Matlacha Mariners bring popular music festival back to Pine Island
By ED FRANKS
Grab your lawn chairs and beach blankets and head for the biggest outdoor party to hit Pine Island in years. The Matlacha Mariners are bringing the ever popular music festival back to Pine Island.
This year’s event will be held Saturday, Nov. 22, at the KOA Kampground in St James City, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. The year’s event will be a mixed genre’ event, featuring blues, rock, country, Americana and more. The 2014 event should provide a little bit of something for everyone’s taste in music.
The KOA Kampground is where it all started for the Mariners music event. It’s a little smaller venue but the setting and the size creates an intimate experience with the musicians and a backyard party atmosphere for the crowd. The lineup features some of the best local bands in Southwest Florida, as well as Sean Chambers, who is a national and internationally touring blues/ rock artist.
Chambers toured with the legendary Hubert Sumlin as his guitarist and band leader from 1998-2003 and has been named by Britain’s “Guitarist Magazine “as one of the top 50 blues guitarists of the past century.” His notoriety has also been covered by USA Today, Guitar World, American Blues Scene and Guitar Player Magazine to name a few.
Additional performers include:
n The Grayson Rogers Band, a touring country band which recently has been gaining some national recognition on the Country Music scene and is a local crowd favorite.
n Deb and the Dynamics, one of Southwest Florida’s favorite blues /R&B bands, consistently voted the “Best Band” by regional newspapers and entertainment magazines, will also perform.
n Stringtown, a group of veteran musicians who do it all. The group will entertain with its unique style, full musical range and engaging performance.
n Brother Love Too often brings six seasoned musicians to the stage, providing listeners with a variety of compositions and at times best described as just plain “fun music.”
n Strange Arrangement is a talented group of musicians who are more than ready to please the crowd. Their show can be infectious, often described by followers as “very entertaining.”
The Matlacha Mariners is a men’s community-oriented nonprofit organization which raises money at special events like this one to support local charities, scholarship fund and other needs of the greater Pine Island Community.
For the past several years the Matlacha Mariners have held its music event off the island with the intentions of reaching a wider geographic audience and thereby making more money for our Pine Island charities. Although the financial goal was fulfilled, it left many Pine Island residents thinking they were abandoned and left out of the loop. Some people even began to boycott the Mariner events which were held off island.
This year a decision was made to bring the music festival back to the island. Along with that decision, the Mariners have also decided to offer our Pine Island and Matlacha residents a special drink offer in an effort to thank them for their support. In order to participate in the drink offer, you will need to show a valid proof of residency when you purchase your tickets at the gate.
In addition to the great music, there will be plenty of cold beverages, food vendors and a variety of other vendors to check out during the day. The entry fee is $10 per person, with children 11 and under free when accompanied by a paid adult. Parking is free.
Gates open at 11 a.m. with the national anthem by 14-year-old Faith Garn. Seating is open and folding chairs and blankets are encouraged – no coolers, no carr- in beverages and no pets please.
For complete details go to www.Matlacha-Mariners.org
All those attending the concert are asked to bring a canned food item to donate to the Pine Island Food Pantry.