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COURIER photo/Gabriel Fenoy
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| Claremont’s own Ben Harper plays the main stage at the Folk Festival held at Sycamore Elementary School on Saturday. |
Claremont Folk Festival brings out the best
The one-day experiment of combining the daytime events of the Claremont Folk Festival along with an evening concert was a success. The expressions of delight on the faces of those who attended told the whole story.
With something to offer for people of all ages, last Saturday’s 28th Annual Claremont Folk Festival was bigger than ever with the normally calm Sycamore Elementary School Campus turned into a venue that was embraced by the community at large.
“It was a different feeling because everything was together,” said Jean Barr, program designer of the festival. “It was interesting seeing all the pieces come together and see the whole process play out.”
The morning and afternoon were filled with folk-themed activities and entertainment that kept the festival-goers busy until the evening concert performances by headliners Ben Harper, Taj Mahal and Jackson Browne. More than 40 workshops were offered on Saturday including beginning guitar, advanced mandolin, song writing, spoon making, harp healthcare, samba drumming, tango/salsa dancing, middle-eastern dancing and more.
A theme of the festival was the chance for festival-goers to take part in something that they had never experienced before. One such activity was Joel Harper’s didgeridoo workshop, which exposed many to the cylindrical Australian wind instrument for the first time.
“It was frustrating at first because [playing the didgeridoo] is one of those things where you either have it right or you don’t,” said Joe Kaplan. “They have different sizes though and while you can pick up one and play horribly on it, you can pick up another that’s either bigger or smaller and be able to play it a lot better.”
According to Andrew Page, the ability to play the didgeridoo is found within the ability to properly breathe while attempting to get a clear sound from the instrument.
“I’ve played brass instruments and I came in thinking it was the same principle with the didgeridoo,” he said. “But I found out that you have to work to get the right amount of air into the instrument so that the whole thing resonates. Instead of trying to get the note right, the focus was on getting the air right.”
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COURIER photo/Gabriel Fenoy
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| Jackson Browne performs at the Claremont Folk Festival on Saturday night. The yearly event raises money for the Dorothy and Charles Chase Folk Music and Culture Education Foundation. |
“I really enjoy doing this for so many reasons,” Mr. Harper said. “Just about every year, somebody will pull me aside and tell me how grateful he or she was to learn something new. And I think the children also notice when they see their dads or moms happy because they’ve learned something new. It’s a great feeling to be able to inspire people who never would have thought about playing an instrument.”
Sustainability was a significant component of this year’s festival with various organizations such as Claremont Food Not Lawns, the Holistic Moms Network and members of the Claremont Sustainability Task force in attendance. Vegetarian food items, reusable plates, compostable flatware and recycled napkins were also used on Saturday and even the event program was printed on recycled paper.
The sustainability theme allowed more organizations to be involved in this year’s event, with Cal Poly Pomona also making an appearance. Cal Poly Pomona’s Matty West was on hand to give a presentation on a prototype house that is being completed on the Pomona campus using materials such as papercrete, used tires, rocks and wood pallets.
“I never say no when people tell us to come and show what we’ve been doing,” Mr. West said. “With the idea of sustainability, I think it’s interesting that more people are accepting it.”
In keeping with the theme of sustainability, AquaHealth, a company that offers healthy beverages on through the use of fountains, provided 4 drinking stations to supply water for the festival-goers throughout the day. No bottled beverages were offered at the event.
“We had 4 water stations set up and we have a purification process that filters out all the contaminants in the water,” said Paul Mulder, representative of AquaHealth. “Instead of having plastic waste, we’ve cut that out with the water stations and provided readily accessible water to the people throughout the day. The sustainability theme has been really good for this event to have.”
Each year, much of the efforts of the Claremont Folk Festival rest on the shoulders of countless volunteers who lend their time and energy to the event. This year’s festival featured more than 130 volunteers, who were scattered about the campus in perpetual motion throughout the day.
“We put out a volunteer form prior to the festival and people sign up to volunteer through that,” said Dawna Welch, one of the volunteer coordinators. “Through that, when one person volunteers, the word spreads and then we always end up having enough. Typically, our volunteers are scheduled to work 4-hour shifts but many times they end up wanting to work longer. They like doing it and there is a sense that they really want to support the festival any way they can.”
Though the festival takes a significant amount of effort to put on annually, volunteer coordinator Cindi Eiland views the event volunteers as always willing to go above and beyond expectations.
“It was challenging but everybody has been great,” she said. “The community is great and this is a great event.”
—Landus Rigsby
