Seldovia Summer Solstice Music Festival
Now in its 12th year, the festival is an eclectic mix of music, dance and workshops that will stimulate and sooth and tickle a variety of musical tastes. This year’s headlining acts include:
Moira Smiley and VOCO, a trio of singers who push the edge of a cappela music redefining harmony singing with the power and physicality of folksong, the avant-garde fearlessness of Bela Barok and vaudevillian combo of cello, accordion and banjo. Named #1 a cappella group in the U.S. in 2007, Moira Smiley and VOCO crate lush arrangements of sweet spell-binding American and European song and light up the stage with rompin ‘stompin body percussion and warm wit.
Jaime Michaels is an award winning singer songwriter from Santa Fe, New Mexico, who is bound to win your heart as well. Jaime has a long career of writing songs, playing in rock and roll bands, and touring the world with his body of songs. As Mark S.Tucker remarks in his FAME review of Jaime’s newest album, The Man With The Time Machine, “Michaels watches the side currents of life, not the hurtlingly frantic noise and images…far more the missed opportunities, the mistakes, the wrinkles in the heart. We may be living through the 21st century, but work like his takes us back to a Mayberry that’s a lot scruffier around the edges, an indeterminate era when our fantasies about such things danced a little differently. .”"
Other favorites are Alaskan greats, Robin Hopper, Dan McElrath, Mt. Echo, The Acoustic Banana; Seldovia’s own Betsy Scott, the Rob Rurka Band and Brian Slover and touring artists from around the world Paul Thompson from the United Kingdom , Bianca De Leon from Austen, Texas, Don and Karen McNatt from Nashville, The Rough Diamonds from Illinois and dance teachers Anne and Rob Nelezen from Wisconsin.
The event will cover four days of free and paid events starting with free events on Thursday June 16 with a jam on the Alaska State Ferry, Tustemena and then after dinner on to an Open Mic’ which will feature those performers who are not included on the schedule but who would like to have a set.
The festival is officially opened June 17 with Friday, morning workshops, and Friday evening performances . It continues Saturday morning with around town events and then on to workshops on Saturday afternoon and Saturday evening performance. It ends on Sunday afternoon with a gospel jam.
