SEQUIM — It’s a recipe that’s worked for five winters now: Stir together some live bands and a lot of dancing, food and drink, and those cold-weather blahs blow right away.
Tonight (Saturday), the moms and dads of Five Acre School’s students are mixing those ingredients again: Zumba, contra dancing, children’s crafts, community drumming, storytelling, the bands Joy in Mudville and the Old Sidekicks plus fancy hot dogs, black-bean tacos, local pulled-pork sandwiches and beer, wine and soda from local makers, all in the sixth annual Beat the Blues Barn Dance.
The place is the Big Barn Farm, that former ostrich farm at 702 Kitchen-Dick Road just west of town.
As is traditional, the event starts with family activities from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. today and the climactic barn dance from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m.
Children 12 and younger get in free all day and evening, while teens and adults can pay $5 for the party from 2 p.m. till 6 p.m. or $15 for the whole event from 2 p.m. till 11 p.m.
Joy in Mudville will play its last gig for the foreseeable future, as singer-guitarist-banjoist Jason Mogi devotes more time to his banjo-building business.
Joy in Mudville, just one of Mogi’s musical projects, will on Saturday night feature his wife, singer and rhythm guitarist Kim Trenerry, alongside bassist and vocalist Paul Stehr-Green and percussionist Colin Leahy.
Trenerry and Mogi are well-known for their previous band Deadwood Revival, which played the first Beat the Blues Barn Dance six years ago.
“They absolutely hit it out of the park,” noted organizer Anna Yates. “We are so excited to have them back.”
Joy in Mudville plunges into a show, Stehr-Green added, “as a fresh conversation among ourselves and with our audience. We use driving rhythms, tight harmonies . . . [to] get everybody up and dancing to shake off those winter blues.”
The event promises daytime dancing too: Jane Dominguez, Five Acre’s Zumba teacher, will lead 45 minutes of Latin-dance frolic at 2:15 p.m.; a contra dance will follow at 3:45 p.m. and community drumming comes at 5 p.m.
Proceeds from the Beat the Blues Barn Dance go into Five Acre School’s equipment fund and Lisa Inman Scholarship Fund. Eighteen students are on scholarship this year at Five Acre, according to staffer Joy Sheedy.
“This is a really big gig in Sequim,” said Old Sidekicks singer and guitarist Jack Reagan. He added that the venue is a unique one, where he used to board horses.
Fellow Sidekick Steve Sahnow said the band will play classic country and bluegrass because, after all, those “always beat the blues.”
