Quick Links: Festivals in Review

We consider ourselves lucky if there’s one accordion festival going on during a given weekend; two festivals is practically an embarrassment of riches. And yet, that was the case last weekend. While the International Accordion Festival took over rainy San Antonio, some trailblazers in Southern California hosted the first-ever Orange County Accordion Festival.

• Tejas to France to Arabia: Accordions Popularity Keeps Growing
  The San Antonio festival continues to draw an incredibly diverse roster of artists. This year, performers included Elias Lammam‘s Arabic accordion, Miguel Afonso from the Canary Islands, and Basque accordionist Kepa Junkera. (Check out some festival photos here.)
• Accordion players celebrate ‘Big Squeeze’
  Great collection of photos (and a video) of the Orange County festival, which featured performances ranging from Los Fabulocos with Kid Ramos to the Martin Music Center Accordion Orchestra.
• Give Me a Big Squeeze
  The Orange Country Register’s pre-festival article talks about the growing accordion renaissance and some of the characters in the local accordion scene. (Including Norm Panto, who we spotted on Sunday’s episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm.)