Could you please stay off the dirt roads? You really mess it up for the rest of us…
My son, Brendon Shave, who also took these photos, pulled him out of the way, but wasn’t able to get him out of the ditch.
Category: Jade Festival
25th Annual Jade Festival Postponed
Once again the BIg Sur Jade Festival will need to postpone its date of Oct. 6-8, 2017. Yesterday’s statement by Cal Trans Public Information Officer, Susana Cruz put the opening of the Pfeiffer Canyon Bridge as the middle of October. Since our festival is the first weekend of October we will not have that access which is required for our permit to operate.
We haven’t made a new date, although we’ll be looking at May again. If we choose May, we won’t have the southern access open through Mud Creek and that creates challenges for the porta potties to be delivered as well as many of our volunteers and musicians.
If we choose the following October we expect that the south access of Mud Creek will be open and we’ll be back to a fully open highway.
,
Mother Nature has her way and anything can happen, as we are well aware of, and we must always defer to her whims but for now, those are our choices. We’ll be making that decision soon and let you know the outcome.
If you have a preference, please let me know.
Regretfully,
Lisa Gering
Jade Festival Photos
What a weekend! I was too busy to get any but a couple of shots, but I have collected a few from others I wish to share. There were several world famous musicians who played.
Here is a phtograph of Danny Weis, one of the founding members of Iron Butterfly … photo by bigsurkate
Here is a wonderful close-up of a piece of Jade by Howard Jones. More at
I have a few more I will be adding throughout the day, but I must first add a thank you to the core members of the SCCLT who do the vast majority of the work in setting this up: Syd Carr for the incredible music and volunteers; Kirk Brock who brings the diverse array of vendors to us each year; Steve Finch, who was in charge of almost everything else; and Lisa Gehring who controls all the money. The school and PTO had a number of booths, not the least of which was the BBQ booth, led by Gordon Pfiffero and Josh Wilson. It was the best! And for one of the most important, and least recognized jobs of all – trash and recycling, Gail Dinsmore. To all who contributed in all ways great and small – we keep getting better each year due to the hard work you all contribute to this community event.
More photos later.
The Jade Lady by Gary Gowdy, one of my favorite pieces, photographed by Kalamakuaikalani D.
Jade Festival #23, 2014
Featuring the Gem of the South Coast – Jade! It starts tomorrow at noon, until 6 pm, Sat. 10-6, Sun 10-5 at a Pacific Valley School, brought to you since 1990 by the South Coast Community Land Trust. (1996 festival was canceled due to The Wild Fire)
This is from the first festival:
My, my, how we have grown!
SCCLT and Jade Festival Thank You
Despite the recent US Government shutdown, and the subsequent loss of our Special Use Permit from the US Forest Service, the 22nd. Annual Big Sur Jade Festival this past Columbus Day weekend turned out to be an unprecedented success despite those difficulties. We would like to thank the residents of Big Sur for their staunch support, for their refusal to let events on the other side of the country cancel an event which has provided educational opportunities to local schoolchildren and supported local first responders and many community organizations for over two decades.
We specifically would like to thank our Congressional Representative Sam Farr, and his aide Alec Arago for their help during this difficult episode. Mr. Farr personally intervened by calling the US Secretary of Agriculture on our behalf and opening a dialogue with the US Forest Service which resulted in the partial reinstatement of our operating permit despite the shutdown. Mr. Farr’s availability and concern for his constituents during this trying time was a testament to him and his staff, we could not have accomplished what we did without his assistance. Many local residents and businesses then stepped forward and provided much needed support for our volunteers and organizers. Treebones Resort, and Mr. Harry Harris kindly offered our volunteers places to camp on their properties, along with Gordon Piffero, Superintendent of Big Sur Unified School District who allowed volunteers to camp at Pacific Valley School. Without those volunteers and a place to house them the festival would have been impossible to manage, we owe deep thanks to those individuals who selflessly made that possible. We also want to thank Jeanne Alkaire who started a Change.org petition which garnered nearly a thousand signatures on our behalf in less than two days, we were amazed and gratified by that international response. Local businesses like Treebones Resort, Nepenthe, and Esalen Institute stepped up and provided material support to our festival, and as always we thank them for their kind patronage. We also would like to thank the Big Sur Volunteer Fire Brigade with CERT Team members, and it’s Board of Directors who volunteered to mange parking at this year’s festival, an effort skillfully led by John Handy. The result of having those highly trained individuals involved was a smooth and incident-free weekend which was made possible by their hard work and professionalism. And we must not forget US Forest Service Chief Ranger Tim Short, who despite the lack of personnel worked diligently with us to provide the resources we needed to accomplish our goal of producing one of the premiere fund-raising events of the year in Big Sur. We look forward to a new era of cooperation with the US Forest Service as a result of his involvement. And last, but certainly not least we thank our volunteers, some who traveled hundreds of miles to attend, for their hard work and dedication.
The South Coast Community Land Trust will continue to provide educational opportunities and support to local community organizations due to the involvement of all those named above and so many more, it never would have happened without your support. Thank you Big Sur, thank you for demanding a miracle.
Syd Carr,
Secretary of the Board of Directors, South Coast Community Land Trust
Entertainment Director, Big Sur Jade Festival
Jade Festival starts tomorrow!
At noon!
Look who mentioned us:
From Lisa Gering in the comment section below. I thought it important enough to reproduce here in its entirety.
“As a coordinator of the Jade Festival who has been in discussion with the USFS this entire week, there is HUGE concern of campfires, stoves and cigarette smoking or anything with a flame in our tinderbox forest. Everyone needs to let anyone they see with a campfire, etc, to put it out right then and there…no exceptions! Everyone needs to be respectful of the land that hosts us. If that goes up in smoke, so do we as residents and there goes the Jade Festival (it’s happened before and can happen again)! Please be considerate and tread lightly. No toilet paper, trash and especially fires. Our permit, that was so generously reinstated, thanks to so many of you, Congressman Sam Farr and his hard working aide Alec, will be revisited after the festival. How well things run at this festival has a direct impact on our permit next year. Please help us continue to have this festival in the best possible venue that exists! People will be asked to move along if they are camping along the highway overnight. I recommend people look into Limekiln or Pfeiffer State Park, San Simeon Campground or Big Sur proper. The gov’t shutdown has given us this opportunity to look closer at the impact of the amount of people that come to join in the beauty that surrounds us in addition to the jade and gems that sparkle in abundance this weekend. Thank you for all your support, have a great time and be respectful of our environment and those people who have been hired to oversee its care.”
Jade Festival is ON
The 22nd. Big Sur Jade Festival is officially ON!!
The US Forest Service has reinstated our Special Use Permit and restored our use of the parking area on the west side of Highway 1 adjacent to Sand Dollar Day Use area, (**which remains closed). **Attention: Plaskett Creek Campground and Kirk Creek Campground remain closed. Attendees should make other plans for overnight lodging and camping. We will try to find room on the campus of Pacific Valley School for some of those volunteers who would normally stay at Plaskett Creek Campground. Due to the lack of room, verified vendors and verified volunteers who have already signed up for specific shifts on the parking spreadsheet will be given precedence for very limited on-campus camping. Camping will be limited to verified vendors and verified volunteers only; NO public parking or camping will be allowed on the campus of Pacific Valley School, all attendee parking will be along Highway 1 or directed to the designated parking area adjacent to Sand Dollar Day Use area parking lot; no exceptions! The gate to the designated parking area will be closed when at capacity and after 5 pm, overnight parking or camping will not be allowed in that area.
Congratulations to all who lobbied to save our Festival; your combined voices have won the day! We hope to see you all at the 22nd. Annual Big Sur Jade Festival October 11, 12, & 13, 2013.
**Closed due to Government shutdown; could reopen at any time if standoff ends, but is not open at the time of this notice.
Jade Festival on hold
Due to the government shutdown, the campgrounds we rely on for our volunteers, musicians, etc, are closing tomorrow, Friday the 4th at 1 pm until further notice. The Jade Festival Committee is considering all possible options at this time, and probably won’t make a decision until next Wednesday morning. I will keep you posted when a decision is made. In the meantime, lets hope our idiotic government gets its act together. Unintended consequences like this one are unacceptable.
Los Padres National Forest campgrounds and Pfeiffer Beach are under Federal jurisdiction but are privately managed by Parks Management Company. Friday, October 4. FRIDAY at 1:00 PM all the National Forest Campgrounds managed by Parks Management Company will be closed until further notice. Their website is http://campone.com/ (information will be posted there soon)
Campgrounds that will be closed on Friday, October 4 at 1:00 PM:
Bottchers Gap, Ponderosa and Nacimiento Campgrounds, Kirk Creek, Plaskett Creek and Cerro Alto Campgrounds.
Big Sur Station remains open. The Federal Employees located at Big Sur Station, the fire fighters, will remain on the job.
Jade Festival, 2013
Less than two weeks … Oct 11, 12, 13th. We still need a few volunteers to help with parking – a 4 hour shift. You get fed, a T-shirt, (based on availability) and lots of good music and fun. Drop me an email at kwnovoa@mac.com if you can help. As always, the weather is expected to grace us. “A long stretch of dry and warm autumn weather should last through the second week” of October.
Jade Festival 2012
Wow, what an incredible day! Weather couldn’t be better. Enjoy a couple of photos taken today.
I’m still here, enjoying the weather, jade, food, music, and great people. Sweet gathering.
I’ll post more photos tomorrow. I am a bit tired.