Kinetic Carnivale; the New Handcar Regatta

After four very successful years (last year they had over 10,000 attendants) the Santa Rosa Handcar Regatta closed. One reason was that they lost their venue because the county is upgrading the tracks for the Sonoma-Marin-Area-Rail-Transit (SMART); but the partners who conceived of the event split up citing “creative differences.”

Team Up with Steam Up:

Fortunately, an hour and a half up the road, in the small town of Willits, a group called Roots of Motive Power (it’s been there forever) was putting on one of their regular Steam Up events. One of the former Regatta partners connected with them and conceived of the Kinetic Carnivale.

Roots of Motive Power holds a Steam Up event several times a year; the weekend after Labor Day, Fourth of July and the first weekend in December, a Christmas-themed performance in which Santa Claus rides to town on the train. They have several dozen steam-driven machines; locomotives, yarders, cranes and steam shovels. Next door to them, the museum has a permanent exhibit on trains in the redwoods, and there is a town park across the street.

Two blocks northwest of them is the Skunk Train Depot, which still runs to North Spur or all the way to Fort Bragg if you want to stay overnight.

This is an ideal location for a steampunk themed event. The depot has six sets of tracks, perfect for handcar racing; the park is big enough for booths and stages, and most of the Roots events are free, even though they are very good about hitting you up for donations.

The Carnivale:

The Kinetic Carnivale ran for two days and there was a Grand Ball on Saturday night. I asked several vendors about it and they said they were so exhausted they hadn’t gone. It sounded like Saturday was a good day for the folks in the park. They had over a thousand people show up. the handcar races were scheduled for Sunday. After leaving a bit early so we would get there in time to see them, Lillian and I missed them completely. There were only about six cars and we recognized as least two. I didn’t feel a gap in my day. I hope in future years the handcars come into prominence at the Carnivale.

This is a festival in its infancy, and I liked that. I liked the beginner energy. A lot of the artists and vendors were Mendocino locals or even Willits locals, and the work looked more handcrafted, less glossy and professional. There were no$1500 hats for sale that I could see.

One stage had the scheduled music. There was a “buskers’ square” but it would be hard to be heard over the sound system, and I only saw one guitar player there. There were a couple of musicians jamming at other booths though.

Dangerous Puppets gave their presentation of Jabberwock (“Have you slain the Jabberwock? Come to my arms, my beamish boy!”) The puppeteer said after the show that this was his most “kid-friendly” performance. Given the robust anatomical correctness of his other puppets, I have no trouble believing that.

We stopped at the stage to hear Cello Joe. He was great; cello and beatbox. I wasn’t expecting the bonus; local break-dancers.