Music Art Food & Wine Festival
11:00am-8:00pm Saturday & Sunday, August 5th & 6th
15th Annual Cabrillo Music Food Art & Wine Festival
Church Street outside the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium
FREE event
Sponsored by:
The “quintessential Santa Cruz” festival! Expect two full days of summer time fun all along Church Street outside the Civic Auditorium when fine artists, craft vendors, food artisans and Santa Cruz Mountain wineries take to the street with their treasures and products. For added Festival fun the best of Santa Cruz country’s performing artists will entertain you on the Church Street Stage with two full days of non-stop world music and dance!
The weekend also features the Cabrillo Festival’s "Creativity Tent for Kids." Saturday, August 5th kids will experience music workshops. Sunday, August 6th focuses on the visual arts when eight talented artists share with children their techniques and infectious love of the arts through hands-on workshops in embossing, printmaking, painting, instrument making, and more.
Church Street World Music & Dance Stage:
Saturday, August 5
11:15am KLEZLECTICS The Klezlectics will welcome in the day by performing
contemporary and traditional Klezmer and Eastern European-styled original
compositions and folk music. Featuring violin, accordian, percussion, and cello,
the group will start the festivities off with high spirited melodies.
(michellealany@gmail.com)
12:15pm SHAMISEN—KEVIN KMETZ The Shamisen is a three-stringed
lute from Japan which was historically used in kabuki theatre for centuries.
Kmetz has mastered the Tsugaru-Shamisen, a form of playing which evolved in
Northern Japan in the early part of the 20th-century based on traditional folk
songs but involving improvisation and flashy fingerwork!
(stazmooni@hotmail.coom)
1:30pm UCSC WEST JAVANESE GAMELAN ENSEMBLE Master drummer
Undang Sumarna has directed this popular ensemble for 30 years. One of the
few gamelan groups in the United States specializing in the West Javanese
style, this exotic orchestra of bronze gongs and metallophones plays interlocking
layers of melody line and rhythmic patterns, guided by Sumarna's virtuosic
drumming.
2:30pm MARIACHI DE ELEAZAR CORTÉS Born and raised in Mexico,
Eleazar Cortés brings to life the music of the mariachis, including his own compositions.
A prize-winner at the nationally acclaimed Latin Song Festival and a
Gail Rich Award-winner, the Watsonville trumpeter and his mariachi band
deliver a truly authentic experience! (Eleazar Cortés: 728.1137)
3:30pm DANCE AROUND MOLLY This dynamic trio performs traditional
Irish music in English and Gaelic. Jigs, reels, and polkas, will come alive on fiddle,
button box, tenor banjo, mandolin, tin whistle, guitar and female vocals.
(fasola@cruzio.com)
4:30pm DULCE Mix in sweet voices, tropical rhythms, strings, traditional
danceable songs from Cuba, Puerto Rico and Mexico, and you get Dulce (which
means sweet). Then add a little lime, a little chile, and the scent of rum, and this
five-piece ensemble will move you with soul soothing, hip grooving music.
(hanya@sirocco-music.com)
5:30pm SAHAR’S SERPENTINE DANCERS and SHIVAYA with
ORIENT’AL––Always a Church Street favorite! Orient’al specializes in
Egyptian urban and folkloric dance music, performed on traditional Middle
Eastern instruments. They perform alone and in accompaniment with two sensational
belly dance troupes that will demonstrate the breadth of styles of this
expressive and sensual dance form.
6:30pm DOMU AFRICA (”Children of Africa”) is a West African group
showcasing traditional percussion and vocals from the Griot histories of
Senegal. They perform live percussion on a variety of African drums, Djembe,
Djunjun, Sabar, and Tama, while their vocals stem from Islamic influenced
praise singing and Baye Fall chanting. This powerful, authentic music is
guaranteed to make you dance. (halleibou@hotmail.com)
Sunday, August 6
11:00am VERNA DRUZHINA This morning your journey begins in a far off,
exotic land.Vera Druzhina performs lively traditional village dances and songs
from Bulgaria using authentic folk instruments including the gaida (bagpipe),
kaval (flute), tabura (guitar) and gadulka (fiddle). (Dena Bjornlie: 458.1340)
12:15pm SANTA CRUZ BALLET THEATRE This acclaimed company of young
dancers will mesmerize children and adults alike with their exquisite choreography,
remarkable musicality, precision training, and indomitable spirit. From
the irresistible dancers in the Petite Performance Company, to the burgeoning
ballerinas in their teens, Santa Cruz Ballet Theatre presents ballet with freshness
and inspiration. (www.santacruzballettheatre.org)
1:00pm CABRILLO FESTIVAL FREE FAMILY CONCERT:
"THE MELODIC LIFE” inside the Santa Cruz Civic
Auditorium. It starts with a petting zoo-style tour of the
award-winning Festival Orchestra, and then composer/narrator
Greg Smith returns by popular demand to join the
Orchestra, conducted by Marin Alsop, for the World Premiere
of his brand new work “The Melodic Life.”
2:30pm WATSONVILLE TAIKO brings rhythm, movement, and harmony
together with mind, body and spirit. Artistic Director Ikuyo Conant once again
leads them on the Church Street stage in traditional and modern works in this
ancient Japanese drumming tradition. An annual Church Street favorite!
(www.watsonvilletaiko.org)
3:45pm MOTION PACIFIC DANCERS present an energetic, synchronistic,
spectacular demonstration of hip hop and tap dancing at their best. The awardwinning
dance junction performs innovative choreography with precision execution,
and return by popular demand. (www.motionpacific.com)
4:30pm WHITE HAWK DANCERS Part of the White Hawk Indian Council,
this troupe of indigenous youth from the Pajaro Valley learn and perform the
ancient dances of pre-Columbian Mexico. Dressed in their traditional outfits, clad
with their ankle shakers, gourds and feathers, they are an inspirational sight and
a tribute to their cultural heritage. They proudly make their Cabrillo Festival debut
today, under the artistic direction of Maria Medina. (ixtatutlima@yahoo.com)
5:30pm KUZANGA MARIMBA Kuzanga is a Shona word meaning “to love
happily, free from fear,” and today the group’s seven marimbas and hosho
(gourd shakers) will sing out in that spirit of joy and freedom. The group performs
a mix of traditional and contemporary music of Zimbabwe’s Shona culture,
and, since 1994, has brought audience members of all ages to their feet.
(booking@kuzanga.com)
6:30pm MIDNIGHT MAMBO Clap your hands and listen to the sizzling
mambo, salsa, rhumba, plena and cha rhythms that Midnight Mambo serves up
as we bring the festivities to a rousing close. Featuring some of the finest Latin
jazz musicians in the Bay Area and led by pianist/arranger Steve Abrams, the
ensemble combines traditional Afro-Cuban and Afro-Puerto Rican rhythms with
jazz harmonies that promise to evoke warm Caribbean breezes and hot Havana
nights! (astarbelievesme@cruzio.com)
Special thanks to the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium staff.