Karl Evangelista Announces Lockdown Festival V

Poster design for the next Lockdown Festival (from the Facebook Post created by Karl Evangelista)

Yesterday evening I saw the announcement of the fifth installment in Karl Evangelista’s Lockdown Festival series. This will take place almost exactly a year after the Festival was launched in response to the concert cancellations imposed after Mayor London N. Breed ordered a shutdown of all public performances, events, and gatherings at all the San Francisco War Memorial & Performing Arts Center facilities. The fourth festival took place this past New Year’s Day, beginning at 4 p.m. and providing nine half-hour sets over the course of four and one-half hours.

The fifth Festival program will present only eight half-hour sets. It will begin at 4 p.m. on Saturday, April 10, and run until 8 p.m. Each set will have its own video stream with venues set by the performers, and those may all be viewed through Evangelista’s YouTube channel. This past January Evangelista used his Facebook announcement to provide individual hyperlinks for these videos, but that information has not yet been posted. The schedule for the eight performances is as follows:

1. 4 p.m.: Kevin Robinson
2. 4:30 p.m.: Mark Clifford and Crystal Pascucci
3. 5 p.m.: Tania Chen
4. 5:30 p.m.: Erika and Hitomi Oba
5. 6 p.m.: Headboggle
6. 6:30 pm.: a memorial set for Milford Graves, who died this past February 12, performed by Grex
7. 7 p.m.: Vinny Golia
8. 7:30 p.m.: Trouble Ensemble with Darnell Ishmel

The Festival will commemorate the spirit of Mills College, responding to the March 17 announcement that the institution will close when its final degrees are conferred in 2023. In response to this announcement, Geeta Dayal wrote an article for The New York Times reviewing the long history of adventurous composers and musicians affiliated with Mills. There will be no charge for admission to the Festival. Support for the program comes from donations; and proceeds will be directed to two East Bay spaces that embody the adventurous and socially-directed spirit of Mills: the Temescal Art Center and the Oakland Public Conservatory of Music. A portion of those proceeds will also be given to Graves’ family. Information about how donations can be made will be found on the Facebook page for the Festival.