UPDATE Saturday 10 a.m.:
The remaining members of Lone Piñon and dance callers made it to town late Friday night and will perform Saturday and Sunday. See the Alaska Folk Festival schedule for updated times.
Original story:
Alaska Folk Festival organizers scrambled to rearrange the mainstage lineup Friday as it became clear that headliners Lone Piñon and several other performers would not make their scheduled sets.
Folk Fest brings artists from around the state and the Lower 48 to Juneau every year for a week of music and dancing, but this year’s event saw disruptions thanks to airborne ash from a volcanic eruption in Russia that impacted flights throughout the Pacific Northwest.
Reached by phone in Seattle Friday, band members Santiago Romero, Karina Wilson and Jordan Wax said they were staying optimistic, but trying to be realistic too.
“It sounds like a lot of ash cloud is still moving in,” Wax said from somewhere near the Space Needle. “And we’re just hoping that there is a, you know, a slight chance that the wind could shift and allow us to land.”
Lone Piñon’s travel woes began Wednesday when some of the band members tried to leave Phoenix but were delayed by mechanical problems. That brought them to Seattle just in time for the ash cloud to ground dozens of Alaska-bound flights.
Lone Piñon describes their music as “orquesta típica”, a type of music traditional to northern New Mexico. Joining them in Seattle were Lucy Salazar and Alicia Gonzales, two dance callers who were set to lead a Saturday workshop on the style of dance that accompanies Lone Piñon’s music.
For most of them, this would have been their first time in Alaska. Bandmate Tanya Nuñez actually managed to make it to town before the ash became an issue. Wax said they still hoped to make their Sunday mainstage appearance.
“The best case scenario at this point is that we get there for the last day of the festival,” he said. “And it’d be awesome to spend 24 hours with everybody after so much work and planning.”
A lot of planning did go into getting them to Juneau.
Folk Fest Board Member Miguel Rohrbacher has been trying to bring Lone Piñon to Juneau since seeing them play at a festival in Washington State five years ago. His mother’s side of the family is from northern New Mexico, so hearing them play in the style of that region was inspiring to him as a lover of folk music. He was determined to bring the band to town.
Then, the pandemic happened. Folk Fest was canceled in 2020 and 2021. He thought he had finally succeeded this week, but then …
“That volcano was not on my bingo card,” Rohrbacher admitted Friday.
He added that this is the first time he’s aware of in Folk Fest’s 48 years that volcanic ash has caused travel delays. Luckily, there’s no shortage of talent already in town to fill in the holes.
Friday’s mainstage acts were rearranged with local favorites. Organizers said they would continue to cover gaps as needed, with the hope that air travel would resume before the festival ends on Sunday.
“If the dam breaks, and a bunch of people are here, the Sunday night concert might be one for the ages,” Rohrbacher said.
And hey, he said, maybe next year’s official Folk Fest t-shirt will feature a volcano.
This post has been updated.
Correction: A previous version of this story misidentified Lucy Salazar in the photo.