Our Terms & Conditions | Our Privacy Policy
Taking place in Quincy on July 3-6, the High Sierra Music Festival’s annual gathering boasts an eclectic and fun lineup of music, including several Bay Area bands like The Coffis Brothers, ALO and Lyrics Born, as well as North Bay favorites, The Rainbow Girls. This year’s festival also marks the return of early festival producer Dave Margulies.
Margulies, who became a partner and co-producer in 1995, spoke about his long-time presence at the fest via email saying, “I got involved with High Sierra as a fan of music festivals and attended the High Sierra Music festival in 1992 in its second year when I went to see one of my favorite bands play, The Radiators.”
The aforementioned Rainbow Girls are also no strangers to the fest. Erin Chapin (vocals, guitar, slide guitar) said, “We’ve played High Sierra a few times, but we first came to the fest in 2015 as ticket holders. All of our friends from college had been talking it up for years, but we had spent the previous four summers busking in Europe and were never able to make it.”
When asked what makes music fests so special, Vanessa May (vocals, bass, guitar) said, “Festivals, and shows in general, are a great place for artists to come together and build community. When we’ve had the opportunity to meet our heroes along the road, it always felt like a gift, a chance to say thank you and make bonds that might have felt unimaginable before.”
Chapin added, “This year, the lineup is full of our friends, and we’re bound to share the stage with a lot of them throughout the weekend. The Heeters, John Craigie, Anna Moss, Whiskerman, California Honeydrops, Steve Poltz, Nathan Moore and Sally Baby’s Silver Dollars, to name some.”
This writer attended the festival back in the early aughts and had a blast. However, looking at this year’s lineup, it’s clear the festival has grown both in dates and in sheer volume of acts.
With so much happening, it almost seems overwhelming but in a good way.
“High Sierra is a kind, joyful, family-friendly vibe, one that started that way and has evolved and grown organically over 33 years. The fact that our guidelines are not like the ones you’ll find at corporate events contributes to that relaxed atmosphere, where patrons feel at ease,” said Margulies. “This is part of what makes High Sierra different than Live Nation and other corporate events. However, it goes much deeper than that. Everyone, from artists to staff, to vendors to patrons, brings the best of themselves to the festival each year, and that shows in the quality of the experience.”
Obviously, music festivals are a great way to attract new listeners, but bands also have to keep in mind their fans who make a choice to see them play in such a huge space.
As the Rainbow Girls’ Caitlin Gowdey (vocals, guitar, keys ) said, “I think whenever anyone plays at High Sierra, they sign an unspoken agreement which states that there is no guarantee that any people will be at your set, no matter how much they like you, due to the fact that they are probably standing in line for dumplings. We will show up exactly as we are and do our best at any given time, regardless of what stage we’re on.”
When asked what they would say to encourage someone to see their set over another band’s should schedules collide, the Rainbow Girls offered a comic litany of endorsements ranging from, “Hot shit, tight sound, loose feelings, sticky floors and tequila over ice with lipstick on the rim,” to “some abomination of indie folk, soul, classic country and rock ’n’ roll” and finally, “these girls are a gospel choir from heaven that make sex jokes in between songs … really chatty, but still good … we highly recommend us for you.”
So, clearly, there’s really no choice.
More info on the High Sierra Music Fest can be found at highsierramusic.com. The Rainbow Girls are at rainbowgirlsmusic.com.
Images are for reference only.Images and contents gathered automatic from google or 3rd party sources.All rights on the images and contents are with their legal original owners.
Aggregated From –
Comments are closed.