BY PATRICIA DUFF
Whidbey Art Source editor
Tune that instrument, sign up for a workshop, find that Porkpie hat, pull out those tickets and decide where to eat between shows for the five days of DjangoFest, which starts Wednesday, Sept. 19 in Langley.
DjangoFest Northwest, now in its 12thyear at Whidbey Island Center for the Arts, is considered the premier showcase for Gypsy Jazz (the music made famous by the legendary guitarist Django Rienhardt) in North America, having presented some of the biggest names in the genre to thousands of enthusiastic participants.
Langley has seen some of the biggest and brightest stars of the genre come to Langley and this year is equally as stellar. The musicians will come from all over the world and include:
Paulus Schäfer and Tim Kliphuis
Lollo Meier and Tcha Limberger
Pearl Django with Martin Taylor
Cyrille Aimée and Diego Figueiredo
Whit Smith and Matt Munisteri with Beau Sample
In lieu of last year’s success of the workshops and presentations by artists, everything is expanded this year to welcome not only guitarists and violinists, but the general public, as well. All the workshops are available for all patrons, but of special interest might be Tcha Limberger’s master class which will be presented on WICA’s mainstage. Entertaining and instructive, these presentations give the festival-goer a unique chance to interact with the musicians.
And don’t forget to wander the streets of downtown Langley as much as possible during the festival so as the catch the spontaneous “djam” sessions that may spring up in a yard, café or restaurant at any time. Musical locals and visitors fall in with DjangoFest performers during these jams, which makes for some great mixing of sounds and a special kind of good international relations.
The festival runs from Sept.19 through Sept. 23. Evening performances are Wednesday through Saturday at 8 p.m. Matinee performances are Friday through Sunday at 3 p.m. and a Sunday evening performance is at 7 p.m.
Tickets range in price from $32 to $70 and are available online at WICA or by calling the WICA ticket office at
(800) 638-7631.
For more festival information, including artist line up, workshops, bios, music, videos and tickets, visit www.wicaonline.com.
