Transcript
inFESTed 2020
Tom Heath: Good morning Tucson. It’s a beautiful sunny in the Old Pueblo. And I thank you for spending a part of your brunch hour with us on your downtown Tucson Community sponsored rock and roll radio station this week. We’re gonna discuss several of the events coming to the urban core in March. And April.
Tom Heath: Today is February 23rd. My name is Tom Heath and you’re listening to Life Aong the Streetcar. Each and every Sunday, our focus is on social cultural and economic impacts in Tucson. Urban core and we shed light on hidden gems everyone should know about. From A mountain to UArizona and all stops in between, you get the inside track right here on 99.1 FM streaming on Downtown Radio.org. Also available on your iPhone or Android by heading over to your app store and downloading our very own Downtown Radio Tucson app and will be in your pocket whenever you need us.
Tom Heath: If you want to get us on the show reach us by email [email protected]. We’re over on Facebook. Occasionally, we’re on Twitter. Should probably do better with that and I say that every week, so we’re going to do better. And if you want to check out our past episodes head over to our web page LifeAlongTheStreetcar.org. We have about a hundred and twenty some episodes uploaded there with the show and many cases the feature pulled out and just segmented there. So you can listen to that portion of it if that is what’s peeking uou’re interest.
Tom Heath: We’re going to start today with a whole bunch of dates and places so get ready. This is that time of year where here on the show, we get a lot of requests to feature upcoming events in the urban core and we love it, keep them coming. It’s nice to know that people are listening and people want us to share what they’re doing. But time is limited and honestly, we don’t see a way to cover all of these events in detail. So we just started something last year with a segment called “Tucson inFESTed” in recognition of all the Fest that are happening pretty much between now and April.
Tom Heath: Well, we decided to bring that back here in 2020 and I am betting this is going to become an annual event for us. This is a rapid-fire overview of great community art, music, food beverage all these happenings most of which are right along the streetcar route. Now, as we get closer to some of the events that we talked about today, we will dive a little bit deeper, interview some of the key people and get you more information and we will do that as we roll into March and April. And then we also let you know if we’ve covered this event in the past so you can head over to our website and check out that previous recording and get a better sense of what the event is all about. But for now, let’s get those calendars out and let’s start marking off some dates.
Tom Heath: Of course. I just promised you April in March of events. But this is a funky year, right? We’ve got a leap day in there. So we’re going to hit you with one event coming up here in February. It is the 38th annual Tucson Peace Fair and Music Festival, will be held on February 29th from 11 a.m. To 4 p.m. at Armory Park. This is the 38th year and you will see this phrase quite a bit. There’s music, food, activities for the entire family entertainment. It’s a free event and according to their their page there. It’s Arizona’s largest gathering of Peace, Justice and Environmental groups. 38th annual Peace Festival. And I think it’s also somewhat ironic that it’s at Armory Park because if you know the history that Park is not known for peace. It’s known for Preparation to do battle, however, now in the year 2020 February 29th from 11 to 4. It is the peace fair and music festival.
Tom Heath: From there, we roll into March 1st. That’s the next day, Sunday and for a week-long event through through the eight. There is the Tucson Winter Chamber Music Festival starting on March 1st. This is going to be mainly at the the Leo Rich Theater, but there’s other locations across town. So you want to head to their their information page and check that out.
Tom Heath: At the Arizona Friends of Chamber Music is presenting the 26th Annual Festival. It’s a week of chamber music with some favorite returning artists that have been here in the past and some of course some new ones. Over the course of the week, you’re going to hear folks like Australian saxophonist Amy Dickson’s Tucson debut. There is the US premiere of Ross Edward’s New Quintet Bright Birds, and it’s also a first at the festival there will be Chris Rogerson. New quartet written for Escher quartet and a whole bunch of other names here some who have come back from previous years that the started in 1994. That is the Tucson winter chamber music festival. And then on Saturday, March 7th. We talked about this one last year. You can head over to our web page to get more info.
Tom Heath: The 2020 Grand Fondo. This is a collaboration between 1055 Brewing Company and the Greater Arizona Bicycling Association (GABA). It’s the second annual Tucson Gran Fondo and some other the first one they will have a big ride. That’s whatGran Fondo means, which kind of dates back to its earliest history in the 70s back in Italy and Gran fondos are now worldwide Tucson will have their longest ride will be 76 miles. Of course, they have the metric Century as they did last year 62 miles and they have shorter versions and a fun ride. At the end of this ride, and in case you’re not writing during the ride, there’s a block party. So you can head over there general public will be invited to the start and finish line on Scott between Congress and Broadway and that’s going to run from 11 a.m. To 6 p.m. They’ve got music from Fifty Shades of Grey. Hey bucko and of course, you know, it craft beers and sausages because it’s 1055.
Tom Heath: And then the Festival of books happens this year on March 14th and 15th big events on the U of A campus. There’s going to be somewhere in the neighborhood of five hundred authors presenting. There’s 300 exhibitors. Typically, you’ll see somewhere between a hundred and forty hundred fifty thousand people to send on the campus for this free events. And remember we’ve covered this one a couple of times on the show because I’m more involved with One I’ve been there on the steering committee for a while and I was I think I actually volunteered at the original 112 years ago. This one requires a tremendous amount of volunteers. So if you are thinking about giving back into your community head over the Tucson Festival of books webpage and look at all the opportunities for which you can volunteer and while you’re there you can check out the presenting authors look at a list of all of the vendors. They have multiple presentations throughout the day on both Saturday and Sunday, all of them are free.
Tom Heath: Some of them are ticketed because of their popularity; tickets are free, but they are limited. So you want to get all that information by heading over to the Tucson Festival of Books. St. Patrick’s Day happens to fall on that same Sunday, March 15th, so there will be a parade downtown in the morning and then some Festival activities in the downtown area. So if you’re interested in the parade, you want to head over to the st. Patrick’s Day parade and Festival website you March 15th, and then they will be at Armory Park for the the party there from 10:00 a.m. To 5:00 p.m. And the parade will kick off at 11. There will be food and beverages both. Young adult and adult beverages, I believe at Armory Park and lots of Swag you can get very brightly colored t-shirts for if I remember from last year that’s on st. Patrick’s day.
Tom Heath: And this is the 33rd annual. St. Patrick’s Day Parade, also in March is the spring Art Market and flower festival at the Museum of Art. This is something that’s been going on there for a couple of years. It’ll be a weekend event will post the the dates specifically on our Facebook page because I don’t have the dates right in front of me. But this is a hundred local artists probably over a hundred artists at this point Artisan crafts artwork poetry glass jewelry all kinds of Things mostly local vendors concerts and it’s all held at the Tucson Museum of Art, which is undergoing a renovation so you can check that out as well.
Tom Heath: So we roll later in the month. We get to All Abilities Day. This is something from the Easter Seals Blake Foundation. This is going to be on Saturday March 21st, all abilities Limitless possibilities a free celebration of community inclusion in a include a community Forum on accessible Transportation as well going to be at the Children’s Museum, which is across the street from Armory Park. It’s from 10 a.m. To 2 p.m. On March 21st. The community Expo will also showcase adaptive activities, give you access to Community Resources and will make sure that all the information is available for you to learn more about our community and the opportunities they are in Saturday, March 21st, the Children’s Museum from 10 a.m. To 2 p.m. To the all abilities day.
Tom Heath: And then we’re going to round out March on Sunday, March 29th with a Cyclovia Tucson from the Living Streets Alliance. This will be from 9 to 3. They will shut down some of the roads there. It’s going to go from downtown to south Tucson. So they will have some of the streets blocked off. We had gil peñalosa on our show from Bogota. He was one of the original founders of the cyclo be of movement. He was in Tucson giving a presentation and this thing just takes over the streets. There’s 40,000 people that will be out there biking walking. Skateboarding vendors along the way it’s a closed route for the most part you’ll have volunteers at major intersections to help guide you through the there are two events. This one happens to be in March that there’s one in the fall last year. I think between the two of them, they said they had about 80 90 thousand people and it was quite an event. So you ride your bike for a little bit Hop Off explore and enjoy getting out of the house and that’s going to do it for March.
Tom Heath: So let’s take a quick break and remind you that you are listening to Life Along the Streetcar on Downtown Radio 99.1 FM available for streaming on Downtown Radio.org.
Tom Heath: All right. Well, welcome back. We are in our middle of our inFESTed show because all the festivals that are happening here in March and April. We covered the march events and we’re going to roll in here to April. And again as we get closer to some of these events will do a little bit more features some of them.
Tom Heath: Coming up early in April. I think it’s moved up a little bit this year April 3rd through the 5th is the Tucson Folk Festival. This is that free event held out there on Jacome Plaza used to be over at the El Presidio Park there near the city hall, but they moved it to Jacome Plaza in front of the main library. There’s also stages at La Cocina and the Presidio Museum the festival kicks off with a big party on Jacmoe Plaza Friday night April 3rd, and then Saturday and Sunday, there will be a total of six stages with acoustic music and traditional contemporary ethnic genres. Gonna be over 13,000 Folks that participate from all over Southern Arizona and some that come across the nation there.
Tom Heath: Festival is a always has a lot of local as well as Regional and national talent and it’s put on by the Tucson Kitchen Museums Association, and we spoke with with them last year and we can link to that on our web page there that’s going to be April 3rd through the 5th at Hocking me Plaza the Tucson Folk Festival right in the midst of that on April 4th. Is the Baja beer festivals the fifth annual and it’s the event held at historic Armory Park once again their sample beers from Arizona’s Best breweries. There’s going to be some food there for purchase different types of beers on a display and Brewers are going to compete in a Statewide IPA competition. So if IPAs are your thing. This is a great place for you to go and they’re also partnering with the Gastronomic Union of Tucson and those chefs are going to be curating the food lineups. So should be some good food some good drinks. And that’s an Armory Park that is a paid admission. So you can check out our Facebook page after will link over to it. But thank tickets start at around 40 bucks. If you’re drinking they do have designated driver admission. So if you’re not drinking but want to partake in everything else you can get in for a little bit less and then they got some VIP tickets as well. The Baja Beer Festival on April 4th.
Tom Heath: Big one here in Tucson, the Arizona International Film Festival. They curate 45 plus countries worth of independent films and has been recognized as one of the better film festivals around, at least in my opinion. The Arizona Film Festival is working right now on the selection process. They will have their announcements out on March 16th. The festival itself will be April 15th through the 26th, and they have a variety of packages that you can purchase. I remember from the past. I really enjoyed going to the short to give me a good good sense of what some of these indie films were all about and The comedy was good stuff as well.
Tom Heath: Most of this happens at The Screening Room right there on Congress and we did have the pleasure of interviewing one of the filmmakers I think two years ago, will reach back out to him. See if we can’t entice another one of those fabulous filmmakers to come on our show and talk about what they’re doing and how impactful the Arizona International Film Festival has been for them. That’s April 15th through the 26th.
Tom Heath: In the middle of that from the 17th through the 19th coming back here in Tucson is the Poetry Festival. Been happening here in Tucson since the 1980s and the goal is to celebrate and expand the audience for contemporary poetry through a variety of literary art events including readings, performances, contest, discussions and more and part of that mission is this 2020 Festival. Not a lot of details on their website. The dates Friday the 17th through Sunday April 19th. So we’ll update you as we get a little bit closer and then excited to announce that the Mariachi Conference
Tom Heath: The International Mariachi Conference, which has been in Tucson here since the 80s as well, is moving back downtown, excited for that that’s going to be in April towards the 21st through the 25th, and the mission is to promote awareness and Foster Traditional Values of Mariachi music the Folklorico through educational opportunities and help the students understand the artistic and Technical aspects as well as understand the cultural identity and pride in our community. There will be workshops. There will be opportunities for students. And of course some big Headliners coming in to the International Film International Mariachi Conference.
Tom Heath: It started here in Tucson and moved away from downtown for a while, but they will be back. of course, we will link to their information as well from our Facebook page lots of stuff happening here in March and April. So please do Stay in touch and we’ll keep bringing you updates as we have them.
Tom Heath: My name is Tom Heath. You are listening to Life along the streetcar on downtown radio 98.1 FM and available for streaming on Downtown Radio dot-org. Well. We just threw a bunch of dates and times and ticket prices and events. Hatchet, so if you missed any of that which is possible head over to our Facebook page right after the show here, we’re going to put links to everything we talked about so you can find out more information. And again as we get closer to some of those events will certainly look to feature some of those.
Tom Heath: If there are events that were missing if there’s anything that you think we should be discussing. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to us. You can email us on the show [email protected]. Hit us up on Facebook, shoot us a message on Twitter. However, you want to get ahold of us. Let us know the things that you know, that everyone should know our job here is to share hidden gems and sometimes we don’t know what those are because they’re so well hidden. And we need your help to do so.
Tom Heath: One of our hidden gems in Tucson is Downtown Radio. So we need your help in broadcasting that please tell your friends to tune in. Tell them to check out downtown radio dot org take a look at all of the volunteer DJs the work that they do here on the site on the radio station on their own Facebook pages to promote local artists Regional artists, even International artists people that Don’t always get the air time that they need invite people to check out downtown radio. If you’re on a website Downtown Radio dot org, you can also hit that donate button. We’re always appreciative of funds when they when they come in to help us continue on this quest to provide great music and great talk shows here on Sundays.
Tom Heath: February is coming to an end we have A little bit of a leap year on Saturday, but our next show will be in March. We have a couple of exciting things coming up in March. We’re going to talk about the University of Arizona Student Union and all the work that went into that to really pay an homage to the USS Arizona all the elements that went into that plus how they really tied back to the history of the campus when the designing this new building.
Tom Heath: Also on think it’s the 15th. March 15th, we have a Takeover. Local First Arizona Mike Peel the director and his team are going to come in here on the 15th and take over Life along the streetcar so stay tuned for that.
Tom Heath: Well, we’re going to leave you today with music from Still Life Telescope from their 2017 album Geometry Wins. This song is called “All Of This” because Tucson’s festivals are all of this. We have so much going on.
Tom Heath: My name is Tom Heath. I appreciate your time on this Sunday. I hope you have a fantastic week and tune in next week for more Life along the streetcar.
