Like a phoenix rising from the ashes, the 2007 Yellow Pine Harmonica Festival lives.
This time you won't need to slather on the sunscreen or dodge billowing plumes of eye-watering smoke. The two-day event is, brr, pairing up with the 2008 McCall Winter Carnival and will take place in McCall Friday, Feb. 1, and Saturday, Feb 2.
And all the event proceeds will go to fill the hamlet's now-empty coffers.
The harmonica festival, one of the most raucous, toe-tapping concert weekends in the West, has always been a summer happening in tiny, remote Yellow Pine, which derives most of its income from the annual event. But the festival was canceled last summer because of encroaching wildfires.
David Eaton, former owner of the McCall radio station KMCL FM/AM, promoted the event until the plug was pulled on Aug. 2, one day before it was to start.
Knowing how the community depends on the festival, he thought about pairing it with the Winter Carnival. When new station owner Dave Combes heard the idea, "he grabbed it and ran," Eaton said.
"This is what our local radio stations are all about," Combes said. "We got all the right people together, and the idea took off like the wildfires of last summer."
The festival is truly a labor of love. Everybody pitched in and helped. The community of Cascade and The Payette River Mountains organization donated promotion funds they had been given by Idaho's Department of Travel and Tourism. Tate's Party Rents of Boise is donating chairs, outdoor heaters and a dance floor.
And without blinking, Bonnie and George Bertram, owners of the Pancake and Christmas House, donated their restaurant, beer and wine license, and cooking facilities for the two-day event. It will be business as usual until the Front Porch Jam kicks off each day's events. The restaurant closes at 2 p.m., the festival will start at 4 p.m.
It's likely a one-time fix to the mouth harp festival; the 2008 event is slated to take place back home in Yellow Pine - "as long as it doesn't burn down again," Combes said.
The Yellow Pine Harmonica Festival is organized and produced by community volunteers.
"We are so grateful to the communities around us for giving us this opportunity. This gives us a second chance to showcase our musicians and their talent," said Steve Holloway, chairman of the 2007 festival.
He owns the general store and a small hotel in Yellow Pine, and was hit hard by the fires.
Combes said moving the festival to McCall is a perfect solution.
"It's not subject to the weather," he said. "There probably won't be a fire in February that closes the road to the Pancake and Christmas House. We're looking forward to Yellow Pine's harmonicas blowing the doors off the 2008 Winter Carnival."
Jeanne Huff: 377-6483
