An Entire Spring and Summer of Traveling Bonfires Fun

The Traveling Bonfires presents “PEACE GROOVIN': Saturday Night Fever!” as part of its continuing series of fundraiser shows and events that promote “community connectedness through cultural diversity” on May 18, Saturday, at Westville Pub in West Asheville.

     The event, which features DJ Lady Laine spinning 70s disco and soul LPs, also serves as counterpoint show to the organization's centerpiece project, the “Bonfires for Peace at Pritchard Park” concert series, a movable feast of family fun and community harmony through music, arts and dancing, held in downtown Asheville. DJ Lady Laine is the other persona of Laine Lewis, lead vocalist of the local band, The Ones.

     “Bonfires for Peace” had its birthing in Asheville in 2003; the program also had parallel events in Baltimore, New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Manila and Baguio City in the Philippines through the years. This year's series started last April 13, headlined by Peace Jones, a perennial Traveling Bonfires attraction. Other dates and performers: May 12 and August 11, Kri and Touch Samadhi; June 8, The Ones, Lyric, SheemOne TheMc, Roberto Hess; July 13, Peace Jones, with Liam Christopher McKay, Bill Ramsey, and Keith Kimmel. Emcee is Jadwiga McKay.

     “Asheville loves this kind of fun,” says Marta Osborne, TBonfires supervising producer. “And when this city's beautiful people are costumed colorfully, dancing and having fun—we forget arguments and bickerings. We just become one.”

     Founded by journalist-editor Pasckie Pascua in Manila during the Philippines' turbulent 80s, the Traveling Bonfires has made Asheville its home since moving here from New York City in 2002. It had a two-year sojourn in Los Angeles from 2007 to 2009, “but Asheville is our home barrio, this is where we belong,” explains Pascua.

     Local businesses that donated gift certificates, among other generous gifts, are: Bruisin' Ales, Fired Up! Loved by the Buffalo/The Indie, Malaprop's, MariJo Moore, Moe's, Mellow Mushroom, Neo Cantina, Old Europe, ScreenDoor, SOLA (Asheville's Therapeutic Salt Cave), Westville Pub, and The Blotter, a publication based in Durham NC.

     The Traveling Bonfires' events enjoyed the support of a number of local Asheville businesses, organizations, and individuals. Projects have benefited non-profit organizations that work with at-risk youths, families of the disappeared, orphans, and disaster victims. 

ART by Federico Boyd Sulapas Dominguez