Music

Winterstomp

Take that, Old Man Winter

By Carey Ross · Wednesday, February 1, 2012

With the exception of that brief climatic tantrum Old Man Winter threw a couple of weeks back, resulting in the Great Snow Dump of 2012 and all its attendant chaos, this winter has been a pretty mild one. But just because we don’t have to deal with bone-chilling temperatures and whiteout conditions on the daily, doesn’t mean we’re not dealing with doldrums of the cold-weather variety.

While everyone has their own method of mitigating seasonal stress, I’m of the opinion that if one must spend the bulk of the winter months indoors, what’s happening indoors must offer one more than mere shelter from the cold. In short, when trapped by weather, why not throw a party?

I’m far from the only one espousing this opinion. In fact, some stir-crazy folks at the Skagit Food Co-op and Lincoln Theatre have teamed up to throw a seasonal soiree dubbed Winterstomp. The stated purpose of the party is to “stomp the puddles out of the February fields,” but as the event takes place inside the Lincoln Theatre, I’m going to go ahead and posit that the directive is more figurative than literal. In fact, if I’m interpreting the method behind the Winterstomp madness correctly, the point is to defeat those aforementioned doldrums through the use of music, dancing and poetry, all for the greater good of preserving and supporting the fertile farmland of the Skagit Valley.

What this means is you can show up, show your solidarity with farmers and farmworkers and have an excellent time being entertained in the lovely and historic Lincoln Theatre while doing so. As ways to pass the dark days of winter go, you could do a lot worse than Winterstomp.

The event itself, which is family-friendly, gets started at 6pm Sat., Feb. 4, and, if all goes as planned, attendees will find themselves being greeted by fire dancers. Shortly thereafter, the music will begin, as will the dancing, as the roster of bands lined up to play the event are just the type to encourage that sort of audience participation. On deck is Skagit “spaghetti-surf-garage-a-billy” band SmokeWagon (if you’re having a hard time envisioning the band based on that description, perhaps it’ll be clearer if I simply say SmokeWagon sounds like a good time), the musically nimble and acrobatic duo known as the Gallus Brothers, and Portland’s Foghorn String Band.

And, unlike at most shows, where breaks between bands mean wandering aimlessly and sometimes awkwardly until the next act takes the stage, at WinterStomp, there’s never a down moment. Set breaks will feature poetry readings by the winners of the Winterstomp Food and Farms Poetry Contest. The poets answered a call to craft verses in the categories of “Winter/Migration” (with Roger Ridgway, Kathleen Bisagna, and Victoria Sprang winning in this group) and “Farms at Rest” (the winners being Sarah Phillips, Maggie Elliott, and Ann Basye), with entries far more numerous than what the event could possibly accommodate—which means that either the Skagit farmlands provide much inspiration or the area is rife with worthy poets (methinks it’s a little from column A and a little from column B).

Also bringing home the fact that this is an event with a purpose will be an art show, “Local Landscapes,” which will have its opening reception at Winterstomp in the Lincoln Theatre’s gallery. The show features works by well-known Edison painter Todd Horton, as well as pieces by Skagit painter and printmaker Kris Ekstrand Molesworth.

When gazing upon Skagit’s fertile farmlands during the harsh days of winter, it can be hard to believe the bounty that will arise from that forbidding, frostbitten earth just as soon as the sun and its attendant warmth coaxes seeds and sprouts into green, growing life. Perhaps, above all, this is the reason why a celebration like Winterstomp is such a good idea: it reminds us that, while Old Man Winter can be a crabby and formidable enemy—especially while in the midst of a weather-spewing tantrum—even he must eventually succumb to the more powerful cyclical forces of Mother Nature.

But it’ll be a bit before she gets and retains the upper hand, weather-wise. In the meantime, we’ll always have Winterstomp.

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