Sunshine, music and the mountains come together like a three-part harmony on Saturday, June 21 for the Mt. Peale Animal Sanctuary’s first Summer Music Festival FunRaiser. Regional and local performers will play a variety of folk, women’s, and blue-grass music in a park-style venue beneath the La Sals.
“With majestic Mt. Peale for a background and sanctuary animals all around, this event will make a day for you to remember,” event organizer Carmen Bailey said.
Artists include Chris Williamson, a singer and songwriter of folk and women’s music.
“[She’ll be ]carrying the message of hope in new songs and old favorites,” Bailey said.
Also, the versatile folk-singer Kate MacLeod and acoustic guitarist Kathryn Warner will be returning to the area to perform at the festival.
“We had a folk festival of our own years ago in 1998 and those two performed then,” said Teague Eskelsen, co-founder of the Mt. Peale Animal Sanctuary and Healing Center.
The duo, Blaze & Kelly, whose music, they’ve said, is inspired by Bonnie Raitt and the Indigo Girls, will be performing in the area for the first time.
“Blaze and Kelly came to us through some friends of ours from Boise,” Eskelsen said. “ They love animals, they’re friends of ours. They agreed to come down.”
Event organizers are also celebrating local talent. Solo-acoustic guitarist Scott Ibex, who has just released his fifth CD, will join the lineup. Willie and Denise Perritt, from Old La Sal will bring a campfire-music flavor to the festival.
The Paradox Valley School bluegrass band, comprised of students and community members, will entertain with fiddle, banjo, mandolin and guitars.
And finally, the husband-and-wife team of the Eskeltones will showcase the sounds of a musical relationship that has lasted over 34 years.
“The Eskeltones are my family,” Eskelsen said, “cousins of mine who have always supported the sanctuary.”
The audience is invited to bring a blanket or low-lawn chairs for the picnic-style seating. Beer, food and craft vendors will be available.
Proceeds from the festival will go to support the animal sanctuary.
“I have 15 horses up here right now and I only have winter shelter for eight,” Eskelsen said.
The Sanctuary hopes to build three additional shelters, at about $3,500 apiece, to protect the horses from wind and snow.
“All of my horses are handicapped, so I have to have winter-shelter,” she said.
The Sanctuary is also hoping to match a $2,500 grant in order to build a cat shelter for its 30 feline residents.
“I have special-needs cats that cannot be out in the elements,” Eskelsen said.
One of those cats is Brian, who has muscular dystrophy.
“He can run a little bit, but falls over,” Bailey said of the Sanctuary’s increasingly popular new addition.
Brian and Lucky, the disease-crippled colt who inspired the sanctuary, will join the festival.
“I want to show these animals; I want them to be able to be around the venue,” Eskelsen said. “Any other animals on sanctuary grounds just doesn’t go well, so we’re asking people to leave their animals at home and enjoy the ones that are here.”
To further the fund- and fun-raising, the festival also includes an animal-hat contest and a silent auction. Though the prize for best hat hasn’t yet been determined, Eskelsen said “It’s going to be a good, prize; worth your while.”
Up to 50 items that have been donated by local and Colorado companies will be available in a silent auction that will take place during the event, Bailey said. Items include gift certificate to Bananas Fun Park in Grand Junction, Colo., Adventures Park Moab, Rave’n Image, as well as a tour package from Adrift Adventures and items from Lema’s Kokopelli Gallery, the Hogan Trading Company and more.
“With majestic Mt. Peale for a background and sanctuary animals all around, this event will make a day for you to remember.”
What: Summer Music Festival FunRaiser
When: Saturday June 21, noon to 8 p.m.
Where: Mt Peale Animal and Healing Center 1415 E. Highway 46, La Sal
Tickets: $45; available at the Moab BARKery 82 N. Main St.
See mtpeale.com for information and tickets, or call 435-686-2284
Mt. Peale Animal Sanctuary event will include live music and a mountain backdrop
