The 2007 Yellow Pine Harmonica Festival will take place after all, except it will happen in 2008 and take place during the McCall Winter Carnival.
The harmonica festival, which was cancelled in August due to forest fires in the region, will be held Friday and Saturday, Feb. 1-2, at the Pancake and Christmas House.
Harmonica players, musicians and groups from all over the country will be in town for the two-day affair that will mirror most of the events that were supposed to take place last summer.
The event will begin at 4 p.m. each day with a "Front Porch Jam," with artists gathered on the deck of the restaurant having fun with anyone who wants to join in.
"We had promoted the annual happening a couple weeks in advance for the Yellow Pine folks, and on the last day before the first mouth organ played a note it got cancelled," said David Eaton, former owner of KMCL FM/AM in McCall.
"So when Dave Combes, the new owner, took over the stations, I gave him the idea of producing the music festival for Winter Carnival," Eaton said. "He grabbed it and ran."
"This is what our local radio stations are all about," Combes said. "We got all the right people together, and the idea took off like the wild fires of last summer."
"First we had to get Yellow Pine to agree to try again," he said. "It's a big gamble for them, but we assured them they'd have plenty of help."
Word got around, and help started pouring in. The community of Cascade donated promotion funds they had been given by Idaho's Department of Travel and Tourism, and the Payette River Mountains tourism organization did the same.
Bonnie and George Bertram, owners of The Pancake and Christmas House, have donated their restaurant for the two days. Normally the restaurant closes by 2 p.m. so the addition of eight hours of music and fun fits perfectly with their operation, Eaton said.
The Bertrams also donated their beer and wine license and cooking facilities. Any money raised from admissions, food, beverages and even parking goes to Yellow Pine.
Tate's Party Rents of Boise is donating chairs, outdoor heaters and a dance floor.
The Yellow Pine Harmonica Festival is organized and produced by community volunteers. The chairperson last year was Steve Holloway, who is also spearheading the Winter Carnival effort.
Holloway owns and operates the Yellow Pine General Store and a small hotel in Yellow Pine and was hit hard financially by the fires.
"We are so grateful to the communities around us for giving us this opportunity," he said. "This gives us a second chance to showcase our musicians and their talent. We can't wait to make last year's festival part of this (next) year's Winter Carnival."
