We wanted to share our beautiful Fall 2017 Poster Design, lovingly created by Tanya Stephens Henderson (who also designs our programs). It’s theme is an homage to the fact that there will be a full moon on the Thursday night of the festival, and it harkens back to the total eclipse earlier this summer. Please feel free to share the image around and invite folks to come out to the festival this fall!
The 8th Annual NC Stars in the Round, August 26th, 2017!
Our annual starry tradition is happening again, a wonderful evening of music, food, beverages, and family fun! The evening’s highlight will be a singer-songwriter circle featuring some great local musicians and songwriters. Each artist will share his or her unique musical talents one song at a time, then pass the mic to the next. This year our songwriters will be Charly Lowry, Rebekah Todd, Tommy Edwards, Big Ron Hunter, and Ashley Heath!
Opening up the night will be Carolina Pine Cones, a youth bluegrass band (ages 14-18) that performs throughout Raleigh and the Triangle area. The group met through the summer Bluegrass Jam Camps and year-round Youth Jams offered by PineCone, the Piedmont Council of Traditional Music.
As our new tradition goes…closing out the show will be our great friends from, Dr. Bacon! Dr. Bacon is a genre defying “Appalachian Funk-Rock” band from Asheville, NC playing an infectiously danceable blend of funk, soul, jazz, rock, blues, folk, hip-hop and more. The band features diverse instrumentation including: guitars, resonator, harmonica, bass, tenor saxophone, baritone saxophone drums, trombone, kazoo and more.
We’ll have a nice roundup of local food trucks including Breakfast & Beyond and Ko Kyu, as well as Yee Haw Doughnuts. Our staff and volunteers will be serving up cold brews from Carolina Brewery, sangria from Fair Game Beverage Company, and cider from our new friends, Chatham Cider Works.
Bring the whole family (kids 12 and under get in free) and camp out under the stars! All profits from the event go directly to the Shakori Hills Community Arts Center to help advance our mission in the community.
NC Stars in the Round
Shakori Hills
1439 Henderson Tanyard Road
Pittsboro, NC 27312
Doors – 4pm, Music – 7pm
$12 in advance / $17 at gate (kids 12 and under free)
$10 to camp (up to 1 car and 2 tents)
Sponsors for the event include: Carolina Brewery, Fair Game Beverage Company, Griffin Contracting, Music Maker Relief Foundation, South of Cool Sound Productions, Shakori Hills Community Arts Center, Shakori Hills GrassRoots Festival of Music & Dance, and Universal Printing. If you are interested in becoming a sponsor of this event, please email shakorihills@grassrootfest.org or call 919-542-8142.
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Our Spring 2017 Poster!
We’re loving our sunny, beautiful poster design this spring! Please feel free to share this image wherever you think folks might need it!
Happy Solstice
(a note from the GrassRoots Team)
As we land on the shortest day of the year and winter officially begins we see 2016 coming to a close, we’re grateful and ready for a bright new year! As we contemplate this year and look inside our hearts we find our new year pledge to you – to create more beauty, more magic, more love, more community.
We want to assure all of you that we’re here for you, and in the midst of worldly challenge and change we’re going to keep doing what we do– celebrating the beauty in life, bringing amazing music to our stages, creating a space for connection, getting you outside among the big sky and the brilliant trees, putting down dance floors so you can shake it out, shake it off and remember what fuels you, what feeds you.
We couldn’t do what we do without you and we thank you, you inspire us, you keep us going and we want to help keep you going, keep you feeling the love, seeing the beauty and moving to the music. From the bottom of our hearts we wish you a very happy holiday and an inspiring new year, see you in 2017!
GrassRoots Needs You
Yesterday was one of the most hectic, nerve-racking, and yet most beautiful days I’ve ever seen at Shakori Hills! The morning began with a group of us in the main office deciding what the best plan of action would be to get our fesival-goers and ourselves through what Hurricane Matthew was going to throw at us. We’d been watching the weather, and could tell that we’d mostly just get wind and rain, but how much of each was unclear. We tightened the tents and went on the lookout for any danger that could occur. We thought about getting some generators, and we spoke to our scheduled bands. Once we saw that the conditions weren’t unlike some we’ve had in the past, we decided to move ahead with a schedule shift. We were still able to have most of the planned bands play.
As I left the office and joined the attendees outside, I saw an amazing group of folks still loving everything about the festival. Lots of folks still here, a good amount of them were families! I saw kids huddled on one side of the Coffee Barn making fairy wands and having a Craft Bazaar. On the other side, an old-time band had gathered and was growing in a cozy jam circle. Our food vendors were selling breakfast/lunch, and the coffee and cider were flowing. Folks were smiling, the festival joy was still there. My tension eased a bit, and I began to feel festival magic again.
Late afternoon in the Dance Tent, Darlingside (a band that’s never played with us before) didn’t let the rain get them down and sang enchanting harmonies to a packed house. Later, Béla Fleck and Abigail Washburn blew us all away with their banjo majesty, their patience, and the sweetness with which they lifted us all. Our Miami bands who braved the storm and drove up in its path to be here had great shows as well!
Friends, this has been a rough festival. It will take us all a while to get back on our feet after this fall. Many folks decided not to come (understandably) because of the storm’s possibilities, ticket sales were at an all-time low. Our crew came together yesterday in an amazing way to make it so the folks still here would get an experience they’d never forget. Now, we need to ask for your help. Here are three good and easy ways:
- Come join us today! It’s a beautiful fall day, and we have an amazing lineup! Everything is going forward like normal. The grounds are not super muddy, and should dry up as the sun warms them. Our vendors are selling yummy food and very cool crafts. Come, bring the family and friends, and support our community. GET SUNDAY TICKETS HERE.
- Give a tax deductible donation to the Shakori Hills Community Arts Center! Give in multiples of $10 (every little bit helps). The money will initially go directly toward Shakori Hills festival expenses. CHOOSE YOUR DONATION HERE.
- Get a Dream Team Membership! This, for the bargain price of $1000 gets you 10 4-day passes to any GrassRoots Festival; a Lifetime All-Access Lanyard for you and a friend to get backstage at all of the festivals, meet the bands, and enjoy backstage hospitality; and a $50 coupon to our GrassRoots Store (festival shirts, mugs, etc). These passes really help us get to the next festival and plan for more incredible music and moments for all of us to experience! GET YOUR DREAM TEAM MEMBERSHIP HERE.
Also, we did have a rough time here in NC, but one thing to really keep in mind is that there are always folks who are worse off who need our help. Haiti was hit straight-on by Matthew, many lost lives and the repair will take a long time. Think about sending help there as well. Here’s one way that we have found: The Lambi Fund of Haiti.
Thank you all from the bottom of our hearts. We have always needed you, but we need you now more than ever. We hope to stick around for as long as possible for moments like these, and for many more. Stay tuned for more opportunities to help.
UPDATE: We have a fundraising platform! Check out our FUNDRAZR! And thanks again.
Peace,
Sara
Sara Waters
Shakori Hills GrassRoots Festival Co-Coordinator
Fall Festival T-Shirts
Here’s a preview of our festival shirts for the fall! There will be more color available, in all sizes. Thanks to Alma, our designer, and Planet Love who printed them! Get ’em while we’ve got ’em in the Merch Tent in the Meadow!
What You Haven’t Heard – 7th Edition
What I love most about the festival is watching you. I love seeing the different folks that come to the festival; all ages, experienced veterans, festival babies, international music fans, couples, families, artists, teenagers – everyone here finding what they love. I love watching you meeting each other and sharing your time, your talents, your interests and helping each other out. I also love to watch you discover new music. The festival’s biggest goal – music-wise – is to make sure to stretch you and your tastes, to take you outside of the norm and remind you how much music and art is out there that’s not always available elsewhere. Here are some bands that I’m excited to watch you discover, mostly because I enjoyed discovering them, myself. I think you’ll enjoy…
Awalom Gebremariam
Our friends at Music Maker Relief Foundation introduced me to this singer and multi-instrumentalist from Eritrea. Gebremariam came to NC. after a lengthy journey from Eritrea to a refugee camp in Ethiopia. In 2007, before leaving his hometown, the Eritrean capital of Asmara, he recorded his album, Desdes. However, over the course of his long, complicated journey, he never received any of the money for his cassette and CD sales, and he never knew how much of a splash his music had made.
Through an interesting turn of events, a traveler friend of the label Awesome Tapes From Africa heard the album on a trip to Eritrea (where everyone was playing it), and told them about it. The label liked it so much, they posted a blog about it and a NC agency that aids asylum-seekers – and who knew Awalom – saw the post, and connected the label with the artist. Now they are working together to bring his music to the masses.
We’re looking forward to having him here and continuting the story. Sadly, I couldn’t find any live videos, but here’s something to give you a taste.
Awalom Gebremariam — Eritreana
Darlingside
At first I was calling these guys “our next Mumford & Sons,” but soon realized that while they have some of the folkiness from M&S’s first two albums, and the sweet, earnest lyrics, they are much closer to Simon and Garfunkel or Crosby, Still, Nash & Young. They have great harmonies, they’re what the band is built on, and their songs take you on a journey. You get lost in the a cappella blends, get swept away on a job interview with a sword fighting guy “who looks like Harrison Ford,” and wake up 3 minutes later feeling like a lot more just happened than a song. They’re young, and honestly pretty dorky, in a good, if-you-love-Frodo-Baggins kind of way. It’ll be a perfect way to bring Saturday daylight to a close.
Darlingside – Go Back
Mariachi Flor de Toloache
Latin Grammy Nominee Mariachi Flor de Toloache is the first and only established all female mariachi band in New York City. I first saw them in a Tiny Desk Concert video after they approached the festival about playing. Seemed perfect for us. Women-powered, culture-filled roots music, I was in!
As their website states: “They coalesce as would a band of sisters, with a grace and vibrant beauty that casts a spell over their audiences not unlike the legendary Toloache flower still being used in Mexico as a love potion. While working to preserve centuries old traditions of Mariachi, their melange of the traditional and the modern pushes the boundaries of the genre and brings Mariachi music to new audiences.”
So, you should probably just go see them in the Grove on Thursday night….
Mariachi Flor de Toloache – Guadalajara
Have so much fun, I hope to see you out there!
Love & Peace,
Sara Waters
Co-Coordinator
Shakori Hills GrassRoots Festival of Music & Dance
Democracy 2.1 Results
Last spring, the GrassRoots Festival organization partnered with Democracy 2.1, also known as D21, to create the GrassRoots TownHall where anyone can express their opinion about the festival and goings-on in the world around us. D21 came to us from our festival friends in Miami, based in the Czech Republic it is the creation of mathematician Karel Janacek, who has also spent several years fighting corruption in government there, he invented D21 as a system to help curve future corruption in their multi-party democracy. D21 offers an algorithm designed to achieve a better consensus in voting processes by incorporating multiple yes votes and also a no vote when choosing among multiple options or proposals. After being introduced to democratic reform by our work with Ben Cohen and his “Stamp Money Out Of Politics” campaign GrassRoots was of course excited about the possibilities of better government based on a greater consensus than the simple 51 percent wins all system now in place in the United States.
We now have the results from our D21 polls in the spring! We wanted to share them with you and let you know that we are very interested in the results. We hope to continue working with D21, and will hope to poll on a yearly basis, as well as do what we can with the information we get from the polls. This is your festival and it’s great to know what you think! Voting is important, our voices – all of them – are important!
Here are the links to the results:
How do you think the festival should address drug use? – 274 voters
To improve our democracy, which of the following ideas do we most urgently need? – 259 voters
What steps would you support to resolve the debate around LGBT discrimination (HB 2)? – 286 voters
What issues would you most like to see GrassRoots support? – 282 voters
What kinds of music would you like to see more or less of at GrassRoots? – 281 voters
See previous Festival Desk post about our involvement with Democracy 2.1.
Find out more about Democracy 2.1!
Shakori Hills Stands with Standing Rock #NODAPL
We are creating a way for the Shakori Hills GrassRoots community to stand in solidarity with, and show support for the Indigenous-led movement to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline at the Standing Rock Reservation in North Dakota. We believe in this movement and we believe Water is Life.
At the Shakori Hills GrassRoots Festival October 6-9 we’ll be collecting supplies and donations to help sustain the camps at Standing Rock throughout the winter. Ed Griffin and Luke Miller have graciously agreed to transport the supplies to North Dakota. Any money raised will go towards purchasing needed supplies for the camps as well as help with the transportation costs.
If you are interested in donating supplies they are mostly looking for items to support through the cold weather months. Below are the camp Amazon Wish Lists that are updated regularly. We ask you to please check out these lists to get a sense of what is needed, the idea is to bring what they truly need at this time!
Amazon Wish Lists:
https://www.amazon.com/registry/wishlist/196PVIWRDX1M4
You can also donate directly to the legal defense funds here:
https://www.generosity.com/fundraising/red-warrior-camp-legal-fund-nodapl
https://fundrazr.com/d19fAf?ref=sh_25rPQa
More information on the movement can be found here:
At the festival we’ll be accepting donations in a trailer parked next to the Tractor Shuttle tent in the parking area. We’ll update here with info on when donations can be dropped off, thinking we’ll set hours each day for this, stay tuned and check back.
If you’d like to make cash donations you can do so at the Coffee Barn throughout the festival, there will be a clearly marked box to do this at.
Community Corner: Taking the Shakori Spirit Into the World
submitted by community member, Lyle Estil
I’ve watched Shakori Hills rise from the earth. For years. Cobbled together by little more than passion, vision, and an assembled army of believers. To some it is largely known for its torrential rains and mud slides, but to others it is the very model of a successful grassroots endeavor.
I’ve been a “vendor” for Shakori. They have run some of their fleet on biodiesel made by Piedmont Biofuels, where I work. I’ve supplied some of their acts with fuel to get their buses to the next town. At Piedmont Biofuels we have been “fuel attendants to the stars.”
I’ve also sold fuel to festival attendees—occasionally doing “concierge fills,” where we pluck a diesel car from the parking lot, fill it with biodiesel, and send it on its way. We were once a program “sponsor”—advertising “Shakori Fills.”
At Shakori I have sold books I have written, and spirits we have made at the Fair Game Beverage Company.
I’ve “performed” at Shakori—giving talks on backyard biodiesel production at the Sustainability Pavilion, and dragging our Clean Technology Demonstration trailer out to show festival attendees.
When Shakori needed to deploy some “alternative” financing to buy the land that houses the festival site, my wife Tami and I made a donation toward the down payment. When the time came to make a loan, we helped out on that too.
I’ve “volunteered” for the festival, dragging my big chess pieces to the grounds–repairing them and washing the mud off them twice a year.
Despite my many connections to the festival, I don’t think of myself as a vendor. Or a sponsor. Or a performer. Or a financier. I don’t consider myself a volunteer.
My self image when it comes to Shakori is that of “attendee.”
I camp. I dance. I visit the seemingly endless people I know on the scene. When the festival comes to town I like to vanish into its midst, and consume all that it has to offer. I leave my world for the better part of a week and immerse myself in the event.
Each time Monday slams up against me at the end of the festival, I return to my world with what I refer to as “The Post Shakori Let Down Blues.” I try to shake them off by taking the spirit of Shakori with me into my non-festival life. In the world I want to inhabit, Shakori’s undeniable grassroots power should be an everyday occurrence, rather than just a couple of time a year…
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