SPIRITDRUM FESTIVAL
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Tabular schedule of events
- Final
Thursday Night, we’ll all join in a DrumJam session at the Main Pavilion with Muruga, Sikiru, Badal, and others, to really get the energy moving.
Friday Night Muruga Booker & the Global Village Ceremonial Band will offer Dancing in the Techno-Trance, a concert incorporating Tribal, World-Beat and Trance-Dance components into a rollicking high-energy celebration of sound and movement.
Saturday Noon you can enjoy your lunch at a Mid-Day picnic concert where Muruga & Co. will share some of the music they performed with Merl Saunders’ Rainforest Band on the classic CD Blues From the Rainforest (featuring Jerry Garcia).
Saturday Evening we’ll present a special Tribute to the music of Babatunde Olatunji to honor his passing this year, and the incredible contribution he made to the music, magic & spirit of the world. This will be followed by a Brushwood Island Pyrosonic Show, featuring fireworks and effects blended with the music of Ron Slabe.
Evenings there will be a drum circle around the fire of the Roundhouse, innovative music and psychedelic lights at the PufferDome, and gentle Drum & Didge jamming at the DidgeDome.
Here are just some of the other special programs and features you’ll enjoy at the SpiritDrum Festival:
The Main Pavilion
This is where it all happens: our roofed pavilion will feature sound provided
by Regis Sedlock and AudioKreme, and daily workshops and performances by our
incredible line-up of musicians. In the evening, we’ll have concerts and
videos of past Starwood performances (including Babatunde Olatunji’s 1997
appearance), and jam sessions combining elements of African, Indian, and Western
music.
Babatunde Olatunji Live at Starwood
As a special treat for our attendees, ACE presents the original uncut footage
of Babatunde Olatunji & Drums of Passion’s 1997 appearance at the
Starwood Festival. Babatunde Olatunji, the Master of Drums, has offered the
primary introduction of African music to the West. His work with Mickey Hart
of the Grateful Dead and his own Drums of Passion CDs has been the cornerstone
of festival drumming in America. For over forty years, from movie soundtracks
to classes to performances, his rhythms and spirit have brought the joy of authentic
African drumming and dancing to all corners of the world. This incredible concert,
featuring a guest appearance by 50-year friend and colleague Halim El-Dabh,
is the basis for the CD (now available from ACE) and the upcoming DVD of the
same name. All songs are performed on traditional instruments, from djembe to
kora, and accompanied by dancers in African costume on the same stage we’ll
be showing it.
The Roundhouse
This unique open-work structure is our center for all-night ecstatic drumming.
Based on a classic Celtic design, a ring of inward-slanted poles supported by
vertical timbers surround a sacred fire-pit open to the sky. One side, where
the drummers play, is shielded by tarps from falling rain and dew, and the entire
structure is adorned by years of subtle artistic additions by drum-circle participants
who honor this place of power and spirit.
The DidgeDome
Our special space for trance-music is the DidgeDome. Dreamed into creation
by Jason Gazda with a design honoring the GrupleDome (the Starwood fore-runner
to the RoundHouse), this wooden open dome-shaped structure features a fire-pit
and space for drummers and the Denizens of the DidgeDome, a tribe of didgeridoo
players who take you on a journey into altered states of consciousness.
The Pufferdome
"In Xanadu did Kubla Kahn a stately pleasure-dome decree..."
- Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Rising from the field like Gaia's glowing nipple, tattooed in light and ringing
with music, the Pufferdome is Starwood's own inflatable hemispherical pleasure
palace! Joe Rothenberg and Joe's OM Appliances present meditative sessions and
mind-bending parties with diverse music, videos, and multi-media projections
and effects, in an alien environment featuring wild and unique acoustics.
The PufferDome Master:
Joseph Rothenberg BA, RN holds degrees in Psychology, Political Science, and Nursing. A founding member of ACE and one of the original organizers of the Starwood Festival and the Winterstar Symposium, he has practiced as a counselor and a registered nurse for over the 25 years. He has been working with light/sound meditation enhancement and Biofeedback since 1979. As Joe’s OM Appliances, he has created multi-media presentations and installations at many ACE events, enhanced the Brushfire Island Show, created the Timothy Leary 8-Circuit Mind Model aMaze, and run incredible Starwood parties at the PufferDome for many years.
Brushfire Island Pyrosonic Show
Ron Slabe offers another of his amazing presentations of
fireworks and innovative electronic music, set on a small island in a pond adjacent
to the main pavilion. Ron has been a seeker of unusual sounds for over twenty
years. Using electronics and found objects, he weaves diverse influences into
a dense sonic web designed to invoke a variety of emotional states. His work
has been featured at the Cleveland Performance Art Festival and at Cleveland
Public Theatre, the Psychedelicatessen, and small and large venues around Northeast
Ohio. He has performed regularly at ACE events since 1986 beginning with the
first MusicStar Festival, and he has been the primary performer and mastermind
of StarWood’s Brushfire Island Multi-Media Show for the last seven years,
with his performance group Pyrosonics. Objects in close proximity to him display
a curious tendency to burst into flame.
The Poolhouse
The Brushwood Poolhouse features hot outdoor showers, a small swimming pool,
and a hot-tub open to all attendees at SpiritDrum. Centrally located near the
main pavilion and adjacent to the food court, you can languish in luxury within
earshot of the musical performances.
Food Court & Merchants’ Row
Who knows which traditional Starwood merchants will appear to sell their wares?
Phil’s Grill and the Blue Lady Café will combine forces to provide
us with restaurant and coffee shop services throughout the event, with hearty
breakfasts, delicious Middle-eastern and standard lunches and dinners, and coffee
from red-eyes to lattes deep into the night.
For more information:
A.C.E.
1643 Lee Rd. #9, Cleveland Hts., OH 44118
216-932-5421
ace@rosencomet.com