Carsie Blanton, Crys Matthews to perform at multicultural fest here in September

Presenter: Carsie Blanton and Crys Matthews are coming to Island Park in Springfield Sept. 19 for a multicultural folk festival. Sharing that news and more May 19 at the Eugene Human Rights Commission, event producer Mike Meyer: 

Mike Meyer: I’ve been  a music producer and DJ for 45 years as a volunteer with community music and half of that time in Eugene and Lane County,  produced thousands of shows here, and we’ve just recently formed a nonprofit called Turning Tides Foundation.

We have, among our bylaws, multicultural and diversity as our charters and so, we always have presented multicultural music. We have music from the Amazon rainforest, some traditional ritual and celebrational music and also a band from Ukraine called Kommuna Lux.

And a lot more on the calendar, about 80 shows a year. And we have two festivals coming up this summer, including one, the multicultural folk festival at Island Park in Springfield on Sept. 19.

And we also present ecstatic dance in the community. We do that weekly. It’s a free dance, it’s available to everybody, no cost, both outdoors by the river and at WOW Hall.

All of us are doing this as volunteers. And I feel like it fills a need here in the community. It’s been exciting and rewarding as a social worker. That’s my day job. And I do this under the premise that this is social work also.

We formed a very dynamic board to do this. And most of our funding on preparing for shows goes to publicity, especially in this publicity climate.

When I’m hearing testimony about (racism in) 4J, they have a radio station there, KRVM, and they’re among the public radio stations here in the community that are 100% white, all staff, all white, all the time.

And so I can guarantee you that public radio—who we count on for folk music—will not announce these shows. I can promise you they won’t. Eugene Weekly has the same problem. 

So that’s the challenge. You can tell I’m a little frustrated about it because I’ve been fighting this for 45 years, in different communities, but Eugene’s been especially difficult to get people on board.

And yet the series has momentum. It has a core audience, and it’s expanding and the number of shows we’re doing is expanding as well. 

Presenter: The editor of the Eugene Weekly responds. This statement from Camilla Mortensen:

Reader of Camilla Mortensen: “I am puzzled and saddened by Mike Meyer’s comments. We are a small local news source that seeks to make the community a better place through our journalism.

“We publish all events — free of charge — that organizers list in our online What’s Happening Calendar. We also publish all events that we can fit in print in the paper.

“So, we absolutely announce any show organizers have added to the calendar via that calendar.

“And the ad department here at Eugene Weekly (which I as editor do not have say over) is delighted when event organizers and venues promote events via paid ads, as this supports our paper and pays our staff while also getting the word out about the events.

“We strive to cover the diversity and breadth of arts and culture events in Lane County — this means we can’t write a story about one event producer every time they have an event, we understand that is disappointing and we thank the advertisers, readers, contributors and more that help us in our mission — the more support this newspaper gets, the more we can cover and promote the full range of music, arts, news and more that this community is home to.”

—Camilla Mortensen

Presenter: Mike Meyer at the Human Rights Commission highlighted some of the upcoming concerts:

Mike Meyer: We have Tish Hinojosa coming, who is a farm worker advocate and a legendary folk singer, coming in June.

We’ll be part of PorchFest coming up. We have a Ladino performer coming in August and so much more: a Québécois band, a band from Spain, etc.

We are presenting this diverse music without much traditional media support. So we try to get word out other ways, through social media through postering and flyering and through building an email list and things like that. So that’s pretty much what Turning Tides is up to and how we formulated this new nonprofit.

The festival itself will be on Sept. 19 and it’ll feature Crys Matthews, who has won the ‘International Folk Music Performer of the Year’ in 2025, and then Carsie Blanton, who won the award in 2026.

But Crys Matthews is a very multicultural performer within themselves and represents queer community and African American, wonderful political folk singer who is getting out some very powerful messages. 

We’ll have Seffarine from Morocco. We’ll have Llorona, some Latine music from right here in Eugene.

So part of our charter is to promote local music as well. We have a local music series coming in August and just trying to build from there.

Presenter: Mike also took questions from the human rights commissioners. Dr. Silky Booker:

Dr. Silky Booker (Human Rights Commission, chair): Thank you, Mike. I really appreciate you coming and speaking with us today. Do we have any questions or comments from commissioners? 

Speaker: Thank you for bringing Crys Matthews back to Eugene. They are an amazing social justice singer, writer, like, really incredible. 

Mike Meyer: Thank you.

Presenter: Another human rights commissioner asked about the sliding scale. Mike Meyer:

Mike Meyer: Yes, absolutely. We keep costs as low as we can to pay the bills ’cause we don’t build in anything for ourselves, until very recently. And it’s all gone towards the musicians. 

So it’s generally been about $20 to $25 shows for nationally- or internationally-renowned performers, but we do include a sliding scale for most shows—$15-$20 sliding scale is pretty typical. And then dance is always free. 

So, certainly if people have financial hardships, we certainly accommodate that as well. And volunteers help us with the shows that get in for free as well.

Melissa Cariño: Mike, really great to see you again. I’m really excited about that Sept. 19 multicultural folk fest (as the multicultural liaison here), and I wanted to know if there would be opportunities for like the Human Rights Commission to table and provide some resources at the festival.

Mike Meyer: Yes, please. Enthusiastically. I would absolutely love that, yeah. 

Melissa Cariño: Thank you.

Dr. Silky Booker (Human Rights Commission, chair): So thank you for sharing with us. I’m sorry that you keep running into these roadblocks with promotion. But keep up what you’re doing and thank you for coming and sharing with the Human Rights Commission. 

Mike Meyer: Thank you all. Thanks for what you do. Really appreciate it.

Presenter: Mike Meyer announces that Carsie Blanton and Crys Matthews will be among the performers at a multicultural folk festival Sept. 19, just one of the many events from Turning Tides Music. You can learn more online at TurningTidesMusic.org.

Start your Sunday mornings with Mike Meyer and Island Earth Radio, starting at 8 a.m. right here on KEPW 97.3 Eugene PeaceWorks Community Radio.