-type events: the 40th annual California Avocado Festival in downtown Carpinteria, and the Chumash Intertribal Powwow, which turns 61 this year. Like Goleta’s salute to the lemon, Avofest celebrates a fruit of a different color, one with deep roots in the Carp fields. Unlike Lemon Fest, it’s a decidedly more urban event (albeit in a charming seaside community), a three-day extravaganza that is much bigger, louder, and longer in duration (October 2-4). More than 60 bands perform across four different stages all weekend long, including such popular area groups as Doublewide Kings, Salty Strings, Cornerstone, Jackson Gillies (as Jax Plays Dead), The Rincons, Sgt. Pepper, Area 51, The Upbeat, Out of the Blue, Spencer the Gardener, and even Ventura’s still-kicking country-rock band Caught Red Handed. They provide the unmissable soundtrack for 50 arts & crafts and commercial vendors, 15 food purveyors (including the annual massive vat of guacamole that gets doled out with chips at the northernmost point of the fest), plus over a dozen nonprofits on site. The on-street carnival even includes a Ferris Wheel! All proceeds from the California Avocado Festival go to the Carpinteria Education Foundation and the Future Farmers of America.

Visit www.avofest.org for details about the free festival.

Going the other direction on the 101 (or 154), the Chumash Powwow – first held in 1965 as a fundraiser to bring running water to the Santa Ynez Reservation – keeps its tradition going as a well-attended gathering of Native American tribes from throughout North America. These tribes come together in Santa Ynez to celebrate Indigenous heritage and culture in the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians’ largest cultural event of the year. The two-day gathering, October 3 and 4, features dancing, singing, drumming, arts, crafts and more. Santa Ynez Chumash Community Members will open the ceremony with traditional song and dance, followed by Gourd Singing and the Grand Entry parade in colorful regalia. Events during the day include intertribal and exhibition dancing, contests for various age groups from young children to 70+, in style categories spanning traditional, straight, fancy, grass, jingle dress, buckskin, cloth, and chicken. More than $167,000 in cash prizes are being offered this year. The event also features informational booths, Native American artisan booths and vendors selling traditional Native foods, regalia and arts and crafts. While the event is open to the general public at a nominal $5 cost (free for children), and provides the community with educational and cultural experiences, it’s still very much geared toward the participants and the Native American community, even more so for a fifth year since the Powwow moved from Live Oak Camp to sacred tribal grounds at the corner of Meadowvale Road and Highway 246 in Santa Ynez. 

Visit www.chumash.gov/powwow

Fiddle Sticks: Festival Returns 

The 54th Old Time Fiddlers’ Festival fills Rancho Patera and the Stow House grounds with the picking and strumming sounds of acoustic stringed instruments. Although the original name of Fiddler’s Convention has been dropped, the fest still takes its “old-time” status seriously, with some of the competitions even requiring songs played on the stage to be of a certain vintage, namely (and significantly) pre-20th century American music. The paid performers who alternate with the competitors on the main stage don’t have that requirement, but most honor the concept of respecting traditions, including Hog-eyed Man, who draw primarily on the archaic tunes and pre-radio aesthetics of Southern Appalachian fiddling traditions, and Tricia Spencer and Howard Rains, an old-time folk music duo who were brought up in the music of their families, with Spencer learning knee-to-knee from her grandparents and other master musicians in the Midwest. These are a few of the reasons the one-day fest draws fiddlers, mandolinists, guitarists, double bassists, banjoists, and others from both local environs and parts farther flung. The gathering takes place on October 5 this year, but the impromptu jam sessions all over the grounds might be an even bigger attraction, as pros and amateurs gather round and trade songs, with folks joining in as they see fit. What could be more democratic and community-creating than that? Tickets are $20 in advance, $25 at the gate, $5 students and free under 12. 

Visit https://fiddlersfestival.org

Music from Mali: Mmm Mmm Mmm

Vieux Farka Touré, acclaimed widely as the “Hendrix of the Sahara,” is the second son of the late great Malian guitarist Ali Farka Touré, and has forged a remarkable career that honors his father’s legacy while establishing a powerful artistic identity of his own. Praised for his fiery guitar work, soulful vocals and boundary-crossing collaborations with artists such as Dave Matthews and John Scofield, Touré offers performances that seamlessly blend the hypnotic grooves of traditional Songhai music with elements of blues, rock and jazz, creating a sound that is both deeply rooted and unmistakably modern. Joining him for the gig at SOhO on Friday, September 25, is Gitkin, the psychedelic world music project of New Orleans-based guitarist Brian J that draws inspiration from Afro-Cuban rhythms, Tuareg guitar traditions, cumbia and vintage funk. 

Visit www.sohosb.com

Sold Out Shows of the Week

It was just last November that Judy Collins last sang at the Lobero Theatre, supported by former Montecitan Tom Rush for that mini-tour of California. But the longtime folk-pop icon is headed our way for what is likely the last time, as Collins, now 87, is in the midst of her “Sweet Judy Blue Eyes: Farewell Tour.” The title of course is a play on words of “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes,” the folk-rock classic one-time lover Stephen Stills wrote for and about her during the early days of Crosby, Stills & Nash. That time frame will be well-represented at the Sunday, September 27, concert back at the Lobero, where we’ll hear a wide-ranging program that spans all of her eras, including the hits that first brought her fame in the 1960s and ‘70s, i.e. Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now,” Leonard Cohen’s “Suzanne,” Stephen Sondheim’s “Send in the Clowns,” as well as other folk tunes, more modern pop songs and quite a bit of her own compositions. Six decades later, Collins still boasts the clear soprano that drew fans to her in the ‘60s, as well as her commitment to social and environmental justice and activism, which should make the concert something bittersweet to experience. If you’re going, get there on time, as the appealing twin sisters from Norway known as Oakland Rain open the show. 

Fabulous Marty Stuart 

Marty Stuart, comparatively just a spring chicken who doesn’t turn 68 until the day after his September 29 Lobero show, began his career in the ‘60s touring with Lester Flatt and later Johnny Cash before becoming a solo artist in the early ‘80s, when he forged his blend of country rock, bluegrass and rockabilly into a winning formula that has placed 30 hits on Billboard’s country charts, and earned the singer-songwriter guitarist five Grammy Awards. But nowadays he’s known as much for his outlandish costumes and mashing up country tradition with cosmic California cool. Stuart will be collaborating with his longtime band The Fabulous Superlative, stretching the boundaries of the genre in all sorts of directions, with a solid dose of humor to boot.