A passerby is bound to hear a different breed of music on 8^th Avenue and Oak Street in Eugene.
The city’s Saturday Market hosts a myriad of vendors peddling a wide range of items. But the market is also host to a cultural platter of music.
The curbs are stages to an assortment of passing musicians. With trumpets, accordions and bongos abound, the blend of instruments can be heard blocks away. They’ll gather, disperse and reassemble in different combinations and groups. The only consistent theme being the happy tones they play.
But the market is also home to a more organized stage for performance. The main stage within the market has scheduled artists playing every Saturday until mid-November.
The market hosts six music acts a week, between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. Kim Still, Promotion and Advertising Manager at the market for over two decades, organizes the lineups. From Americana and bluegrass to Zimbabwean thumb piano players, Still collects acts from up and down the Eugene music scene as well as the occasional passing traveler.
The main objective in her lineups: having something for everybody, Still said.
Still has a method behind the magic, a shape to each Saturday. The earlier sets often start out mellow. The 11 a.m. slot is generally reserved for a kid-friendly performance, for example.
As the day progresses, so does her lineup. By the afternoon, things have turned up a notch. The final time slot, 3:30 p.m., is reserved for a bigger band, something the crowd can dance to, Still says.
The cheery organizer had a tough time picking just one single performance she was looking forward to this summer.
“It’s like asking me to pick my favorite child,” Still said.
She picked a few.
On the July 4, Independence Day, the Saturday Market will host a few interesting acts: a saxophone quartet and a progressive folk band. On August 1, in celebration of the late Jerry Garcia’s birthday, a Grateful Dead cover band will be performing.
Brian Ernst offers something even more unique on August 15. Ernst maintains an acoustic one-man band using looping tracks.
“Every week there’s a lot of things I’m really looking forward to seeing,” Still said.
Still said most of the bands actually come to her, due to the market’s popularity. Perhaps one of the toughest parts of her job is that she can’t book as many bands as she’d like. The lengthy schedule fills up quickly.
“Mostly I just try to keep it interesting for people,” Still said, “so that nobody’s ever bored at the Saturday Market. You just never know what you’re gonna see.”

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(Cooper Green/Emerald)