Pritchard Park is located right in the heart of downtown Asheville. The Traveling Bonfires, which was born in the Philippines during the politically-turbulent mid80s, kicked off its annual “barrio-level” convergence in the spring of 2002 with all-day, multi-band concert events that lasted to early fall—and carried on since then.
The Traveling Bonfires produced an unprecedented 16 weekend park events in 2004, involving hundreds of local and North/South Carolina performers and visiting acts from as far as Tokyo, Manila, Houston TX, Boston, San Francisco, New Jersey, and New York City. The organization has also produced similar outdoor and indoor concerts in New York City, Baltimore, Washington DC, Los Angeles, Frisco, and Manila and Baguio City in the Philippines, “instigating arts and music events and bringing people together in celebration of peace and multicultural connectedness.”
Touch
Samadhi is a community of “trance Goa” DJ's that takes its
spiritual root in Goa, a small state in India. Mythology says Goa is
associated with “spiritually cleansing touch,” a peacefulness or
consciousness that Traveling Bonfires believes fit well with its
vision-mission of global peace and community harmony through
diversity. Touch Samadhi is a perennial highlight in Bonfires for
Peace events since 2004.
Pipapelli
calls its music “rockin' blues with a celtic-knotted twist!” The
band, with most of membership wearing the traditional kilts, has
performed for the TBonfires' Philippine typhoon benefit late last
years. Pipapelli: Just Cindy, vocals/percussion; RJ Grady,
bagpipes/guitars/flutes/vocals; Zuzu Welsh, bass/vocals/guitar;
Johnny
Haisman, guitar/bass/vocals; Dana
Koone, drums/vocals.
It
will be the second time that Lyric plays for Bonfires for Peace.
Lyric, a pop, funk and rock act fronted by Leeda Jones, enjoys a
large following in Asheville—having played in practically all major
local festivals to a packed audience. The rest of the band: Dave
Matthews, bass; Derrick Graves, Afro-Cuban conga, percussion; Mike
Berlin, drums.
Duncan,
who assumes guitar duties for local band The Old Guard, is one of the
mountain's most versatile musicians. Tom
Hoa Binh is the stage name of Tom Smith, a war veteran who devotes
his music to mostly pro-peace and anti-war advocacy. He is a regular
fixture in Asheville peace gatherings and singer songwriter dives.
Riyen Roots, who also plays with his blues
band, says he is “taking the blues genre to a new place, with
unique rhythms, truly original song stylings.”
“We
see the need to effect a vibe of peace and joy in Asheville and allow
that sublime wavelength to travel elsewhere,” says TBonfires
founding executive director Pasckie Pascua. “We don't have to
launch speeches or recite our holiness, we just play music and enjoin
the community to come out, dance and be together. That is a simple
thing, isn't it—but it's powerful.”
“Bonfires
for Peace” events enjoy the support of a number of local Asheville
businesses, organizations, and individuals. “This is the true
meaning of community connectedness,” offers associate producer
Marta Osborne. “Local business help us fund permits and other
peripheral expenses in turn we sell them friendly ad space in our
tiny newspaper, The Indie. Restaurants also feed our performers who
share music and art for free...”
The
organization's partner project, Loved by the Buffalo Publications,
publishes The Indie, a small newsprint tabloid that is mainly
distributed in downtown Asheville and soon, in Athens in Georgia as
its sister city. Both the Traveling Bonfires and The Indie's projects
have benefitted non-profit organizations that work with at-risk
youths, families of the disappeared, orphans, and disaster victims,
especially typhoon victims in the Philippines.
PHOTOS (from top): Sensoma, Pipapelli, Riyen Roots, Lyric.
