Food and Folk Festival returns to Soap Lake

SOAP LAKE — The Soap Lake Food and Folk Festival will have some changes the second time around.

“This year we decided to have it a month earlier because last year on that day it was 100 degrees and higher,” said Ruthann Tobiason of Friends of the Lower Grand Coulee, which sponsors the event. “We know it kept a fair number of people away … We actually had a performer back out at the last minute because it was too hot and dang, I don’t blame her.”

Last year’s one-day event drew a respectable turnout for an inaugural effort, enough that it’s been expanded to two days this year, June 20-21. Friday’s festivities will be homegrown, with an open mic at the Soap Lake Community Center and open mic followed by live music from High Desert Foxes at Cloudview Kitchen.

The Soap Lake Library will host a drumstick-making workshop Friday morning to prepare for the drum circle that will start off Saturday’s schedule. Drum maker David Shafer will gather drummers around his enormous pow wow drum at 9 a.m. at Smokiam Park.

“I built the drum about 25 years ago,” Shafer said. “It’s 50 inches across (made with) two buffalo hides and 250 feet of lace … Hopefully at the drum circle I can finally find out how many people we can get around it to play all at once.”

Basketball trainer Lindsey Moore will hold Hoop Barn Academy basketball camps for ages 6-9 and 10-13 at the basketball courts at East Beach Park. The cost is $40 per participant and will include coaching for all skill levels. The focus will be on basics like ball handling and proper body positioning, Moore said.

“We’ll do some fun games that build on the fundamentals and the things that we work on,” she said. “We’ll do (about) 20 minutes of ball handling, and then I’ll do a game with them that revolves around ball handling. I hope they learn a lot and they take away a lot from it, but it is a good time too.”

Grant County Fire District 7 will bring a dunk tank, and the Youth Empowerment Program will lead a group mural-painting project.

Of course, the focus of the festival is on music, and Saturday’s lineup is a varied one. Country and Americana singer-songwriter Billy Stoops will return, and this year he’s bringing his band the Dirt Angels. World music composer and guitarist Leif Totusek will return as well.

One of the new acts this year is Killdeer String Band, from Ellensburg, offering an unusual combination of styles including Celtic, klezmer, Bavarian and bluegrass. Ranger and the Re-Arrangers, sponsored by Don and Colleen Long, will perform a set combining swing and traditional Romani music. Kimball and the Fugitives will bring blues, rock and swing, featuring vocals by “Stickshift” Annie Eastwood. They’ll also perform at an after-party at the Del-Red Pub, Tobiason said.

Soap Lake has a vibrant Ukrainian community, and organizers tried last year to bring in a traditional Ukrainian musician but weren’t able to make it happen. This year, with the help of NCW Libraries, the festival will welcome Valentyn Lysenko. Lysenko is well known as a virtuoso on the bandura, a traditional Ukrainian instrument that looks kind of like a very large lute but has 56-68 strings.

“We’re very excited that he’s coming, because it’s really going to lend something different to the whole day,” Tobiason said. “We’re all used to rhythm and blues and rock and roll and that kind of thing. This is something very different.”

The food part of the Food and Folk Festival is a little spread out, Tobiason said. With other, larger festivals in the area happening the same weekend, a lot of the mobile vendors who might otherwise have been there were already booked. However, Soap Lake is fortunate to have a lot of good eateries within easy walking distance, she said. Akins Fresh Market will have chicken and burritos for a picnic lunch, she said. La Cucina di Sophia, Cloudview Kitchen and the Del-Red all serve food, and the Soap Lake Natural Spa and Resort will serve barbecue. In addition, there’s Mom’s European Deli, Mi Cocinita Mexican Grill and the Taqueria El Tapatio truck.

“A brand-new place just opened up, the Chiluda Salsa Factory and Kitchen,” Tobiason said. “They’re known for their salsa, but now they have this little shop and they’re serving yakisoba and tacos and Chiluda stir-fry.”

A map showing all the eateries within walking distance of the park can be found at friendsofthelowergrandcoulee.org.

There will be raffles through the day, Tobiason said, with prizes including dinner at La Cucina di Sophia, tickets to the Sun Banks Music Festival and a 10-pound breakfast box of bacon, sausage and ham from Pure Country Farms. A bonus drawing will be held for a copy of Matthew Sullivan’s novel “Midnight in Soap Lake.”

This being the second time around for the Food and Folk, Tobiason said, organizers look forward to seeing the event gain some traction in the community. The FLGC will be taking surveys to see how the attendees enjoy the event.

“We’re really hoping for this second year that the weather won’t be a deterrent, that we’re getting the word out far enough in advance and further geographically so that more people will come,” she said. “We never know. It takes a while for this to build up to a point where you can actually say that there’s a trend.”

More information can be found at friendsofthelowergrandcoulee.org.

Note: The name of the band that will perform Friday evening at Cloudview Kitchen was changed after press time. The story has been updated above. Additionally, the name of the festival was given incorrectly in the original edition of this article and has been corrected above.

Soap Lake Food and Folk Festival

June 20-21

Smokiam Park, Soap Lake

The Saturday lineup:

10 a.m. Killdeer String Band

12 p.m. Leif Totusek and Freestyle Candela

2 p.m. Ranger and the “Re-Arrangers” Sponsored by Don & Colleen Long

4 p.m. Valentyn Lysenko Sponsored in part by NCW Libraries

5:30 p.m. Kimball & the Fugitives with Annie Eastwood

7:30 p.m. Billy Stoops and the Dirt Angels

 Attendees at last year’s Soap Lake Food and Folk Festival braved three-digit temperatures, but organizers hope to avoid the severe heat by scheduling the event earlier this year.

 The Killdeer String Band will bring a unique blend of Celtic, klezmer and other folk traditions to the second annual Soap Lake Food and Folk Festival.

   Acclaimed banduryst Valentyn Lysenko will perform at the Soap Lake Food and Folk Festival June 21.