While most folks hibernate in February, the Olympia Funk Festival recently proved winter can be a blast. This vibrant event turned the cold month into a funky celebration, heating up downtown Olympia.
The Olympia Funk Festival is a lively three-day funk music extravaganza held in downtown Olympia during the dead of winter. It showcases the most sizzling funk acts in the country, along with local talent from Portland, Seattle and Olympia. The festival features a range of local and national funk acts, which provides a lively energy that encourages the crowd to “shake the winter blues off for a weekend.”
The Oly Funk Festival was established to revive Olympia’s music scene after covid-19 shut down venues and scattered local artists. “After covid-19, there were all these music orphans: bands, fans and everyone without a home,” said Danielle Westbrook, one of the festival organizers. “We wanted to create a festival that wasn’t just about music but about rebuilding that sense of community.”
This revitalization has been a success, with patrons crowding downtown Olympia not only to listen to the music, but the energy that permeates the streets. Local businesses have the unique opportunity presented to them with the festival, food vendors and shops thriving among the crowds.
“It‘s amazing to have people come to enjoy music and community,” Westbrook exclaimed. “We’ve created a space where everyone feels welcome and connected, whether they’re dancing to their favorite band or discovering a new local artist.”
To foster appreciation of music in children, the Olympia Funk Festival offered free admission tickets to kids under 15 years old this year to have more youth and families present. As Richard Williams, a principal organizer explained, the event was a great success from the promotion: “One of the most memorable moments was seeing families come back for their second year. Watching the kids dance and enjoy live music, though they don‘t know anything about the songs or artists, is lovely.”
The Olympia Funk Festival aims to enhance music education for youth, particularly those 21 and younger, by getting them involved in the music industry. “We’re starting a nonprofit to collect instruments for low-income kids, getting donated instruments fixed up, and distributing them to those in need,” said Westbrook.
Mark your calendars for next year’s Olympia Funk Festival! Join the celebration and see how it enriches our community with funky music fun.
