Looking ahead: Gathering with a purpose
Put on your dancing shoes and your thinking caps. Tonight you can shake your groove thing to steamy and rockin’ blues while being schooled on the environment.
The event, called the Green n’ Bluz Fest, takes place at the Spokane Valley Eagles, 16809 E. Sprague Ave., where five bands will rock the house to benefit five area environmental groups. “The event does well for the causes and it’s a nice community celebration,” said musician Roger Gibbs, “It’s an opportunity for people to support the blues and a green environment.”
The musical lineup is Lindell Reason, the Longnecks, Gibbs’ band Waukon, Papa Glenn and the Border Run and Studebaker John and the Hawks. All the musicians are veteran blues players.
The $15 admission fee includes the music and a silent auction with items donated by area artists, theaters, restaurants and businesses. There will be free childrens’ activities from 5 to 7 p.m., a paper-making demonstration, and a repurposing items display. Kate Jackson is Spokane’s “Queen of Repurposing” and she will share her creations made from items other people have discarded.
Jackson has no qualms about Dumpster-diving and she creates useful items with her finds. “It’s all about taking something that once had a purpose and giving it a new one,” she said. “If each of us reduced our waste by 5 pounds a month, it would make a difference.”
Jackson will be showing kids how to make bird feeders out of plastic bottles and, at the trash-to-treasure table, she will turn them loose to make sculptures out of found objects.
Proceeds from the event will benefit The Lands Council, Selkirk Conservation Alliance, Futurewise, SHAWL Society and KYRS Thin Air Community Radio. Each organization will have an information table so festival-goers can learn how to do their part.
Many of the musicians, festival volunteers and participants have been involved in AmeriCorps and area environmental groups. They got together and organized the Green n’ Bluz Fest and it is in its fourth year. The first year about 250 people attended. This year organizers are expecting upward of 700. The purpose of the event is to raise public awareness of environmental groups in the Inland Northwest and to have a good time while doing it.