They’re moms who love music festivals. And with help from their friends, Jordan Schiefen and Anna Yates are about to make their big vision real.
The first Jungible Festival, with five bands, local food and drink and a kids’ zone, comes to Jardin du Soleil, the lavender farm at 3932 Sequim-Dungeness Way, this Saturday, Aug. 24. Gates will open at 11 a.m. rain or shine, with adult and teen tickets at $25 in advance or $30 the day of the event. And since this whole thing is about being family-friendly, children 12 and younger get in free.
Advance tickets are at www.BrownPaperTickets.com while information awaits at Jardin du Soleil at 360-582-1185.
Polyrhythmics, a big Afro-beat band from Seattle, is headlining the event along with Polecat, the bluegrass-and-beyond outfit from Bellingham. Also on the roster is another reggae band, Kore Ionz; Blvd Park, an alt-folk group from Seattle; and Dungeness singer-guitarist Cort Armstrong’s newest band, FarmStrong.
Now, about the names. The Jungible (a 17th-century word for the ability to join together) Festival will flow from noon to 8 p.m. Saturday at Jardin du Soleil (modern French for garden of the sun). And it is the product of Yates and Schiefen’s co-imagining. Both wished for, as Yates put it, “a festival we could take our kids to.”
And when both began talking about their hopes, other neighbors came forward.
Cort and Kia Armstrong, also young parents, helped put together the musical lineup; they have connections through Cort’s playing in several bands and Kia’s booking of the Nash’s Organic Produce barn dances.
And the Jungible is a kind of jambalaya. Take Polecat: “We’re always doing a bunch of new things,” said guitarist-singer Jeremy Elliott. “We love the bluegrass thing, and we definitely do it,” he added, “but we’ve gotten really into Afro-Cuban,” as well as reggae and even some Russian flavors.
“We jumped at the chance to be part of something at the beginning,” Elliott said of the Jungible Festival.
“There’s a potential for a strong music scene out of this area,” added Cort Armstrong.
He and Kia met Jordan Schiefen and her husband Paul last year, and together with Anna Yates and her husband Bill, they started talking about a homegrown festival. They believe they have the ingredients: a big lavender farm; musicians from across the Pacific Northwest; food and drink from Nash’s, Dungeness Valley Creamery, Wine on the Waterfront and other vendors.
That music will travel from Africa to Appalachia. FarmStrong, for its part, features Jim Faddis, Rick Meade and Cort Armstrong playing country, honky-tonk and a Taj Mahal cover or two. George Jones’ “You’re Still on My Mind,” “Lonesome Fugitive” from Merle Haggard and “Cakewalk into Town” from Mahal are on the set list.
Then comes Polyrhythmics, the eight-piece funk and Afro-beat orchestra voted “best Seattle band” by Seattle magazine. The ensemble is back for a second Peninsula gig after its July concert at Olympic Cellars.
“You will have no trouble dancing,” promised guitarist Ben Bloom.
The band’s music appeals, he added, to lovers of jazz, funk and James Brown. And while traditional Afro-beat is a strong undercurrent, Polyrhythmics’ players lay on layers of their own.
The Jungible will have “a ton of kids’ activities,” Anna Yates promised.
Festival-goers are welcome to bring low-back chairs and picnic blankets, but as there will be vendors on site, no outside food or drink, except water, will be allowed in.
“I do want to give special kudos to Nash’s,” Yates added, “for giving us volunteers, ideas, decorations and, most importantly, free carrots in the kids zone.”
