Mission Creek Music and Arts Festival (MCMAF), also known ass Mission Creek, and Mission Creek Oakland Music and Arts Festival, was a week-long volunteer-driven

music festival A music festival is a community event with performances of singing and instrument playing that is often presented with a theme such as musical genre (e.g., rock, blues, folk, jazz, classical music), nationality, locality of musicians, or h ...

active from 1996 to 2017, and located in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

and later

Oakland Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third largest city overall in the Bay A ...

, California. It featured local, experimental, and contemporary artists who have made an impact on the local community scene. The festival prided itself on showcasing fledgling musicians and artists who go on to headline their own shows. The festival was a grassroots project that took a hard stance against

corporate sponsorship Sponsoring something (or someone) is the act of supporting an event, activity, person, or organization financially or through the provision of products or services. The individual or group that provides the support, similar to a benefactor, is k ...

History

The project began in 1996, when San Francisco musician Jeff Ray decided to showcase eight Bay Area

independent music Independent music (also commonly known as indie music or simply indie) is music that is produced independently from commercial record labels or their subsidiaries, a process that may include an autonomous, do-it-yourself approach to recording a ...

ians in a one-day event at El Rio bar in the

Mission District The Mission District (Spanish: ''Distrito de la Misión''), commonly known as The Mission (Spanish: ''La Misión''), is a neighborhood in San Francisco, California. One of the oldest neighborhoods in San Francisco, the Mission District's name is ...

, and called it a festival. The festival took a hard stance against corporate sponsorship. Andre Perry, one of the festival's producers sums up their position saying, "Basically, we're not interested in companies without any responsibility or connection to the local

community A community is a social unit (a group of living things) with commonality such as place, norms, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given geographical area (e.g. a country, village, tow ...

." The festival takes its name from the

Mission Creek Mission Creek (from Spanish: ''misión'') is a river in San Francisco, California. Once navigable from the Mission Bay inland to the vicinity of Mission Dolores, where several smaller creeks converged to form it, Mission Creek has long since bee ...

watershed that once flourished in the neighborhood. The first person in San Francisco to book harpist

Joanna Newsom Joanna Newsom (born January 18, 1982) is an American singer-songwriter and actress. Born and raised in Northern California, Newsom was classically trained on the harp in her youth and began her musical career as a keyboardist in the San Francisc ...

, was MCMAF producers Neil Martinson and Jon Fellman. Former Mission Creek acts include Devendra Banhart,

Deerhoof Deerhoof are an American musical group formed in San Francisco in 1994. They currently consist of founding drummer Greg Saunier, bassist and singer Satomi Matsuzaki, and guitarists John Dieterich and Ed Rodriguez. Beginning as an improvised noi ...

Erase Errata Erase Errata was a band from San Francisco, California. The group favored improvisation as a compositional tool and each of their performances were a unique manifestation of established songs. History Erase Errata formed in Oakland, California ...

, The Oh Sees, Kelley Stoltz, Rogue Wave, and Vetiver, all of whom developed national followings. The producers also have an eye for talented visual artists. Among the local artists who have designed posters for the festival are Jo Jackson, and Andrew Schultz, key artists in the

Mission School The Mission School (sometimes called "New Folk" or "Urban Rustic") is an art movement of the 1990s and 2000s, centered in the Mission District, San Francisco, California. History and characteristics This movement is generally considered to have ...

art movement, and centered on Adobe Books. In 2009 and 2010, the festival has hosted free one-day outdoor concerts attended by 1,200 people in

John McLaren Park John McLaren Park is a park in southeastern San Francisco. At , McLaren Park is the third largest park in San Francisco by area, after Golden Gate Park and the Presidio. The park is surrounded mostly by the Excelsior, Crocker-Amazon, Visitacion ...

, the second largest park in San Francisco.

Oakland move and closure

The festival later expanded, then moved to Oakland and was renamed as the Mission Creek Oakland Music and Arts Festival (MCOMAF). Jennifer "Kiyomi" Tanouye, who had help run the festival for many years starting in 2006, had died in the 2016

Ghost Ship warehouse fire The Ghost Ship warehouse fire was a fire that occurred in a former warehouse in the Fruitvale neighborhood of Oakland, California, that had been converted into an artist collective with living spaces. The fire occurred on December 2, 2016, at ...

. Tanouye was largely responsible for the festivals expansion into Oakland. The Mission Creek Oakland Music and Arts Festival shuttered in 2017.

References

External links

Mission Creek Music and Arts Festival website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mission Creek Music And Arts Festival Culture of San Francisco Festivals in the San Francisco Bay Area Music festivals in California Art in San Francisco Mission District, San Francisco Music festivals established in 1996 1996 establishments in California 2017 disestablishments in California Music festivals disestablished in 2017 Culture of Oakland, California

History

Oakland move and closure

See also

References

External links