They came for the community, nearly 9,000 of them in all, for Salmonfest 2024, three days of fish, love and music anchored in a passion to protect wild Alaska salmon and healthy fish habitat.
And on the cool, overcast evening of Aug. 3, hundreds of them danced in the mosh pit of the Salmonfest amphitheater, clapping with their hands raised high above their heads, to the music of Michael Franti and Spearhead, an internationally known band led by an outspoken advocate for the environment, peace and social justice.
At length, Franti joined his fans on the edge of the mosh pit, all of them hopping and waving their arms to the beat of the song “Meet Me When The Sun Goes Down.” The crowd at the amphitheater of the Kenai Peninsula Fairgrounds in Ninilchik, Alaska, was estimated at upward of 7,000.
“Such a powerful performance,” Salmonfest director Jim Stearns described the evening later on Facebook. “The energy was palpable, surging and pulsating through the entire venue.”
“Been doing this a long, long time,” he continued. “Not sure I’ve ever seen it as sustainable as it was Saturday night.”
“Collision of worlds is the best way to describe this year’s Salmonfest in my mind,” Stearn’s daughter Hannah Stearns, food vendor coordinator for the festival,” wrote on Facebook. “So many amazing, beautiful humans from so many walks of life…so many dear friends from all over the state, country, and world came all the way to Ninilchik.”
“It certainly is a galvanizing weekend for the whole fishing ecosystem,” David Stearns, the son of Jim Stearns and assistant director of the event, said. “It was such a beautiful Alaska weekend with the fireweed in full bloom. I don’t think we had any idea (the festival) would become what it is. It’s a celebration that means a lot of things to a lot of people.”
Salmonfest also brings out the creative instincts of many festival goers, who are donned in creative, colorful attire, reflecting on everything from their love of salmon to the joys of community.
The festival, featuring 60 bands on four stages, also included among its main acts this year the bluegrass, jazz and ragtime band The Devil Makes Three from Santa Cruz, Calif.; Los Angeles-based folk rock band Dawes; psychedelic Americana folk band Kitchen Dwellers, who are from Montana; and the jazz/funk band The Cat Empire from Melbourne, Australia.
Many of the participating bands are advocates for the environment, David Stearns said.
New to the festival this year were several structures created by Netherlands artist and festival designer Lud Absolud, including a giant whale and a salmon entry arch into the amphitheater. Salmonfest organizers plan to bring Absolud back early next summer to create art for Salmonfest 2025.
Among the annual festivalgoers for this 14th year of Salmonfest was Tim Troll, executive director of the Bristol Bay Heritage Land Trust, an organization dedicated to preserving the wildlife habitat, culture and history of the Bristol Bay region, which he helped create in 1999.
Troll, who initially came to Alaska in 1978 as an AmeriCorps VISTA volunteer lawyer, was involved in Salmonstock, the forerunner to Salmonfest, which began in 2011 in an effort to protect salmon and salmon habitat in the face of a proposed copper, gold and molybdenum mine called Pebble, backed by a Vancouver, Canada mining firm, on land abutting the Bristol Bay watershed, home of the world’s largest wild salmon fishery.
“I think we realized if it worked out the first time that it would continue to raise money and help us fight the Pebble issue,” Troll said.
Troll said he felt that Salmonfest, which always includes booths staffed by conservation groups, has helped education the public on importance of healthy fish habitat.
While the focus of Salmonstock was Bristol Bay salmon versus the Pebble mine, that focus has now expanded to healthy salmon habitat statewide.
“To witness the celebration, to come together with my favorite group of humans every year, to not only work, but build something that brings so much to so many people,” Hannah Stearns wrote on social media, thanking everyone who worked on and shared in the event.
“Your energy, love, joy and passion is what makes this festival what it is,” she wrote, “Let’s do it all over again!”
Margaret Bauman can be reached at margie@maritimepublishing.com