Although the people had been grooving for hours, the best was yet to come. As the bluegrass band Cross-Eyed Rosie began a cover of the Police classic “Walking on the Moon,” a version even funkier than the original, a wave of excitement passed through the audience. Suddenly, the entire crowd moved effortlessly to one infectious beat.
Everything locals love about music in Eugene came together at Cuthbert Amphitheater on Saturday at the 37th annual Willamette Valley Folk Festival. Presented by the UO Cultural Forum, the two-day festival featured 35 artists including Eugene legends, University students and national acts.
Keeping true to its roots, the festival opened with two staple artists of the Eugene folk scene: Laura Kemp and Walker T. Ryan.
Ryan, called “a long-time icon in the city’s music elite” by Greg Johnson of BluesNotes magazine, plays rich blues and roots on the acoustic guitar. He said the festival is fun to play because it has a “feel of Eugene’s own.”
“It’s a good community to play in,” Ryan said. “You see a lot of familiar faces.”
That community feel is a draw for many artists who play here. The mellow audience included members of three or four generations, with everyone from hippies to college kids to young children still discovering music. While most spectators spent Saturday sunbathing on the lawn, many adults and children danced near the stage, enjoying the laid-back atmosphere.
“Really it’s just a communal feel,” said University junior Korey Schultz, festival co-coordinator. “The fact that it’s two days allows people to come out and enjoy the sunshine, hang out in the park and see everybody that they know, which is exciting.”
Schultz said the festival takes the entire year to plan, with two full-time Cultural Forum staff members dedicated to the event. The Cultural Forum is an EMU program that hosts art, movies, film and music events. The festival moved to the Cuthbert from the EMU Amphitheater last year because of spatial constraints on campus. About 8,000 people make it to the festival at some point during the weekend.
“It’s very successful,” Schultz said. “It has a strong tradition in Eugene and it’s deeply rooted here.”
Tim Long, the washboard player for Ryan and the owner of Eugene Jeans, grew up in Eugene and played all through the 1980s but took some time off during the ’90s to raise a family and start up his vintage clothes business. Long said even though the money is less than great, he loves performing locally because the audiences are nice and it’s a good time.
“It’s something in my heart to really do,” Long said, “to be out and play.”
Based in Portland, the bluegrass band Cross-Eyed Rosie infuses gospel, Latin, pop and funk into its unconventional take on the bluegrass genre.
The band, which has been playing together for four years, had already played a few times in Eugene before the festival.
“It’s really fun to come down here and play,” said lead vocalist Alli Longstreth. “Looking out on-stage into the crowd, just to see all of the really cool laid-back college kids, I love it. I just think it’s great because when I was in college I was really into music.”
Lincoln Crockett, who plays mandolin for Cross-Eyed Rosie and also performed solo on Sunday, loves the vibes in Eugene and the audience’s appreciation of funky, weird music.
“It feel like as soon as I leave Portland and I’m driving into Northern California, things just get a lot more mellow and a lot more relaxed, and the audience is a lot more of that hippie and tie-dye and people who want to dance,” Crockett said. “It’s always a good place for us to play … this is just a place that gets it and understands that music is music. It’s meant to have fun with.”
Andrew Heringer, whose band traveled from the University of California, Irvine, also noted the relaxed audience and said it contrasts with the more reserved crowd from his hometown.
“It’s just more of a party (here),” said Heringer. “There’s just kind of like this general sense of fun. When you see people are having fun it’s so much easier to give yourself to them and have fun along with them.”
Heringer’s acoustic compositions are difficult to categorize because they blend elements from multiple genres, but the two most prevalent are jazz and folk. The band’s casual, easy-going stage presence went over well with the festival crowd, and Heringer loved it.
“In Southern California the community would never throw a free show like this,” he said.
Despite Sunday’s sporadic rainfall, the weekend festival was clearly enjoyed by those who attended. Some stayed for hours on end, loving one of the many happenings made possible by the music-lovers of Eugene.
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