Part 4: continued

Thursday, July 28^th

Anderson Bluegrass

We are really enjoying our guidebook, Bare Foot magazine. It gives you information for places all along the Alaskan highways, usually with references by milepost numbers. (Alaska 101) We have stopped at a lot of places that we probably would have passed on by, after reading their articles.

So as we are traveling north towards Fairbanks we happened to read that the town of Anderson is famous for it’s bluegrass festival. We look online and found out that it starts Friday.  We are considering checking it out. So when we are getting close I see a sign nailed to a tree that says “some people like to work all day”. Then I see another sign a little farther down the road that says “some people like to play”. The next one says “come visit us and fiddle all day” The next one says “Anderson bluegrass Festival” The last one says “July 28, 29, 30” (Remember the old Burma Shave billboards that told a story?) That decided us and we turned off the highway to check it out.

Anderson is a tiny town whose main street has 1 café/bar/liquor store and 1 public building that is the post office/city hall/DMV and 1 church. No gas station, grocery or ATM. It is mostly a residential area for Clear Air Force Station. (Information on Anderson, AK)

The park where the festival is held is huge – over 600 acres and really nice. It has power hookups for RVs for $14 a night, showers and a dump station and potable water. The festival has been going on for 24 years and is sponsored by the Anderson-Clear Lions Club. During the festival you have to park in the field but it is free. So for $75 we will be able to park for 4-5 days, listen to over 27 bands and enjoy a fireworks display. So we decide to stay and we are so glad we did…..what a party.

I n addition to listening to some great music, we really enjoyed the 1^st festival that we weren’t working. It was great just being Festvarians for a change. And the best part was meeting all the people that were camping around us. Our neighbors, Rick and Janet came over and introduced themselves. They said they were from Fairbanks and apologized in advance that they would be rowdy and loud. Then Rick brought out his homemade salsa (everything was from his garden), his home smoked salmon, reindeer/jalapeno/cheese ogs and we were forever friends. Then we met Blue, Jaime, Gary and a bunch of other great folks from Fairbanks. We listened to their stories about living, playing and working in Alaska …in summer and at 40’ below in winter, sat around an amazing 72 hour bon fire and really knew that this was a very special time.

All of the bands were homegrown Alaskan, except for the headliner Ginger Boatwright, but I think she’s lived here for some time. The bluegrass and folk music stopped around 10 pm and then the party really got started! Friday night Sport n’ Woodies (Sport n' Woodies Band)  played excellent  Reggae, Dead & Little Feat covers and Rhythm and Blues.  Saturday night Loose Gravel -- Alaskan Cabin Rock, transgenerational mud flat boogie, subversive with a social and politcal conscience sound—rocked the house until 3 am.

Here are the names of some of the bands to give you an idea of the Alaskan flavor of the music:

4 Chords, 1 Axe

White Twang

Denali Mountain Boys

New Cut Road

Red Elk

High Lonesome

Sweet Ginger Heat

All the music was excellent but High Lonesome and Sweet Ginger Heat really stood out. It was cloudy and raining for the fireworks on Saturday, but that made it a lot darker than it normally would have been and it was really spectacular (link for video).

People watching rated real high up on the entertainment scale along with the food and shopping. We had several conversations with Rick and Gary on the popularity of rubber boots and “end of the roaders”.  According to them, these are folks who live at the end of the road, out in the bush. You can usually identify them by their dreadlocks, they wear all the clothes they have in layers and smell of patchouli. What they live in and on is anybody’s guess, but they sure can hula-hoop.

For festival food in Alaska I highly recommend reindeer polish sausage, buffalo brats, smoked salmon crepes, caribou cheese steak, Alaskan Amber Beer and last but not least, deep fried Snickers (and Twinkies and Oreos)!  

There was lots of tie-dye and jewelry, hand made crafts and marshmallow shooters for the kids.  My favorite shop was Wild Interior, hand dyed Alaskan themed clothes. (Wild Alaska Clothing) Really beautiful designs.  

We left there knowing that we had made great new friends and had experienced a unique side of Alaska. (Anderson Bluegrass people and music)