Some Alaskans are familiar with Salmonfest — a Kenai Peninsula music festival in August that advocates for the preservation of Alaska’s Bristol Bay salmon. But a new spinoff music festival — the Seward Salmon and Song Festival — kicked off last weekend at Miller's Landing, just south of Seward.
San Francisco-based bluegrass band The Brothers Comatose was the headlining act for the inaugural music festival. The last time they performed in Alaska was at Salmonfest in 2016.
“I think my biggest takeaway was the people are just so like, hearty people," said Ben Morrison, guitarist and lead singer of The Brothers Comatose. "They just don't care, they will have a good time, no matter the weather, no matter what's happening.”
The vibe at the new two-day music festival was similar.
But that isn’t the only similarity between the two music festivals. The Seward Salmon and Song Festival is rooted in environmental conservation, just like Salmonfest. One of its goals is to raise awareness and support the chinook salmon run in Resurrection Bay.
“There's like conversations you can have and spring up that you wouldn't otherwise think would happen,” said David Stearns, an organizer for both music festivals. He says they’re still fleshing out ways the new festival will advocate for salmon.
If the festival is financially successful, organizers plan to donate a portion of the proceeds to local environmental nonprofits. Stearns says they’ll also adopt Salmonfest’s “salmon causeway” – a space where nonprofits can set up and advocate for environmental causes.
“It's all kind of part of the process and seeing how this plays out, and what we can improve and and how we can have an even bigger impact on an environmental front,” Stearns said.
Festival organizers have considered a Salmonfest spinoff for years, but they didn’t know when to host it. The new event coincides with the Seward Mermaid Festival, an annual two-day vendor fair with live music, and a mermaid costume contest, held near the city’s boat harbor.
“I think it's a symbiotic relationship, which is fantastic,” said Shelly Shank, a coordinator of the Seward Mermaid Festival. She says the two events are kind of like unofficial partners.
Shank says the mermaid festival marks Seward’s unofficial start of summer, as it’s part of the city’s harbor opening weekend. She says that’s a good time to hold festivals in the city.
“Anybody else in our town of Seward that wants to join in and do something has been our goal, because it's for the community, and the community loves it,” Shank said.
Shank says the annual festival helps bolster the city’s economy by bringing people in. And that’s another goal of the Seward Salmon and Song Festival, according to Stearns.
“So there's stuff for people to do, you know, Friday, Saturday and Sunday now," Stearns said. "And so I think all taken together with, especially if this is going to be as popular as it is, then I think it's going to be a really good thing for the local economy.”
Stearns says the new music festival’s response exceeded his expectations, which he says is promising for another Seward Salmon and Song Festival next year. And he says welcoming national acts, like The Brothers Comatose, helps draw in crowds.
