Harvest Fest: Last Chance to Come and Play

For one last summer time fling, Wookiefoot invites all area festivillans to come on down to Harmony Park in Geneva, Minn. The Wookiefoot and Harmony Park families know how to play.

And I do mean play. This artistic community gathers a motley collection of performers (musicians, dancers, drummers, chanters, performance artists, painters, etc.) and mixes them up with festivalgoers so that everyone participates in the fun.

Last year, there were fire rituals, a free healing arts center, Native American traditional drumming and chanting, an assortment of parades, a labyrinth workshop, all manner of dancing, and colorful costuming. And, that wasn’t including all of the music on stage.

There are nearly 30 bands on stage, mostly from the region, with a few national acts.

The lineup this year has a bit of everything. The LA band Particle is one of the headliners, along with Lotus from Philadelphia, Baltimore-based All Mighty Senators, and the Boulder band the Motet Trio.

Wookiefoot will bring its new 3D blacklight show to the stage.

And, you can also get all of the reggae you want, including Jah Roots, the New Rebelution, and Shoeless Revolution.

There’s great bluegrass/acoustic music from Trampled By Turtles, Pert’ Near Sandstone, Home, and the Sans Souci Quartet.
There are also genre blends bands, which jam is so noted for, combining jazz, rock, funk, hip-hop, and electronica. You’ll see bands like Oddball Protocol, Heatbox, Family Groove Company, Roster McCabe, Shoeless Revolution, Down Lo, Sol Spectre, The Histronic, and so much more. And, of course, the New Primitives will bring their Afro-Cuban sound of love to the tribe.

Jo Jo Lash, founder of Wookiefoot, is so very proud of these local festivals he presents with the Harmony Park folks.
“We really didn’t want to be a band,” he said recently. “We found the festival scene….There were roots of rainbow here and roots of the Dead. Unity can happen here,” he emphasized.

Though Wookiefoot does its share of performing, it is always trying to create on stage what the Wookiefoot family and Harmony Park does on a broader scale. It creates harmony and a sense of play, innocent play and spiritual play.

That is one reason Wookiefoot asks festivalgoers to bring their own personal talents and gifts to share at this festival, the last before we all hibernate for the winter. The intention is to create a peaceful community where people can feel comfortable to explore their creative sides and groove with the music and each other.

One woman I met at 10KLF said that her favorite festival was Harvest Fest. She said, “We know a lot of the people there. It’s like coming home.” And, indeed, that is exactly what Wookiefoot intends by creating a smaller, more local festival so that festivalgoers can bond into a festifamily and carry the creative, positive energy of the festival back to their communities and create something wonderful in their hometowns.

Lash stressed the importance of being able to maintain the social environment and keep people safe. He and his festival associates could only do that at a local festival if they have the keys to the gate. “With the festivals we do, we do what we do well,” he said.

A portion of proceeds from Harvest Fest goes to Wookie charities. Monies raised from gate receipts, sales of 3D blacklight glasses, and donations help support an elephant refuge in Thailand, an organic farm in Laos that uses produce sales to build libraries, a Cambodian who personally is clearing land mines and fostering amputee orphans, and the Hoste Hainse Schools in Nepal (fair-trade, anti-child labor building projects). They also support Kiva-Micro Lending Self Empowerment programs that offer small loans (as little as $25) to new entrepreneurs.

Harvest Fest is the last major outdoor festival in the region before cool weather forces us indoors. It also is the perfect place to light a fire of creativity, hope, and community.

If You Go

What: Harvest Fest
When: Sept. 5-7
Where: Harmony Park, Geneva, Minn.
Info: Mellow Moods in Moorhead; Jay Sullivan at Harmony Park, 507.402.8733