Rose Park Bluegrass Festival founder Pete Marchica in command central (his bedroom). Photo by Greggory Moore.
If it weren’t for a gazebo in Missouri, Long Beach might never have gotten its own bluegrass festival.
It was 2008, and Pete Marchica, founder/director of the Rose Park Bluegrass Festival, was visiting the Show-Me State, where he drew inspiration from the Osceola Bluegrass Festival.
“To the left of City Hall is a white gazebo,” he recalls. “It wasn’t big enough for a bluegrass festival, so they had a stage off to the side. [… Later] I saw the gazebo in Rose Park, and I was like, ‘I think it would be fun to have a bluegrass festival here.'” Here be begins to laugh at himself self-deprecatingly. “That’s it! I’ll regret those words for the rest of my life!”
Three weeks away from the second annual Rose Park Bluegrass Festival, Marchica seems only half-kidding about that regret. Despite drawing 1,500 more-than-satisfied attendees to the modest grass traffic circle that is Rose Park for the inaugural fest, Marchica finds himself with not more but fewer volunteers on board to help pull off a sophomore campaign, which is “considerably” more expensive and complicated than year one, thanks mostly to the addition of a beer garden and the host of costs and logistical issues that come with it.
“To be honest with you, I think it was such a hard thing to pull off last year that volunteers…I think it’s too hard for people who have heavy commitments, busy jobs, that kind of thing,” he says. Then he laughs. “The funniest thing is that people go, ‘Oh, you need help? Well, guess what? My friend’s band is really good. They’re kinda not, like, bluegrass, but….'”
But he’s still hopeful that more people will contact him about getting involved—additional sponsorship, more vendors, volunteers in advance or for the day of the festival, whatever. “I’m just thankful for any help that I get,” he says.
Marchica doesn’t want to talk money, though he says the “volunteer” label covers him as much as it does anybody else. And while “labor of love” definitely applies here, it’s a toss up as to which L-word deserves the greater emphasis.
“It takes a massive amount of work to put on an event,” he says. “There’s a reason why they call it ‘special events’ and not ‘events.’ If they weren’t hard to put on, I think everybody would do them.”
Rose Park Bluegrass Festival’s 2011 headliner, Frank Fairfield. Photo by Daniel De Boom.
And the event does seem to be shaping up to be special. Marchica expects even more attendance than year one (the Beachwood BBQ and Brewing beer garden certainly won’t hurt), with attractions ranging from contests of banjo, fiddle, pie-eating, and moustache to old-timey photos and foodstuffs galore to kids arts-and-crafts courtesy of the Art Exchange.
But center stage at a bluegrass festival is the music, and the five scheduled bands will bring it in high style. Headlining the festival this year will be Cliff Wagner & the Old #7, a top-10 finisher on Fox-TV’s 2007 show The Next Great American Band despite a bluegrass/blues/honky-tonk sound that judges predicted wouldn’t appeal to the show’s audience.
Then there are the two Long Beach bands are on the bill: Paperplanes, an electric band bringing the alt-country vibe; and Sawtooth, a seven-member acoustic outfit producing a mix of pure American that ranges from rootsy Texas country soul to high-energy Appalachian swing.
Rounding out the lineup are two straight-ahead bluegrass bands: Grasslands, has played its bluegrass stylings of both traditional and country/western or even rock ‘n’ roll classics throughout the United States; and the Wimberley Bluegrass Band, a nationally-touring band of teenagers featuring the winner of last year’s Rose Park Bluegrass Festival banjo contest.
If bluegrass seems to you an unlikely fit for Long Beach, you’re not the only one. But Marchica has never concurred.
“For some crazy reason, I thought this was the perfect place for bluegrass—mainly because no one in Long Beach was doing it,” he says. “There’s something to be said for giving people what they want. But there’s also something to be said for doing what’s in your heart and hoping that other people recognize it.”
The Rose Park Bluegrass Festival will take place August 19 from noon to 5PM in Rose Park at the intersection of Orizaba Ave. and 8th St. Admission is FREE. For complete information (including how to volunteer, obtain booth space, and get your ad on a banner or in the programs), visit www.roseparkbluegrass.com.