SEQUIM — A lot goes on at the Big Barn Farm, especially on this end-of-winter weekend.
Winter was the original spark, about a half-dozen years ago, for the Beat the Blues Barn Dance, an event mixing local bands, various kinds of dancing and abundant food and drink. It’s all a benefit for Five Acre School, the private school in Dungeness, and it’s happening again at the big barn, 702 Kitchen-Dick Road, this Saturday.
Joy in Mudville is the headlining band, with a particular brand of joy in covers of the Beatles, Bob Dylan and Grateful Dead songs plus originals such as “Ain’t The Buyin’ Kind,” “Ginny Aphrodite,” “When I’m Gone” and a new version of “Clearly Outnumbered.”
But that’s just part of the Beat the Blues experience.
Fiddler Kate Powers and the Powerhouse band will play a family dance Saturday afternoon; Cort Armstrong will do a set and the Soundwaves marimba band from Five Acre School will fill the barn with its rhythms. A silent auction of gift packages will go on, and both the Next Door gastropub and the Crave Cart will sell snacks and meals.
Admission to the barn dance depends on whether you go for the afternoon, the evening or both.
The family dance and children’s activities from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. have a price tag of $5 for adults and older teens; the festivities from 5 p.m. on are $15; or you can do the whole package for $15. Children age 13 and younger get in free no matter when they arrive.
As is traditional, proceeds go to Five Acre School’s scholarship fund and to the fund that helps the school purchase musical instruments and, this year, a greenhouse for the farming and gardening program.
About one-third of Five Acre’s 90 students receive partial scholarships, said Anna Yates, the school’s community outreach coordinator.
She’s also boss of the barn dance and employer of the “Good music, good food, good friends” formula she said has worked in past years. At the same time, she added, this fundraiser grows in importance as Five Acre School applies for nonprofit status.
To find out more about the school, which is near the Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge at 515 Lotzgesell Road, see www.FiveAcreSchool.org or phone 360-681-7255.
