BREMERTON — In the words of one of Matt Musselwhite, one of the event organizers of the Aug. 20 Farm Funk festival, it was “a great time.”
The festival, a coordinated effort between Matt and Amy’s Basement Band, the Kitsap Community Food Co-op and Kitsap Fresh, brought together local musicians, farmers and brewers in an all-day festival at Minder Farms in Bremerton.
“We started thinking about a multi-band performance of … local bands who play original music,” Musselwhite said. “We started planning it back in November.”
He said they coordinated with the co-op at Kitsap Fresh because he’s “a big proponent of local farming.”
“I grew up on a farm in Georgia, so it kind of just struck me one day to go to the co-op and Kitsap Fresh, and ask them if they would want to have a benefit together that benefitted those guys, but showcased local talent and local brewing,” Musselwhite said. “It’s just something we thought up, and luckily enough, these guys were good enough to help us with it. The co-op’s great, they’re super helpful.”
Kids activities at Farm Funk 2016 included hula hoops and bean bag tosses. Photo by Michelle Beahm
Jess Sappington, membership and volunteer coordinator for the Kitsap Community Food Co-op, said Farm Funk was a success.
“We did very well and definitely raised some additional funds for both Kitsap Fresh and Kitsap Community Food Co-op,” Sappington said. “Proceeds from the event went towards both organizations, but the overall goal for the event was to bring the community together and promote local — local food, local music and local breweries. We feel we were pretty successful with our goal this first year.”
As of the morning of Aug. 24, Sappington said they’re still finalizing the amount of money raised from Farm Funk.
Musselwhite said at the start of the festival, which began at 2 p.m., guitarists performed the National Anthem. Throughout the day, three youth acts and four main acts performed for the crowd.
Kids attending Farm Funk 2016 were invited to paint pictures using fresh produce as their brushes. Photo by Michelle Beahm
Other than music, there were food stands, activities for kids, face painting, the Balloon Brothers, informational booths and a booth that enabled kids to use fresh fruits and vegetables to paint.
“(The festival is) something good for the community,” said attendee Kylan Skinner, who was there with her son, “and offered some really good music. They’ve got a lot of stuff for the kids, so that’s great.”
There was also a cool-down area with a plastic pool and water spraying to help people fight off the heat, which reached 91 degrees that day.
Lori Reeves, who attended the festival with her husband and their granddaughters, said the festival was “Fabulous. It’s really cute. So it should be fun. But we probably won’t stay very long because of the heat.”
“People are going to continue to come out,” Musselwhite said, about two hours into the festival, “as the sun creeps down and the temperatures get back to normal. It looks like a great time so far.”
