Page 70 - Blues Festival Guide Magazine 2015

The Blues and The Burn

Winthrop Rhythm & Blues Festival Receives

keeping the Blues Alive Award for crisis Response

By Polly o’keary
As the Winthrop Music Association organizers made the “They were in no imminent danger,” Stokesberry said
final preparations for the 27th annual Winthrop Rhythm & later. “They had several natural barriers, including a river
Blues Festival in 2014, the weather, which had been beautiful and a highway, and the wind was pushing the fire the other
for months, seemed the least of their worries. way.”
Summer fires, though, are part of life in eastern Washington, In fact, Olsen said, according to experts, the Blues Ranch
so when a mid-July’s Tuesday night lightning storm started a was the safest spot in the Methow Valley. Fire officials just
handful of fires in the hills, it caused little concern. asked that the festival advise people that power was out at
Thursday, as volunteers and vendors continued to set up, hotels and stores in Winthrop and gasoline was running low.
things changed. Overnight, the fires had literally exploded to The organizers decided the event should go on. But many
more than 40,000 acres. Within the day, its size quadrupled fans turned back, and many vendors and bands were stuck
and the fire could be seen across the river from Winthrop. on the east side of the fire. News reports were conflicted,
The Carlton Complex Fire became the largest fire in one erroneously reported Winthrop might be evacuated.
state history, and before the weekend was over, 312 homes “It was changing every hour,” Smith said.
would be lost. Olsen and others, in between addressing crises of
Friday morning, festival organizers Erika Olsen and Jimmy cancellations from vendors, volunteers, security staff and
Smith began what they would later describe as one of the headliners, checked in regularly on social media to set the
most stressful days of their lives. Three thousand blues fans record straight with their fans – the festival was safe and
and some of the nation’s most prominent blues musicians were would go on.
headed for the Blues Ranch, the festival’s location. Furthermore, they posted, as a music community long
Organizers struggled with the decision whether to cancel accustomed to using music to raise funds in response to
the event. Even a hint of risk would be enough to cancel. The crises, the festival would turn its attention to supporting the
idea of trying to evacuate several thousand people out narrow valley that had been its home for 27 years.
Highway 20, the only viable exit, was unnerving at best. As the first event was getting set up, arriving fans and
All morning long, Smith and Olsen stayed in close contact workers drifted in groups, staring at the columns of smoke
with Tom Stokesberry, a California firefighter serving as the rising across the river. Everyone talked about the fire. They
U.S. Forest Service public information officer. also talked about what could be done to help.

68 Blues Festival Guide 2015