One-of-a-kind crafts and unique music are the recipe for community benefit at the Redwood Mountain Faire.
On May 30 and May 31, at Roaring Camp in Felton, people can enjoy 22 local bands on two stages, as they lie on blankets looking up into a sunny blue sky.
Last year the eight-member steering committee for the Redwood Mountain Faire raised $50,000 in two days, and they are waiting in the wings to perform their magic again.
“We wanted to avoid the commercial stuff and to make it as unique as possible,” Steering Committee Member Nancy Macy said.
Other Steering Committee Members include Linda K. Moore, Alicia Kennedy, Hallie Greene, Steven Shabry, Eric Hammer, Jim Coffis, and Violet Smith.
The committee arranged the juried arts and crafts, extensive activities for kids, locally-sourced food, local brews, wines and ciders, a silent auction, and entertainment surprises each day.
“It’s an incredible, family-oriented celebration, and it affords an opportunity for crafts people to have a place to sell their work and relatively unknown, young musicians to gain some recognition and some money for their work,” Moore said. “I love that it’s such a success.”
The 2014 event benefitted 20 local nonprofit organizations, like Mountain Community Resources, Valley Churches United, and others. In the end the Faire brought in $10,000 more than the year before. In comparison, volunteers at the first valley celebration in 1980 sold $300 worth of champagne and homemade pastries at Highlands Park.
“We’ve made a huge jump in the amount of funding we’ve given to nonprofits. The word is getting out that it’s a unique, special place to come because it makes memories,” Macy said. “The groups that benefit from the Faire’s funding also volunteer — the more hours they work, the more their organizations receive.”
Estelle Fein, founder, mentor, and teacher at South Street Center in Boulder Creek, said she didn’t know if her group would still be around if not for the Redwood Mountain Faire.
“We’re on such a low budget because we offer things to a rural community. The Faire has provided us with survival funding,” Fein said of the school, which provides free community-based classes and resources for mothers and children. “We even got a grant for heaters because we had no way to keep the school warm in the winter.”
Macy said the Steering Committee wants to provide diverse entertainment for the community.
“We like to rotate bands each year. We’ve got belly dancers and stilt walkers coming, who do this incredible dancing on stilts,” said Macy. “Aztec dancers — they’ve been here every year in their feathered headdresses, and they give little history lessons while they perform. It’s theoretically for the kids, but the parents are enthralled as well.”
Some of the bands include local favorites like the Coffis Brothers & the Mountain Men, the Banana Slug String Band and Candelaria, playing Latin songs.
Women musicians are represented by the all-female group The Inciters. Laurie Lewis and the Right Hands blend Bluegrass and Americana instrumentalists and singers, featuring Lewis’ fiddle and voice.
Birds of Chicago return to the Faire, creating a fusion of soul, folk, blues, and Americana. Singers JT Nero and Allison Russell hit the right notes with their unique sound.
Advanced tickets are discounted and available through http://redwoodmountainfaire.com/ or in person at Liberty Bank in Felton, Boulder Creek, and Streetlight Records in Santa Cruz. Adults are $20 ($25 at the door), students/seniors are $15 ($20 at the door), and kids 12 and under (with adult) are free. Parking is $5.
Faire-goers should expect to have their bags inspected since the only way the Faire makes money is by selling their own products.
