The Old Time Bluegrass Festival at Anderson Marsh State Historic Park near Clearlake was a huge success with 1,500 people converging on the park, which proved to be an excellent venue for the event.
Two stages hosted talented musicians from both the Bay Area and Lake County, along with the Elem Indian dancers and the Clearlake Clickers clogging group. Craft and food booths lined the perimeter of the ranch house and teachers from the Konocti Unified School District provided children”s activities.
The day went off without a hitch. Fortunately the wind died down from the previous day so the weather was just about perfect.
The music was great with Bay Area headliners like the Roadoilers and the Stairwell Sisters entertaining in the late afternoon, and local groups like Pat Ickes and Friends, the Bluegrass Contraption, the Konocti Fiddlers, Jim Williams, Laura Lind and Gus Garelick and Don Coffin performing in the earlier part of the day.
The guitar, banjo and clogging workshops were very popular, as was the Contra dancing workshop held at the end of the day. Lower Lake”s Bill Fredriksson, well-known local thespian, was much appreciated as the MC for the day”s
schedule.
“What I really like is looking around and seeing the Clearlake community coming together to put on this great event, and, seeing the smiles on everyone”s faces because of this great music,” commented Bill MacDougal, principal at Carl? High School. MacDougal”s students were a vital part of the event, helping to set up and take down, as well as providing a popular food booth where the school”s culinary program cooked up hotdogs, hamburgers and vegetarian burgers for hungry event goers. The Yuba Community College Clear Lake Campus culinary program was also on hand serving Cajun chicken and beans and rice.
“This truly was a community effort,” noted one of the event organizers, Frank McAtee. The Clearlake Kiwanis Club sold the beer and wine; the Clear Lake Chamber of Commerce, co-sponsor, handled many pre-event activities and managed the raffle. Also donating and helping were the City of Clearlake, the Clearlake Rotary and the Lakeshore Lions. Carl? High School students worked hard, as did Nancy Langdon and other teachers from the Konocti Unified School District. “All of the sponsors are too numerous to mention in this article but we will be acknowledging them in the future and want to thank everyone for contributing time, money, goods and services to make this event such a huge success,” commented Anna McAtee.
Of the hundreds of people attending the festival, many reported being from San Jose, Petaluma, Sacramento, Santa Rosa and other areas throughout northern California. The festival was advertised in a well-circulated Bluegrass Music magazine as well as Arts & Entertainment sections and the Fun and Travel tabloid in MediaNews Group newspapers.
The funds raised from this event will be used by the Anderson Marsh Interpretive Association to develop a local history curriculum focusing on both the European and Native American history of Anderson Marsh and Ranch to be used by third-grade students of the Konocti Unified School as part of their standards-based local history study.
The Anderson Marsh Interpretive Association (AMIA) is committed to enhancing and improving the State Park with the goal of working with other organizations to present quality events at the park and preserve the natural beauty of South Lake County.
