{"id":2170,"date":"2022-08-11T00:41:21","date_gmt":"2022-08-11T00:41:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/travel.bltierney.com\/?p=2170"},"modified":"2022-08-16T03:16:12","modified_gmt":"2022-08-16T03:16:12","slug":"week-12-salmonfest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/travel.bltierney.com\/index.php\/2022\/08\/11\/week-12-salmonfest\/","title":{"rendered":"Week 12: SalmonFest"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

We scheduled our time in the Kenai peninsula around Salmonfest<\/a> in Ninilchik, Alaska. Both of us volunteered to work the festival in exchange for free tickets. I helped with setup (mostly putting up fences and tents), and Christine did security (mostly helping with bag checks).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SalmonFest has 4 stages (1 big, 1 medium, and 2 small), and about 1\/2 of the bands where from Alaska, and half from the lower 48 (mostly California). Most of the bands played 2 sets on different days. For the 3rd year in a row the fest ‘sold out’ at 8000 tickets. Highlights included great sets from the California Honeydrops<\/a> and Diggin Dirt<\/a>, and my favorite Alaska Bands were Hope Social Club<\/a> and Blackwater Railroad Co<\/a>. The highlight of the festival was Steve Poltz<\/a>. Poltz played one set on the large stage that was just OK and a second, incredible set on the smallest stage. Steve said it was his “best set ever, so don’t bother seeing him again, as you’ll be disappointed”. But I imagine he always says that. \ud83d\ude09 Steve Poltz is most famous in Alaska for co-writing Jewel’s big 1995 hit You Were Meant For Me<\/a> (Jewel is from Homer, Alaska). Check out their duet on that song from Salmonfest 2017<\/a> on the same small stage. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The main headers for the festival were Umphreys Magee<\/a> and Shakey Graves<\/a>. I tried to like Umphreys Magee, but just could not get into them. I found their songs unnecessarily complicated and with no ‘hook’. The biggest crowd at the festival was for Shakey Graves. I love his solo work, but with a band I find him less compelling, and most of his set was with a band.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Food at this festival was particularly good and very diverse. The lines to order food were never too long, but often it took 20-30 minutes for the food to arrive after ordering. Not good. It seems to rain 2 out of every 3 days in Kenai, but it only rained for 1 of the 3 festival days, so we beat the odds. The final day of the festival was about 50 degrees, 20 mph winds, and light rain, so most everyone left, including me after a couple hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I brought a mini drum kit hoping there would be a good campground jam scene. I was able to tempt one guy (guitar\/vocals) over to jam for an hour, but was otherwise unsuccessful. I asked several folks who had been to Salmonfest several times before if there was a campground jam scene, and they all said no. I think part of the reason is that the camping area is up on a hill, and windy most of the time, which made it hard to have a sheltered jam space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But overall it was a really cool festival, and I would definitely go back if I was in the area (which is unlikely).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Photos and videos from the fest are here<\/a>. We now begin our journey back to Grass Valley!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Main Stage, 11pm sunset<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Ready to Jam<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We scheduled our time in the Kenai peninsula around Salmonfest in Ninilchik, Alaska. Both of us volunteered to work the festival in exchange for free tickets. I helped with setup (mostly putting up fences and tents), and Christine did security (mostly helping with bag checks). SalmonFest has 4 stages (1 big, 1 medium, and 2Continue reading →<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","no-thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/travel.bltierney.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/travel.bltierney.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/travel.bltierney.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/travel.bltierney.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/travel.bltierney.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2170"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/travel.bltierney.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2170\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2235,"href":"https:\/\/travel.bltierney.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2170\/revisions\/2235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/travel.bltierney.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/travel.bltierney.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/travel.bltierney.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}