Langley’s annual 3-day music, arts event kicks off Friday

By PATRICIA GUTHRIE

Special to the News-Times

LittleBIGFest is growing up.

In its fifth year lining up dozens of bands, vendors and a variety of activities to attract families and late night revelers, the three-day festival appears to be on track for record attendance.

Advance ticket sales are up from last year and social media buzz about the Whidbey Island event keeps growing, said Keegan Harshman, executive producer, bass player in demand and founder of LittleBIGFest.

“Over the past three years, we’ve seen a one-third increase in attendance each year,” Harshman said. “We’re hoping for about 1,000 people a day this year.”

From Friday evening through Sunday evening Aug. 15-17, 47 bands are scheduled to play on four stages. About 40% of the singers and musicians hail from Whidbey Island, including Janie Cribbs & The T.Rust Band and Wax Lips, while others are coming in from around the Northwest and California. Attendees can buy a three-day pass, single-day pass or pay $15 to catch evening headliner shows.

Held at the Whidbey Island Fairgrounds and Event Center, which is owned by the Port of South Whidbey, LittleBIGFest takes over the fairgrounds the third weekend of August just after the annual fair ends. Out go the piggies, pies and curly-cue fries, in come the amps, instruments, hula hoopers and floating, flowing art installations.

LittleBIGFest’s program describes its musical offerings as psychedelic rock, soulful rhythmic grooves, syncopated electronic beats, fiddle music, folk/rock jazzy improvisations from some of the finest musicians culled from the broad reaches of the Northwest and beyond.

It also features arts and crafts for kids, a cozy corner for families, a healing zone for morning yoga, massage, a place to chill the senses and/or experience a song bath sanctuary.

This year’s festival features a major headliner whose resume dates back to the big hair, bellbottom days of rock n’ roll.

Lee Oskar played harmonica with the Southern California band War, known for chart-topping 1970s hits such as “Spill the Wine,” “Cisco Kid,” and “Why Can’t We Be Friends?”

His unique sound is instantly recognizable in the iconic tune, “Low Rider.” Don’t know it? Instead of Googling it, hear it and learn how to play it Saturday at a noon workshop that comes with the price of a LittleBIGFest ticket.

“If you come to the workshop, I’ll invite participants up on stage to play ‘Low Rider,’ with me,” Oskar said. “I learned to play harmonica when I was 6 years old. I fell in love with it. I sing harmonica. It’s my voice.”

He encourages all people to give the mouth harp a try.

“Harmonica is designed for the musically hopeless,” said Oskar, 77. “They just think they can’t physically play an instrument. I don’t agree with that. The minute you breathe in and out, it’s going to start making music.”

Oskar said in addition to his Saturday night performance, he offered to hold the harmonica workshop and sponsor one of four festival stages, because he strives to support regional live music.

“Local festivals, even if they haven’t been around that long, I really want to help be successful and continue on,” he said. “To support arts is very special.”

Originally from Denmark and a resident of Everett for the past 25 years, Oskar and his long-ago War bandmates have been in the news of late.

Surviving members of the pioneering funk/jazz band drove classic low-rider cars to a recent Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony that installed War with a star on its famous sidewalk. War’s albums, such as “The World is a Ghetto,” have also been featured in 50-year anniversary collections.

Oskar has pursued a solo career, started his own line of harmonicas and is an abstract artist whose work appears on album covers. Three years ago, he produced the somber instrumental album, “Never Forget,” that he describes as a memoir of a child of a Holocaust survivor. His mother and aunt escaped from a concentration camp, his grandmother died.

At LittleBIGFest, the band Lee Oskar & Friends will feature a seven-piece band that plays a range of innovative compositions and familiar hit songs.

Also appearing at LittleBIGFest is John Kessler, another well-known regional name, especially for fans of the blues and the public radio station, KNKX. Kessler, who lives on Whidbey Island and is a bass player, is the longtime host of the weekend radio show, All Blues.

As a full-time touring and recording musician for 20 years, Kessler played with hundreds of artists, including Dr. John, The Band and Shawn Colvin.

The newly-formed band, Kessler and Friends, will be performing a mix of original songs and cover songs at LittleBIGFest, an event he praised.

“Keegan has a vision of creating community through the arts that is elevating music and the arts on the island,” Kessler said. “He is truly a musical force.”

LittleBIGFest is in its second year as a nonprofit, headed by a board of directors with a mission to create engaging arts and music for the community and support Whidbey Island students with scholarships to pursue music and arts.

Operating on a shoestring $120,000 budget — paying bands is its biggest expense — it relies on its 40-plus volunteer staff to plan, promote and provide on-the-ground assistance to festival-goers and dozens of food, beverage and arts vendors.

“It’s taken us three years to feel like we have the right mix of music, art and activities,” said Priscilla Lowry, festival co-producer and owner and creator of artisan beewax candles, Whidbey WaxWorks.

Live music is followed by silent disco dancing that begins at 11 p.m.— a sight to be seen but not heard.

Dancers don headphones and tune into three different channels indicated by green, blue and red LED lights glowing in the dark from the headsets.

“This is how we can keep the party going,” Harshman said. “You can see whose listening to which DJ and maybe switch channels if you see someone really getting into it.”

A special permit from the city of Langley allows LittleBIGFest to play music until midnight — long past the usual closing times of area bars and restaurants.

“LittleBIGFest — the only place to stay up late on Whidbey Island,” Harshman quipped.

For tickets and schedule, see littlebigfest.org