We’re not a lot different here on Whidbey. Like a lot of communities, we fight pitched battles over the craziest things. Angel sculptures, one-way streets, sewer plants, Dutch days, jet noise, windmills, oak trees. We point fingers, we accuse, ridicule, vilify … and we lose sleep over it.
But other towns don’t pause it all, hug it out and spend a weekend together on an island of common ground. Other towns don’t have the Oak Harbor Music Festival.
Cynthia Mason holds a crystal clear memory of the moment it hit her.
“I was walking Pioneer Way during the festival, taking in the sights and sounds. And I just started crying. It was so perfect. The sun, the breeze, the musicians, the smiles on faces, the boats in the harbor, the campground full of visitors. I just knew. I knew it was exactly how we imagined it. And I stood there in the middle of it all, tears running down my face.”
Love will do that to a person. And the Oak Harbor Music Festival, now in its 14th year, has become a celebration of love that turns us – for three glorious days every Labor Day weekend – away from our polarized lives and toward the unique beauty and joy that bring us together.
Cynthia and her husband Larry Mason are president and music chair, respectively, of the Oak Harbor Music Festival Board of Directors. They volunteer hundreds of hours for the festival every year, and they do it for love. Love for their community, for the devoted swarm of fellow volunteers that make it happen, and for the healing, inspiring power of music.
The Masons are a little embarrassed to get so much attention as the festival’s leaders. “It takes the whole community, at its best,” says Cynthia, to pull off a three-day festival of free music. “A lot of people know Larry and me as, I suppose, the face of the festival,” but Cynthia credits the hundreds of volunteers, the sponsors and grantors and donors, the support from city officials and first responders, the music-loving locals and visitors who fill Pioneer Way all weekend. It’s all hands on deck, she says.
On deck from start to finish every year is Big Steve Clarke, volunteer stage MC. “My wife Jean and I do it because it’s fun, of course, and I get to meet cool people,” Clarke says during a break at his sandwich shop, Slab City Sammies. “But I’m at the festival all three days because it’s a showcase for our town, and that means something. I don’t want to miss a thing.”
Clarke adds that he’s lucky to ease a bit of Larry Mason’s workload, “to take his cares away. And Cynthia, well, she’s so super positive, she sets a high bar for all of us. That just makes me want to do better.”
The Masons’ devotion to warmth and excellence shines through to musicians who are welcomed with open arms.
When Larry Mason was asked to help present the first festival, back in 2012, “I had one condition. We treat the musicians like rock stars. We make them feel special, we make it smooth and easy for them. We do it professionally.”
Larry knew what he was talking about. As a young touring musician decades earlier with The Allies and The Brandos, he had seen it all. And he was devoted to making performers feel welcome.
“I told them we’re going to put the stage right in the middle of the street. They said, ‘You can’t do that. It’s never been done before.’” Larry grins at the memory. “Don’t tell Larry ‘you can’t.’”
Larry’s approach still strikes a chord today for grateful musicians like perennial fan favorite LeRoy Bell. “We [LeRoy Bell and His Only Friends] are treated like we’re worth something in Oak Harbor. It just makes you feel great. I always see what a gem this festival is, from the moment we get there.”
“You’ve got a great thing going,” says Bell. “And with Larry and Cynthia’s leadership it just keeps getting better. The crowds are fantastic, we can feel their love, and for us it’s like the cherry on the cake at the end of summer.”
On music’s role in a polarized world, Bell agrees “music is that one moment… it transcends ugliness, we can feel free, we can spread love. As a musician, it’s wonderful to see that happen.”
After years of tireless effort, the festival now features music on three stages — two, thanks to Larry Mason, square in the middle of Pioneer — plus a four-Wednesday “Sounds of Summer” series in August. Larry’s biggest heartache is turning away bands that want to perform. Even with the expanded festival, he has no place to put the vast majority of acts that hope to take the stage here.
“I got over 250 inquiries this year. 250 bands wanted to play our festival! We have just 30 spots on our main stages.” As he attempts to mix local, regional, and national acts, “you have to be good. Really good.”
It helps, says Larry, when bands have a strong website, social media and Spotify presence. The festival uses those tools to leverage publicity for the bands and for the event itself. That synergy “is serious business,” he says.
Founding board member Margaret Livermore recalls bringing Larry Mason aboard to help with music and sound. Over the years she has admired Larry as he “puts his head down and goes to work planning and selecting bands. The process takes a full year.”
The festival has been a nonprofit since 2013, when original board members included Livermore, Larry Mason, Rhonda Severns, Michelle Curry, Lynn Goebel and Laura Moore. Cynthia Mason joined the board in 2014. Livermore still serves as VP, and still loves to see people “visiting with friends, meeting new friends, listening and dancing to the music.”
That’s a long time to serve a community, but the Masons refuse to rest. They still have a legacy to shape. Cynthia, whose service roles include the city’s Arts Commission and the still-young Oak Harbor Creative Arts Foundation, sees the festival as a crucial piece of a growing art scene on Whidbey. She wants to “dedicate my energy to educating on the health benefits of the arts, benefits for our youth, and the economic benefits. We have an awesome economic future around art!”
Both Masons see continued growth for the festival. Has the event outgrown Pioneer Way? A move to City Beach has been discussed, and still could happen, “but the downtown businesses love us now,” says Larry.
So we’ll rally our Whidbey community once again this Labor Day weekend, in historic downtown Oak Harbor, for three days of free music.
And we’ll keep on loving each other. And maybe the love will last longer than a weekend. And man, what a legacy that would be.
William Walker’s monthly “Take a Breath” column seeks paths to unity on Whidbey Island in polarized times. Walker previously served on the Music Festival board for nine years. He blogs occasionally at https://www.playininthedirt.com/.
