It's That Time Again...Harmony Festival 2009 Is Just Around The Corner

The first round of the performer lineup has been confirmed, along with the speakers and a theme for this year's festival, "From the Roots Up."

Our hottest headliners are Michael Franti & Spearhead, India.Arie, CAKE and Matisyahu. Exciting new developments in the emerging revolution in consciousness will be brought to light by astrologer Caroline Casey, Michael & Rickie Beckwith (from 'The Secret'), and 2012 researcher and author Daniel Pinchbeck. Note: This is only a partial list, and more will be featured in the next blog entry.

To counter-balance the "Top Down" approach that has brought us tough economic times, "From The Roots Up" spotlights the ingenuity and achievement of creative individuals and encourages networking and the exchange of ideas for a sustainable future. This means YOU! Stay tuned for ways to participate and get recognition.

For those that are unfamiliar with any of our headliners, I dug up some jumpin' performance footage (Youtube shorts from other venues). Here's Michael Franti:



Check out India Arie:



"Oh Yeah! I've heard that song." Well, here's CAKE!



Ethiopian Hassidic beatbox freestyler Matisyahu:



More to come. See you there!

Angelique Kidjo: Wow!

This Harmony show just kept getting better. Sunday was nice for me, the crowds were thinned out enough to make traversing the Harmonyworld a breeze, and the acts just kept getting better and better.

I've seen Angelique Kidjo before, and she always puts on a phenomenal show, but, this Harmony appearance was by far the best ever. I dunno, it could be cause I was so incredibly blissed out from having such a wonderful weekend, but no, I think Angelique is a world class performer, and she and her band pulled out all stops for a long and enlightening set of pure world infotainment.

She finished the set with a stage full of audience, allowing dance-offs and drum interaction and still ne'er a beat was missed.

http://www.kidjo.com/

Mystic Beat Lounge: Where community meets art and fun

The Mystic Beat Lounge crew knows how to throw a party. I previously spoke of how cleverly they redesigned the cavernous Grace Pavilion into an ultra-cool and seemingly intimate club. That was Friday. Saturday workers transformed the space throughout the day, the decorations and acoutrements doubled, and now they were ready to really show us what a party can be like.

A cacophonic frenzy of multi-media entertainment, that's what I'm gonna call Techno Tribal night. Take Heavyweight Dub Champion, add an operatic fire troupe, circus airialists and the best of the best live video show, combined with lasers, all those incredible layers of decorations, and an exquisitely timed infusion of all these elements, and together you have the genius of what a well-learned collective of artists can create.

The level of production that it takes to pull off such an event is almost beyond my comprehension, but I know Mystic Beat meets every Tuesday since like forever ago and that my friend Raychill has been hard at work on this particular event for the past few months. It was quite a treat to be based in their production trailer for my blogging. I never did find the official press tent, but it was a great opportunity to meet and hang with this finely tuned production crew throughout the weekend. http://www.mysticbeatlounge.com/

I had the opportunity to meet and greet the video artist, Brien Rullman, in the hours following the show. He's a pioneer video jockey, he's been practicing his craft for some sixteen years, long before people had even conceived of doing live video art. Rullman does performs live video art for his living, and has for years. He said he learned "just by trying things" and that the availability of newer, cheaper technology has made this artform much more accessible to the general public. I think I'm gonna start "trying things" when I get home.

http://www.rabbitinthemoon.com/

Arrested Development: 17 years later...

Festie gods must a been smilin' pon me today...no traffic, easy parking, easy stroll to the stage, and there is Arrested Development just starting their set. I felt lucky on the timing, as it was an all night of festivities kinda evening for me. I was too tired, but I just can't stand missing out on a good time...

So yea, Arrested Development...I think I was saved by their first record when I was a teenager...just pure conscious positive hip hop...they were waaaay before their time. Apparently they've reunited, and it feels good.

Pure sweet dancilicious vibes on this one, I had to remind myself to stop groovin to take some pics. The crowd was lovin' this one, it seemed we all knew all the words, though Speech and crew did also debut some new tunes off their upcoming record...

Speech spoke about unfair imprisonment and asked us all to take some time to check http://www.freedebbie.org/

The band members were sweethearts backstage, taking time to meet and connect with friends and fans. This is a must see band...good times, good times, and, a positive message to boot...can't beat that...

http://www.arresteddevelopmentmusic.com/

John Courage

I keep finding great things in my camera that I forgot to write about yesterday. This is John Courage (the curly haired one) and he put on a great show. The music is original folksy western swing which was definitely a different sound from a lot of what I heard this weekend. John has a superb voice and an excellent lyrical style.



http://www.myspace.com/johncourage

Ron the Magician

Friday night as I stood around waiting for the boyfriend to conquer the men's room line, I saw a magician walking up to various folks in the crowd performing silly tricks using LED lights and occasionally creating small puffs of fire. This is Ron. I saw Ron again on Sunday while I was wandering between stages, this time onstage in the Magical Playground. His magic show has a great deal of community involvement and really seemed to keep the audience amused if not entranced, kids and adults alike.

Women's Council of Elders

I'm pretty sure I got this one right, the Women's Council of Elders was on the Goddess stage providing us with a taste of many different cultures, singing selections from various lands. Today's schedule seemed to be off based on hitting a few different stages and not seeming to be able to find the folks that were set to be on. It was still a lot of fun though and gave me a chance to go wander around and see what was happening in other areas of the festival