Local Bands Unite at concert series

WASILLA — This weekend’s Local Bands Unite music festival marks a lot of firsts.

Though it’s the third in a series of concerts staged this summer, it’s the first that will be held outdoors and the first in the Valley. The previous installments of Local Bands Unite earlier this summer were at the Wendy Williamson Auditorium in Anchorage.

It’s also the first time the venue, Bannon Ranch on Vince Circle in the neighborhoods off Palmer-Fishhook Road, has been used for this sort of thing.

“That’s where I just came from was the ranch, working on the stage and making sure the ground looked good,” said Josh Cole, who is helping organize the festival along with his Bannon Ranch Inc. partner Dusty Bannon. “Fortunately, it’s not the first festival we’ve put on.”

The show begins at 2 p.m. and lasts, according to the fliers, “’till the fire goes out.”

“We’re probably going to be getting finished up around 2 a.m., hopefully not too much later than that,” Cole said.

The fliers contain a long list of Valley artists — 14 in all — including Bannon, Cole’s band Familiar Walls, Valley stalwart Josh Fryfogle, Wild Cat Trio and Chris Snyder of Third Wheel Project. The lineup, Cole said, is kind of fluid.

“There’s more coming than that and there’s some on the list that won’t be able to make it,” he said.

Putting on three concerts over the course of a summer has been a lot of work, Cole said, but he hopes it will pay off, especially if Saturday’s concert is as big as he wants it to be.

“It kind of puts us on the map as the go-to people for local music,” he said.

He said that he and Bannon have quit their day jobs to focus on music. The idea is to turn Bannon Ranch Inc. into a promotion company that can bring up national acts while also paying the local opening acts, which often get stiffed in those kind of arrangements.

Building up a base of local talent that can support themselves with music is the goal, they said.

“I’m not talking about somebody that just plays three chords in their garage, but people who have been doing this for years and are saying, ‘OK, what’s my next step?’ A lot of people think they have to leave the state,” Cole said.

“Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to quit your job and pursue this full-time and actually make a living doing it?”

He said it’s going to take support from the business community, which is needed to front the start-up costs of these kinds of events, but they might need a little convincing.

“Businesses are more likely to sponsor a national act than they are a local act,” Cole said. “It’s really in their best interest because where are we going to spend our money is locally. National bands take your money and run.”

For now, though, the concert is what he’s focused on, at least until Saturday night.

“We can finally relax on Sunday,” he said.

For more information, contact Josh Cole or Dusty Bannon at bannonranchinc@gmail.com, or 745-1592, or 775-6282.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.