December 4, 2010

aznight buzz

BEYOND MUSIC 'WONDERLAND' FESTIVAL STRIVES TO BE ENVELOPING EXPERIENCE

By Veronica M Cruz

Each year thousands of music lovers flock to the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. Some might be inspired to check out a new band or maybe to make new friends.

And then there are people such as 22-year-old University of Arizona student Marina Shiferman who decided to start her own mini-Coachella in the Old Pueblo.

"I didn't know what to expect, and it changed my life," Shiferman says of the music festival that she attended in the spring.

She began working on making her epiphany a reality, and the Wonderland Music, Art and Imagination Festival was born.

But forget about Alice's wonderland - this one is entirely Shiferman's. The communications major, who will graduate in May, wrote her own business plan for her company, Wonderland Entertainment, handles the marketing and promotion, and handpicked the talent for the festival.

"I just listened to music all morning and night and afternoon, and I picked which ones I liked," Shiferman says. "It's basically my iPod out there."

The festival's lineup includes a variety of local musicians, from the country-folk guitar of Stefan George to the energetic reggae and funk tunes of 8 Minutes to Burn and Skitn. A San Diego Latin funk group, B-Side Players, will bring its blend of cumbia, hip-hop and Caribbean-infused jazz.

The Portland, Ore.-based March Fourth Marching Band, described as "Duke Ellington meets Sgt. Pepper" on its website, will close the night with its festive big-brass-band sound and drum corps, complete with parade-like antics including flag twirlers and acrobatics. Also on the bill are DJ Squints, Greyhound Soul, Jimmy Carr, Seashell Radio, Brothers Gow and Road Runners.

Though the festival is mainly about the music, Shiferman wanted to create a whole experience for attendees.

"I'm creating an environment that you only get to experience when you're dreaming and in your imagination," Shiferman says.

So she brought on board the pyro-performers of Flam Chen, who will set up a display of magical mermaids and a few other surprises. Local artists including Moises Orozco and Kyle Greenberg will show off their whimsical sculptures and canvases throughout the wonderland.

Shiferman also has offered to donate 50 percent of the merchandise proceeds from the festival to the Ali Adelmann Foundation to help 20-year-old Adelmann, a former UA student who suffered severe brain trauma from a car accident last year and remains in a semi-conscious state.

Having had a brain tumor as a teenager, Shiferman says she was touched by Adelmann's story and has been keeping in touch with her mother.

"Anything will help her family out," she says.

Shiferman says she hopes the Wonderland Festival will be an escape from the day-to-day pressures and that people will have fun.

"To me, it's doing exactly what you want to do and seeing things that you wouldn't normally see, like people on stilts doing fire dances, saying what you want to say and dancing how you want to dance," she says.

THANK YOU

Wow. I cant believe that people call me a promoter now. i did it! the best part is that now i have proven that i can do whatever i put my mind to. YOU can do anything YOU put your mind to.

Thank you everybody for helping me through this process and thank you so much to everyone who came to experience the wonderland. The night was intense and amazing. I had to answer some questions for a writer and here is what i wrote.

I am going to do my very best to explain the whole thing to you and to answer some of your questions.

This journey began with an experience I had in April. I had never been to a music festival and I could not have imagined the effect the environment would have on me. I went to Coachella valley music and art festival. I did not know what to expect going there, my friend invited me a week before. Right when we hit traffic in the California valley did I realize that I was about to enter a world from which I will never be the same again.

It was amazing. The sense of love and community is over whelming. The most amazing thing is that I always feel like an outsider, people always tell me I am weird for wanting a world of people who love the same things I do and who want to live with freedom of expression and imagination, not rules and regulations only to live a boring life and at Coachella i did not feel like a weird weirdo, i felt surrounded by weirdos and i was so comfortable. After I came back it took me 5 days to adjust to “normal” life or “reality.” I was right, after that experience of eternal freedom, love, music, dance parties, endless friends, safety my mind never thought the same.

I want to create a type of world like I experienced. I want to do it my way and provide happiness and a wonderland experience to people like I had. I knew I wanted to get into the entertainment business but I didn’t know that I would start my own company, wonderland entertainment, and I would start a festival. It was an epiphany one day, of course I am going to start a music art and imagination festival because that is the place I want to be.

A huge help, mentor, and hand holder was Anthony Trugman. He works at The Hut as the stage manager and music booker. I met him back in September and we got to talking about music and music festivals and once I brought him the business plan and the idea that I was doing it and this is what I wanted we got started.

The way I picked the artists was just listening to music day and night, which isn’t a burden because I love love love doing that anyway and discovering new artists right under my nose is so exciting. Anthony did give me a few suggestions along the way and I booked some bands that I saw at a show and loved like March Fourth and the B-side players. I discovered 8 minutes to burn from digging through myspaces and I love every single band that played. I found the road runners while I was out to dinner one night and they astounded me, especially because the boy robby lee is only 13 and has the voice of louis Armstrong.

I picked flam chen because they are amazing. I worked with the Sculpture Resource Center for a painting by Joshua woodhall and moises orozco built the wonderland arch way. Moises lives with a few members of parasol and he told them about his latest project and leah from the paracol contacted me. Now we are all friends and I ove it. I am so glad that they did because now I love them and they brought a special something to the event. I used to be a ballerina, a serious one and I love to perform and I have a respect for performers.

I want my festivals to be special, to have elements of imagination and creativity. Not just music not just art but dancing and fire and sculptures and jam sessions and writing and photography and skits, creativity and imagination festivals that leave lasting memories is what I want.

-It took me about 3 months to plan. I like working fast.

-The hut was not my first choice. I wanted to do it at a park to really have a festival vibe but for my first festival Anthony suggested the hut would be a great place to start.

-I sub as a bartender at the hut sometimes and that is how I got all those contacts, plus Anthony helped a lot.

-the mermaids are not part of flam chen, a girl by the came of Lauren malanga.

List of performers are all on my website. Enterthewonderland.com