Salmonstock: Wild Alaskan Music and Art Fest to Protect Bristol Bay

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From the website: Salmonstock is a celebration of Wild Alaskan Salmon and the people who depend upon them. It’s also about the power we have to protect our resources and our livelihoods. Stand up and join the over 3,000 attendees since 2011 in our fight to protect the wild salmon that bring us together and define our lifestyle. Help us stop proposed threats like the Pebble Mine Project. We invite anyone who loves Alaska, salmon, and spectacular music and art to spend the weekend with us. Together we will show the world why we are so passionate about our renewable resources and what we can do to ensure another millennia of great fishing.

Pebble Mine: The fight to protect the Bristol Bay Fisheries Reserve

Pebble Limited Partnership (a joint venture of Northern Dynasty Minerals and Anglo American Mining) is in the early stages of attempting to develop a mine to unearth one of the world’s largest deposits of copper, gold and molybdenum. The mine site is located at the headwaters of the Bristol Bay watershed, covering streams that feed the Mulchatna-Nushagak Rivers, Iliamna Lake and the Kvichak River. These rivers provide vital spawning habitat for many of the 40 million sockeye salmon that return annually to the region. The Pebble Partnership is planning to build one of the largest open pit mines in the world on top of the headwaters of the world’s largest wild salmon fishery

Wild Salmon – Alaska’s Renewable Resource

Each summer millons of Pacific salmon make incredible migrations from the North Pacific and Bering Sea back to the freshwaters of their birth to spawn. In the spring, young salmon emerge as fry and after a few months to a few years they migrate to the sea. During migration they imprint a complex map of scents to help them find their way back to their spawning grounds. After 1-7 years feeding in the sea (depending on the species), the mature salmon start their long migration home. Once near freshwater they will rely on olfactory and other senses to navigate to the rivers and beaches of their birth. Here, the salmon will spawn and then die. Returning salmon transport millions of tons of nutrients from the rich marine environment to the ecosystems of the surrounding land. When salmon die after spawning, they leave large amounts of biomass and nutrients, increasing production at all levels of the food chain, from bacteria and algae communities to top predators, such as bears. In Alaska our cultural traditions are based on a robust salmon population. We rely on our wild salmon for food and nourishment, a sustainable economy, and a healthy ecosystem.

Ray Troll designed the logos and merchandise and collaborated with fellow artist, Memo, to paint the Salmonstock stage and buildings.
 
 

Headliners

Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Lucinda Williams will headline Salmonstock on Saturday, August 2nd! Lucinda Williams has earned praise for her unique sound, which blends country, blues, rock and folk, and has established a reputation as one of rock’s most uncompromising and consistently fascinating writers and performers.

Also on Saturday, Multi-Grammy Award winning band Ozomatli is slated to headline. Shifting gears from electro-cumbia to garage rock, hip-hop, and Pérez Prado mambo, Ozomatli infuses a DJ party mix with dynamic live band chops and attitude taking the multi-cultural Grammy winning band’s street-party consciousness to new heights of eclecticism.

And Kyle Hollingsworth (of The String Cheese Incident) and his band join the ever-growing lineup of amazing musicians and Salmonstock 2014 bands. He will perform on Friday, August 1st.

Several unique and dynamic additions to this year’s lineup include gypsy-folk band Elephant Revival from Nederland, CO; San Francisco’s Hot Buttered Rum (americana/bluegrass fusion); Northern California’s Poor Man’s Whiskey; banjo and slide guitar genius Tony Furtado; Nashville, TN folk-rocker Tim Easton; and The Coffis Brothers & The Mountain Men (roots rock from Santa Cruz, CA) and Keller Williams with funk, bluegrass, jazz, folk, rock, reggae, electronica, etc. etc.

Art

Each year Salmonstock hosts artists in residence. The work of these talented individuals is highlighted in Salmonstock publicity and merchandise, the stage and buildings at the fairgrounds and in the education and action of festival attendees.

Mavis Muller coordinated an “Action of Art Aerial Human Mosaic” called “Keep it Wild”. Over 400 Salmonstockers helped form her design and waited patiently as a pilot and photographer documented the piece from the air.

Mavis Muller collaborated with Doug Schwiesow and Steve Agee in the creating of “Fired Up!”, two monumental metal sculptures of fire breating salmon that framed the main stage.

Sculptor Mavis Muller and Salmonstock Security Chief John Giacalone. Photo from Cows With Guns
 
 

Get Involved!

Check out the 2013 Salmonstock Music Schedule to start planning your weekend of fish, fun & music. Tickets are selling fast, get yours today.

If you are interested in being a volunteer at Salmonstock 2014, click here for a volunteer application. Questions? Email volunteers@salmonstock.org.

The Renewable Resources Foundation and Coalition

The Renewable Resources Foundation (with help from sister organization, The Renewable Resources Coalition) started Salmonstock with the goal of creating a positive movement to celebrate and protect Wild Alaskan Salmon. Their joint mission is to preserve and to protect the ongoing viability of Alaska’s hunting and fishing resources for the benefit and enjoyment of future generations.

Renewable Resources Foundation and Coalition is the hometown leader in the Pebble Mine fight. Their staff is on the ground in Alaska, working every day to protect the Bristol Bay Fisheries Reserve and the renewable resources that define our Alaskan way of life. As the Alaska affiliate of the National Wildlife Federation, they maintain a loyal membership of over 8,000 people with varying economic, political and social backgrounds from Alaska and the Lower-48.