Cordova! Are you ready to rock the hill? This year we’re easing back into larger gatherings with the jam being more along the veins of a “Concert in the Park.” Participants will get to enjoy great music live while taking in local artisan market vendors along with delicious local fare. Salmon Jam is an event for the entire family and this year it’s happening July 12-17, with live music on Friday and Saturday nights. It won’t disappoint! Special guests are the band Lateral Lines from Anchorage, featuring Kat Moore of the Super Saturated Sugar Strings. We are excited to host Lateral Lines in person this year since last year’s festival had to shift virtual. This year, everyone can spread out, get comfortable with their own blankets and chairs and enjoy the music out from under the big tent. In order to keep the physical distance safe, there will be no beer garden at this year’s event. The wild food cook-off is also postponed until it is safe to offer once again. But, there will be food and art vendors! Stay tuned for who will be cooking us up some delectable local fare and selling their handcrafts. Friday evening’s show gets started at 7 p.m. with Saturday’s show beginning one hour later at 8 p.m. Tickets are available for purchase online at www.salmonjam.org We are encouraging all attendees to purchase their tickets ahead so we can keep congestion down at the gate. You can also purchase tickets at the Cordova Museum, at festival HQ on Main St at the Copper River Watershed Project or at the gate the night of the show.
This event will occur rain or shine. There are no refunds. If the weather is awful — i.e. high winds and sheets of rain — the event will be moved to the Cordova Jr./Sr. High School gymnasium.
Salmon Jam is the primary fundraiser which offsets the costs for your local arts council, Cordova Arts and Pageants, which brings in artists from all over the state, country and world. The entire school population and Cordova community benefits from experiencing these artists both in our schools and in our intimate theater space. This past year we were able to grant over 20 local artists with individual COVID Arts Relief Grants while all visiting artists and performances had to be canceled. We are looking forward to showcasing the works supported through those awarded grants.
Lateral Lines is an Alaskan band with music as broad as the landscape in which it grew. From expansive cinematic rock songs to campfire-style swinging honky-tonk, their music is about feeling vibrations and connecting to one another and the audience. Vocalist Kat Moore and her bandmates bring a musical experience that allows audiences to swing their partners and simultaneously leave with fodder for thought and a smile on their faces. Check out more at www.facebook.com/LateralLinesAK and at cdv.tiny.us/rivulets.
But, Salmon Jam is so much more than the special guest artists. As in the past 20-plus years of the Jam, it’s the venue for our local talented musicians to shine. Returning this year are some of the jam’s favorite local perennials like Cordova’s rockin’ band, Insider, featuring Jason Dadulla and Kaleb Carrillo. We are so excited that Insider will be playing both nights! Also playing will be Andrea Vargas and Alana Esguerra, Red-bearded Mountain Goat and Keys on Fire. Better dust off your dancing shoes!
There are still a few sets left. If you’d like to play this year, contact Alyssa Kleissler at 907-253-3633. If the evening stage is too daunting for you, consider an acoustic set arranged earlier in the week at a local establishment of choice.
Other music opportunities is a FREE soundboard clinic offered on Friday, July 16, 11 a.m.-2 p.m. and Saturday, July 17, 11a.m.-2 p.m. at the North Star Theatre in the Cordova Center. This free training is offered by Cordova Arts and Pageants and is conducted by Bennett Hilsgen and Lucy Peckham of Both Ears Live Sound. Individuals must attend both days of the training and be interested in running the sound equipment at performances and events held in the North Star Theater. Music or computer knowledge is a plus. Individuals will need to be available to work evenings and weekends as needed on an intermittent basis. To sign up, please call 907-424-6665 or email mbriggs@cordovamuseum.org. Serious inquiries only, please.
One hundred percent of your Salmon Jam ticket goes towards bringing artists like John Damberg and the Anchorage Jazz Society, Royal Wood (songwriter and storyteller) and the Small Glories (roots music) plus more to our community this Fall and next Spring! How awesome is that?
You can learn more about Cordova Arts and Pageants by visiting their website at www.cdvarts.org.
And, if you want to get more involved with the festival, you can! When you volunteer to set up the tent, sell tickets or help the festival in other myriad ways, you get a discount off your ticket and you get to enjoy knowing you’re doing your part in ensuring great art continues to reach our town. To sign up to volunteer visit our website at www.salmonjam.org or follow us www.facebook.com/salmonjam and www.instagram.com/salmonjam. See you on the hill!
