The 34th Redwood Coast Music Festival last weekend in Eureka attracted another huge crowd of attendees who faced the pleasant challenge of picking and choosing among 130 sets by amazing talent over four days at different venues.
The event began back in 1990 with a traditional Dixieland jazz music genre targeting a somewhat aging audience. Today, the festival attracts a much more diverse and younger crowd, and it includes swing, blues, Americana, Western swing, country, Cajun, zydeco and rockabilly.
“With the wide variety of styles that we feature at the RCMF, many of our attendees’ first experience with some of these genres happens here and they hear it from some of the very best musicians available,” said organizer Mark Jansen. “Some might look at Western Swing Allstars and think that they don’t like country, but here they get to see a 12-piece Western swing big band with musicians that are expert at playing that style — it’s a whole different ballgame and, as Bob Wills said, it’s ‘jazz with cowboy hats.’”
In another innovative idea this year, the festival and Eureka Main Street expanded the free Old Town Rhythm & Roots evening on Saturday during Arts Alive to include 24 sets of live music at 10 locations by a mix of local and out-of-area headliners. This increased access to great music for locals and others without having to buy a festival ticket and was supported by the Ink People, Humboldt Creative Alliance and Humboldt County Measure J.
“This is an exceptional music festival for such a small town,” said headliner Deke Dickerson, as he opened his Friday rockabilly set with the Whippersnappers. “We don’t have anything like it in L.A. with over 8 million people.”
Jansen likes to describe the event as “a musician’s festival where players collaborate with each other. Blues musicians sitting in with jazz musicians, jazz musicians sitting in with Western swing musicians — band combinations you won’t see or hear anywhere else.”
“I look for fantastic musicians who are experts at what they do and who love to do collaboration,” said Jansen. “It’s not necessary that they be household names as the goal is to attract audience members with excellent musicianship and the experience and not necessarily just by big names.”
The event is also now well known as an all-ages “dancer’s festival,” as it featured ample floor space at the Eagle House, Adorni Center, Eureka Theater, Eureka Veterans Hall, Sequoia Conference Center, the Morris Graves Museum of Art, Red Lion Hotel and the free venues on Saturday night. Johnny Ochoa of SacTown Swings offered free dance lessons over three days to attendees looking to improve their dance moves.
The festival — in partnership with the Humboldt Folklife Society — also offered three master classes with musicians Elana James, Whit Smith and Jonathan Stout.
Visit the festival website for a look back at the schedule and list of artists at rcmf.org.
Mark Larson (he/him) is a retired Cal Poly Humboldt journalism professor and active freelance photographer who likes to walk.
This article appears in Gold in the Cracks.