Cotati Accordion Festival

I know what you’re thinking. “An accordion festival? What, are you completely daft or something? You musically masochistic maniac, you.”

Not in the least. A surprising number of bands that I enjoy include an accordion player in their number. One of them, Brave Combo{.broken_link} is headlining this year’s Accordion Festival{.broken_link} in Cotati, CA. Kudos to the Albertellis for noticing this and getting the event onto our calendars!

We arrived in the middle of the set for Ramon Trujillo and His Mariachi Los Caporales{.broken_link} and didn’t leave until somewhere in the middle of Brian Jack and the Zydeco Gamblers, which means we were there for pretty much the entire day.

At first I thought, “Oh, this is going to be pretty boring until Brave Combo comes on,” but I’m very glad to have been proved wrong. Though there were a couple of duds overall the artists were really enjoyable. Guy, Megan and I sat there on our blanket, tapping our toes while knitting, through all of the acts. It was warm, but not too warm. And though the sun was somewhat intense the frequent breezes helped take the edge off. It was the perfect day to spend sitting around listening to live music.

Just before Brave Combo came on we relocated into an empty patch of grass right in front of the stage. I’m really glad we did, since the band was fun to watch and the crowd was into it. The horn players in the group are top notch and the accordionist knew his way around that thing. We stood for the entire set and we even joined in on the Chicken Dance. Sure, it’s goofy, but out of the context of a wedding reception it’s goofy in a good way.

The zydeco group which followed on the big stage was good but not better than others I’ve seen so I didn’t feel too bad about asking whether we could leave to get food. On the way out we searched (and failed) for a geocache right there near the park where the Festival was held. Then off to Mexican food, the evening further spiced up by me and Guy arguing about cellphone etiquette.

Aside from that final argument, this entire day was big fun. The music was almost as good as the company and suddenly I’m filled with a desire to rush out and take lessons in polka dancing. My grandmother would have been proud.