Celebrating salmon, art and culture

By Delcenia Cosman and Chloe Pleznac, Homer News

The Kenai Peninsula Fairgrounds came to life last weekend, with the campgrounds, parking lots and surrounding streets packed full as local residents and visitors from across the state and Lower 48 descended upon Ninilchik for the annual Salmonfest music festival. Featuring a wide range of music performances that included both Alaskan and visiting artists, the event also hosted a number of workshops, demonstrations, and vendors selling merch and providing information and advocating for causes dear to many Alaskans’ hearts.

Friday

Salmonfest kicked off Friday afternoon under warm blue skies and a gentle breeze. Both sides of the Sterling Highway were already clustered with parked cars and trucks by noon, and the surrounding campgrounds quickly filled with festival-goers adorned in colorful attire, streaming down the hill across from the fairgrounds and weaving through ARCHES campsites.

Anchorage singer/songwriter Christina Napolean — accompanied only by her acoustic guitar — was the first performer to grace the River Stage Amphitheater for the weekend, serenading the growing crowd with her lush vocals and stirring covers of songs by artists like John Prine. Nashville-based Ira Wolf was next with her tender original songs, followed by a crowd-rousing performance by the Australian duo, Hussy Hicks. Chugiak’s Black Barrel & The Bad Men returned to the Kenai Peninsula after their performance at HarborFest earlier this summer, followed by Seward’s Blackwater Railroad Co., before Grammy-nominated headliner, Elle King, took the stage for an iconic, powerful performance that filled the field surrounding the amphitheater with dancing and laughter.

Late Friday night at the Headwaters Stage, Ayla Ray took over, with creative force Sam Tenoff at the helm. Tenoff was raised in Homer and has been a part of various musical groups that have originated over the years. Joined by new friends made while living in New Orleans, as well as old friends and former Animal Eyes bandmates — Tommy Morgen-Burke on guitar and Haven Multz Matthews on drums — Ayla Ray gave an incredible performance of original, live music that kept people dancing into the early hours of Saturday morning.

Earlier in the day, among the lines of booths and food vendors, Kachemak Bay Recovery Connection nestled in the back corner of the fairgrounds, alongside the Headwaters Stage. There, they hosted a “Sober Tent” that provided attendees with free “sober sippers,” Narcan and fentanyl strip test kits. The local nonprofit seeks to provide support services to those in recovery, as well as harm reduction materials. They hosted 12-step meetings on location and provided an overall safe space for anyone to take a breather from the rush of the festival.

A demonstration of athletic events in the Native Youth Olympics was held on the lawn in front of the amphitheater on Friday afternoon, with Trevor Edwards from Fairbanks illustrating incredible physical feats, including high kicks, the scissor broad jump, and seal knuckle hop. NYO celebrates traditional Indigenous hunting techniques, which have been practiced for hundreds, if not thousands, of years. Edwards said that the events are “a very important celebration of culture,” and noted that he was one of four men selected from Alaska to participate in the Arctic Winter Games after nine years of competing. In two weeks, Edwards said, he will head to another competition for the games, hosted in Ottawa.

Saturday

In addition to The Revivalists’ headlining performance Saturday night, the fairgrounds’ many stages were graced with the presence of dozens of artists such as Homer-based art rock and thrash pop group Ayla Ray, Seward’s favorite Blackwater Railroad Co. celebrating their 10th year at Salmonfest, “nitty gritty rock” band Wiley Post out of Anchorage, Nashville singer Ira Wolf, singer-songwriter Tim Easton, Homer’s up-and-coming punk group The Pudgies making their Salmonfest debut, and more.

The Causeway, Salmonfest’s advocacy avenue, also saw plenty of traffic throughout the afternoon as concert-goers spoke to groups including Salmonstate, Cook Inletkeeper, Citizens’ Climate Lobby, Abused Women’s Aid in Crisis, Inc., and more.

Salmonstate’s booth provided information on ongoing efforts to stop bottom trawling, a fishing practice acknowledged by many as unsustainable and damaging to ocean ecosystems as it often results in large numbers of bycatch of non-target species, including a campaign aimed at U.S. Rep. Nick Begich, R-Alaska, who during his campaign last year named addressing trawl bycatch as a central focus. Salmonstate recently conducted a survey in which they asked more than 1,000 Alaskans their opinions on the best way to address trawl bycatch — more than 750 respondents ranked banning bottom trawling entirely as their top priority for policy changes.

“Salmonfest is really good for getting signatures — people really care about subsistence and taking care of our neighbors,” a spokesperson working the Salmonstate booth said Saturday, adding that she hoped constituents would continue to voice their concerns.

Cook Inletkeeper was talking to people about the proposed Johnson Tract mine on the west side of the Cook Inlet and an ongoing petition to the National Marine Fisheries Service to establish a Cook Inlet beluga protection zone in Tuxedni Bay. Cook Inletkeeper spokespersons said that as of Saturday afternoon, they’d received a “good number” of signatures on the petition and had had numerous conversations with “enthusiastic” people. Inletkeeper Communications Director Jamie Currie also said that people who live near Tuxedni Bay had approached the organization’s booth, “eager” to talk about the area and its beauty and importance.

At the Citizens’ Climate Lobby table, Jazzy Jones from the organization’s Fairbanks chapter explained that part of their work involved talking to representatives at both the state and national level about nonpartisan policies on climate solutions. They said they’d recently returned from a trip to Washington, D.C., where they met with Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and staffers from Begich’s and Sen. Dan Sullivan’s offices. On Saturday, they and another volunteer from the Anchorage chapter interacted with Salmonfest attendees — particularly kids who brought their parents over to the table. One youth under age 10, Jones said, told them that they were trying to get their parents to install solar power at home.

Elsewhere in the fairgrounds, festival attendees decorated carved wood tables with chalk markers in the interactive art barn, watched artists prepare for a live art auction scheduled for Sunday, and gathered at the Inlet Stage for another Native Youth Olympics demonstration held by Edwards and Dez Hess from Ninilchik. Following the demonstration was a language presentation with Casey Jack from Stebbins, Alaska, who taught the audience Yupik beginner phrases.

The Inlet Stage also hosted a fishermen’s panel Saturday afternoon that featured six commercial and personal use fishermen from across the state, including Homer, Anchorage and Bristol Bay. One panel member hailed from Elkhorn, Wisconsin and said he’s participated in fisheries in Bristol Bay, Dutch Harbor, Southeast Alaska and Seward.

Panel members were asked questions including what kinds of fishing they have experience in, what was the first fish they ever caught, and what advocacy messages they had for the audience. As they described their fishing experiences, which ranged from gillnetting, setnetting, longlining, dipnetting, ice fishing — and for one panel member, trawling — they also explained to audience members how each practice worked.

“I’ve done the evil thing, before I knew better,” David Scaro said about his previous trawling experience. “I’ve seen first hand what it is, and it’s not good. The deal with trawling is it’s very industrial, it’s a volume fishery — we are scooping up everything we can, for a low quality product, but if there’s enough of it we can make money.

“It’s detrimental to the environment — it’s not sustainable. That’s not fishing.”

A couple of panel members said that gillnetting and trolling were some of “the most sustainable” salmon fisheries — gillnetting because “there’s no bait involved, it’s small boat, locally owned,” and trolling because salmon are caught and handled one by one.

Courtney Tatellgaq Rose Griechen, who grew up in Bristol Bay, said “fishing is literally what keeps us in Bristol Bay, especially the locals.”

“That is one of the main ways we make money that keeps us in the village, so we can continue living our lifestyle,” she said.

Upon prompting from one of her fellow panel members, she also spoke about the threat of Pebble Mine to the Bristol Bay sockeye fishery.

“We have to protect the salmon, partially because it’s one of the main reasons a lot of our villages in Bristol Bay are still alive,” she said. “If we don’t protect that, then we end up losing tradition, we end up losing the places we call home — because there’s not always ways to make an affordable living out there.

“So we have to protect the salmon to protect the way of life of the Native people who live in Bristol Bay.”

Sunday

The crowds were a bit quieter but no less enthusiastic Sunday evening as they ranged the fairgrounds, sampling the various music acts on display. Salmonfest attendees danced to the energetic stylings of Cousin Curtiss and Harrison B at the Headwaters Stage before welcoming back The Pudgies. At the River Stage, concert-goers crowded the stage area and filled the amphitheater for headliner The Allman Betts Band.

The seven-member “supergroup” led by Devon Allman and Duane Betts — whose fathers, keyboardist Gregg Allman and guitarist Dickey Betts, made up part of the Allman Brothers Band — showcased a timeless sound reminiscent of the lineage they descend from and roused the audience to dancing on the grass.

“This is a beautiful place. Thank you for spending your afternoon with us,” Betts said to the audience.

In addition to their original music, the band also performed “Raining Straight Down,” a song originally by musician Neal Casal, which they also covered on tribute compilation album “Highway Butterfly: The Songs of Neal Casal.”

Learn more about Salmonfest and find further information about this year’s lineup at salmonfestalaska.org/.