Listen here:
Last weekend’s Morongo Valley Music Festival and Halloween Extravaganza took place on Friday, Saturday and Sunday – and had 25 different bands play through the day and into the evenings at Covington Park. I spoke with organizer Lisa Black, who along with partner Paul Forester compose JT City Limits, who put together the entire music lineup and even built the stage that supported over 100 musicians over the weekend. Lisa says the music festival went off “without a hitch” and they even had to turn away some bands this year. The music festival was in support of the Halloween Extravaganza which included fundraisers for the Morongo Valley Softball league. Black says they raised approximately $4,000 dollars, which is already going toward equipment needed.
The Halloween Extravaganza also hosted a trunk or treat on saturday afternoon. Buddy and Tammy Stogner were organizers of the Halloween Extravaganza, and when I caught up with them last Sunday, the busy weekend had taken its toll..
Tammy: “It’s been a very busy weekend, lots of community support… lots of kids running around… lots of animals. Everyone’s hanging out having a good time, and yes I lost my voice last night at the trunk or treat. We had almost 3000 kids show up to trunk or treat and each of the cars had 15 to 20 bags of candy, so there was 6000 pieces of candy given out at each station.. So yes, I lost my voice… and I’m sleep deprived…
The Halloween Extravaganza was also host to the 2nd Morongo Valley Dog Mayor elections, with a packed ticket that saw over a dozen dogs – and a few goats – try and take over the mayoral office from Roxy, who has been serving Morongo Valley as mayor from All American Fuel.
I spoke with Allison Nikyar about her last year with Mayor Roxy…
Allison: “It’s been wonderful! She’s been such a calm, sweet dog and as you see every time the local kids and community sees her they just go up to her and pet her and it’s just so heartwarming to see how they interact with her, and how she just takes it in. (Roxy) was a shelter dog before and for her to go from the shelter to this abundant love and community and freedom… I choke up sometimes thinking about it… so it’s been a good year so far.”
It’s easy to see why Roxy won for the second year, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a more amicable and relaxed pooch, who celebrated with her constituents after the big last Sunday.
All the organizers I spoke with said the second annual Morongo Valley Music Festival and Halloween Extravaganza went extremely well, with everyone in good spirits, enjoying local music and community.
Buddy Stogner: “It’s growing each year, we’ll be ready for next year.”
JT City Limits says that due to the success of the music festival, they’ll be working with the MVCSD to put on a spring concert series as well. They worked with Spielman Downer and CMC film students to film the festival, and Lisa Black says the performances will eventually be uploaded to their YouTube page.
Links:
Joshua Tree City Limits on Facebook
