The second annual Shadow Hawk Music Festival will feature a lineup chock-full of Whitman bands and a capella groups, as well as three bands who are being paid to come and play. The festival’s primary organizer, senior Charlie Procknow, will grill burgers on Reid side lawn for lunch, and the Taco Truck will be around for dinner.
“I just want people to be able to come and sit outside and enjoy themselves on a beautiful spring day and listen to music all day long,” said Procknow. “Shadow Hawk was my favorite event of the year [last year].”
Chicago-based band The Dogs, who have been never played at Whitman before, will headline the event. Senior Matt Bachmann, bassist for The Dogs, says that his band is quite excited for their show.
“For the rest of my band, Walla Walla has this sort of mythical quality to it … and coming here is kind of unreal,” said Bachmann in an e-mail. “We always talked about pulling all of these stunts if we actually played a show here … and now that we are playing at Shadow Hawk, we have to find a way to make it all work.”
Other bands journeying to Walla Walla include Portland blues band Jeff Handley Trio –– which features first-year James Ford on drums –– and Spokane blues band The Fat Tones.
WEB co-sponsor, senior Sarah Brooker, attested to the broad, Northwest appeal of the event.
“I’m definitely going to be there all day,” said Brooker. “It’s a really great opportunity not only for student bands but [with this] bigger venue, having three slated groups from the Northwest, [we’re] … highlighting some talent from this area, is a really nice thing.”
Brooker estimates that last year’s festival had only half the budget, which is why this year’s festival has three paid bands visiting Whitman. However, since Brooker and Procknow will graduate, this new tradition will not automatically stick around unless some enterprising underclassman takes an interest.
“I want it to continue and I was trying to work with some underclassmen to do it with them, but there wasn’t much interest so I ended up doing it alone again,” said Procknow. “Maybe WEB could take it on. I haven’t talked to them about it; that was my idea, to have it keep going, but I’m graduating so I’m not going to be able to do it next year.”
Shadow Hawk will run on Sunday, May 8 from noon-8 p.m.
