ASHLAND, Ore. – The air was filled with sounds from all around the world Sunday as Rogue World Music Festival hosted its largest show at the Lithia Park bandshell.
Musicians from Hawaii, Zimbabwe, Trinidad and Tobago, and many more played for the crowd strewn across the park lawn.
This is the fifth year Rogue World Music has raised funds for programs directly serving those affected by the Almeda fire.
Admission was free, but donations were accepted on behalf of Rogue World Music and AGE+ which hopes to build two new housing communities for the elderly in Talent.
The festival expanded this year, kicking off Friday evening with a percussion workshop and concert at Pear Blossom park in Medford, and Saturday saw performances in Talent.
“There’s like contemporary mainstream music which is great, but all of that is really informed by each musician’s own cultural context,” said Rogue World Music Executive Director, Ana Byers. “We’re looking at context right now. We’re looking at all of these traditions that inform everything that we think of today as contemporary music.”
Micah BlackLight, who does all of the official art for Rogue World Music Festival talked about some of the symbolism behind his work. This year’s theme was water.
“She’s got a drum because the drum is the instrument of Earth… shakers and things of that nature… I think the thing that’s going to carry through all of the posters is gonna be the tattoos the shakers and anklets and some of them are gonna have bracelets… All of them are gonna have something going on in their hair.”
The festival isn’t over yet. Monday from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. there will be a “talkback” with some of the main stage musicians held on Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s Green Show stage in Ashland.
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