Salmonfest Coming to Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula Aug. 2-4

A three-day music festival on Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula, rooted in a passion for healthy fish habitat begins on Aug. 2 at the Kenai Peninsula Fairground in Ninilchik.

Organizers of Salmonfest, now in its 13th year, say sales of tickets for the event and related campground reservations are going fast, though some are still available.

The event features several stages playing music throughout the festival. Headliners include Michael Franti and Spearhead, an alternative rock band that blends hip-hop, reggae, folk and jazz; The Devil Makes Three, with bluegrass American songs; the folk rock indie rock music of Dawes and a fusion of jazz, funk, ska and rock with heavy Latin influences of Australia’s The Cat Empire.

Salmonfest, which dates back to the 2011 and was first known as Salmonstock, was first organized to bring more attention to the importance of promoting and preserving healthy fish habitat in Alaska. At that time, and to this day, development of a large-scale copper, gold and molybdenum mine is proposed, in an area abutting the Bristol Bay watershed, home of the world’s largest wild sockeye salmon fishery.

Proponents of the mine say that using available state-of-the-art technology, the Pebble mine can be constructed and operated in harmony with the multi-million-dollar fishery, which is crucial to commercial, sport and subsistence harvesters.

Years-long litigation in federal courts is still ongoing and Salmonfest attracts a number of conservation entities bent on educating festival goers on the Pebble mine issue.

Festival participants continue to educate thousands of young people about Bristol Bay and the region’s wild salmon runs. More information on the festival is at www.salmonfestalaska.org.