Last weekend I attended the Harmony Festival in Santa Rosa, California. It was hot and crowded, but that didn't stop the masses from checking out the leather goods, frock coats and eating steaming plates of Caribbean and Indian food.
I was a little wary of the whole scene, having flashbacks of state fairs in New Jersey and endless teenage evenings wandering the boardwalks of Atlantic City (don't ask).
There was so much going on between various stages that sadly I missed the performances by Root Magazine friends, DholRhythms and Baby Seal Club.
Night fell over the fairgrounds and the Techno Tribal Fest began with some big name DJs and incredible fire performances by troupes such as Lucent Dossier .... Perhaps the DJs needed time to switch out their equipment, I don't know, but the interim acts were absolutely horrible. If I ever see the Shamanic Cheerleaders again, I will scream bloody murder. I've never witnessed hundreds of people clear a dance-hall faster than when this painful act came onto the stage to destroy the energy generated by the Stanton Warriors who had just finished their set.
My friends and I escaped the train-wreck, joking they needed a 'karmic hook' to drag them off the stage. We entered a smaller dance-hall where Sukhawat Ali Khan and Riffat Salamat were just getting started. To sit down in an intimate setting and witness musical royalty, clap along with them, eventually dancing with the whole crowd... this was the highlight of the entire experience.
From their band, Shabaz:
The pair can date their lineage back to court musicians for ruler Akbar the Great. Their
father, Ustad Salamat Ali Khan, was one of the great classical Indian singers, and an influence on the legendary Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. Sukhawat began singing at the age of seven, and has performed around the world for presidents and kings.
Renowned for his technique and passion, he shares vocal duties with sister Riffat, whose siren sensuality and harmony burn with the Qawwali Sufi tradition, making her a rare female exponent of a style from which women are generally discouraged.
Together they create a stunning vocal magic, and take Qawwali to places it’s never been before...
Perhaps I'm not a hippy at heart but the Harmony Festival tried my patience at times. The amount of trash generated and lack of clean bathrooms plus the cost of the event didn't make much sense to me. I think we would be better served to learn about green issues at events such as LOHAS or Green Festivals, and to separate the music/ dance & vendors into a different thing altogether. What I witnessed was a combination of family outing, new-age marketplace, flea market and teenage rave. It tried to be all things to all people, which in the end, was too much to ask.
Marcy Mendelson: Editor in Chief/ Photographer. Dancer
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