CBAA sponsors music at farmers market, demo derby
Nathan Fisher of Moses Lake plays with the Central Washington University Jazz Band 1 at the Royal Room in Seattle in 2021 with guest director Dave Eschelman. Fisher and his father are the Nick & Nathan duo scheduled to play on July 22 at the Moses Lake Farmers Market and sponsored by Columbia Basin Allied Arts.
MOSES LAKE — It’s not all that difficult, actually, to find local musicians who want to play live music, according to Shawn Cardwell, executive director of Columbia Basin Allied Arts.
It’s why Allied Arts has been able to sponsor performers at the Moses Lake Farmers Market nearly every other weekend this year until the end of October.
“We did an open call for musicians in the spring, and it was those folks that kind of applied. And then we had some of the performers we’ve had from years past,” Cardwell said. “There’s never really been an issue of finding performers in Moses Lake and the surrounding areas.”
The Moses Lake Farmers Market, which meets in McCosh Park every Saturday from early May through the end of October, has long featured live music as part of its offerings of local farm produce and handicrafts. According to Cardwell, this year’s performers run a gamut of everything from jazz, classical, bluegrass and country, and include high school students to instructors at Big Bend Community College.
However, this year is the first CBAA has gotten big into sponsoring musical acts at the Farmers Market, Cardwell said, as a way of helping to cultivate new audiences in what, for the organization, are non-traditional venues far afield from the Wallenstien Theater at Big Bend Community College.
“In the past, we had a booth at the market. And if we knew that the farmers market didn’t have a performer, then we would bring a performer to be in the booth with us. Just to add to the atmosphere,” she said.
Prospective musicians must submit a video of their performance, Cardwell said, and must be approved by the Farmers Market Committee. Though one act will come to Farmers Market from as far away as Ellensburg, though that’s not the farthest someone was willing to come to perform in Moses Lake.
“There was one country singer from Canada who randomly signed up for a spot and we decided that was a little bit too much work to do,” Cardwell said. “He needed a hotel room, and that sort of thing just seemed a little too complicated for what we were going for.”
The Moses Lake Farmers Market isn’t the only non-traditional venue CBAA is sponsoring music for. The organization has sponsored a band to play at the Lind Combine Demolition Derby on June 10 as well, Cardwell said.
“So we’re serving Grant and Adams counties,” she said. “We’re also doing an art festival collaboration with the Downtown Moses Lake Association Sip and Stroll in September.”
For more information, visit the Columbia Basin Allied Arts website at cba-arts.org or call 509-793-2059.
Scheduled to perform this summer at the Moses Lake Farmers Market are:
June 24 Eli & Edwin
July 8 Owens Marimba Duo
July 22 Nick & Nathan
Aug. 12 Moses Lake High School Jazz Band
Aug. 26 Jude Noah
Sept. 9 Eli & Edwin
Sept. 23 Days of Honey
Oct. 14 Jude Noah
Oct. 28 Days of Honey