San Francisco Accordion Festival Wrapup

Culann’s Hounds at the San Francisco Accordion Festival
uploaded by banjoheadIf you felt an earthquake in the Bay Area on Sunday afternoon, it was probably caused by the foot-stomping, booty-shaking good time had by everyone at the 16th annual San Francisco Accordion Festival. Here’s a roundup of audio/visual highlights from the weekend:

• “Squeeze Play” is a juicy cover story about the 2006 festival from Sunday’s SF Chronicle Datebook (the pink section), with quotes from local squeezebox luminaries like Tom Torriglia (the festival organizer), Big Lou, and Paul Rogers of TDA. Be sure to check out the accompanying photo gallery, too.
• Jan Sluizer from Westwood One Radio did an interview with Tom (MP3, 1.5 MB) at the festival.
• Jamin posted a fantastic short video that includes an interview with Skyler of Accordion Apocalypse and some festival performance clips. (I love the shot of all the bemused onlookers watching from above the courtyard.)
• Flickr user banjohead posted a huge photoset of Culann’s Hounds’ performance. (Renee de la Prade, button box player for the Hounds, also won the festival’s annual Main Squeeze pageant. Congratulations Renee!) He’s since added photo sets of San Francisco Accordion Band, Kielbasia, and Conjunto Romero.
• Flickr user melastmohican also posted a bunch of festival photos, including shots of TDA, Kielbasia, and Bella Ciao.

I’ll update this list as I find more, but it sure looks like everyone had a fantastic time. Tom deserves a gigantic thank you from the local squeezebox community both for putting the festival together, and for his tireless promotion of accordions everywhere. Thanks Tom!