Moonshine's Laguna Conspiracy

The Moonshine Festival -- A Biased Review

By Chris Dixon

Ever since leaving his job as editor of Surfer's Travel Reports, Will Pennartz has done pretty well for himself. Two years ago, on wing and a prayer, he opened up The Surf Gallery in Laguna Beach. Since that time, Will has held exhibitions of many of the surf world's best, brightest and most visionary iconoclasts, photographers and artists. And with his gallery, the tall boy from New Jersey has filled a hole in Surf Culture that most of us didn't even know existed.

Pennartz Chats with Bolton Colburn,
Curator of the Laguna Art Museum

So, what was next for our surfing/artisting marketing savant? Well, on September 1^st and 2^nd, Will teamed up with The Moonshine Conspiracy's Chris Malloy to create an unprecedented arts and music event called the Moonshine Festival. This first of what will hopefully become an annual event blew the minds of the 600 or so who were able to get in the door of a very cool venue in Laguna Beach called Seven Degrees. The Festival was held as a benefit for The Surfing Heritage Foundation, a group headed by Dick Metz and Surfer's Journal wonderman Steve Pezman to name a few. The Foundation's ultimate goal is to establish a world-class stand-alone surf museum that would house a permanent collection comparable to that which is currently traveling around the Pacific Rim as the Surf Culture exhibit. If the Moonshine Festival was any indication of the caliber of fundraisers that Pez and Metz can expect in the future, I'd say their goal has a reasonable chance of succeeding.

Chris Malloy Gives the Intro to Steve Pezman

"I would go and hang at the Surf Gallery with Will," said Chris Malloy. "I sort of expressed to him that the guys I work with on my films -- the artists, musicians and surfers -- it was sort of sad because they had so much to offer but there was only so much that we could feature in the films. If we could bring them all together in an event, we figured the benefit would be exponential."

"This was more about getting people together than about turning a giant profit," he continued. "And it just so happened that my honeymoon was to fall on the same night. If it hadn't been such a cool event, I don't think my fiancé would have agreed to put it off for a few days."

And it was a damn cool event. Here, some of the most respected artists and photographers in the surf world had their work mingled with the music of Jack Johnson, G-Love, Rocco DeLuca, Donovan Frankenreiter, Ken Garcia and an unbelievable Australian named Xavier Rudd.

"The one thing I have to say," said Malloy, "is that it was unique. Having film, art and music at the same venue happening at the same time was uniqe. But it fit so well. We made a real effort so that you could stand in any part of the room and be involved in the works at any place you were."

John Swift and Fernie

So what were the highlights? Well, Scott Soens' longboard photos were simply sick. Ben Harper's brother Peter displayed a few very cool bronze sculptures. Branden Aroyan had a wall to display photos and the cleverly designed long-distance paddle surfboards that he, Ross Garrett, Dan and Keith Malloy used to paddle and surf along the Central California coast for an upcoming Surfer feature. Dan even auctioned off a handmade, wooden Tom Blake-style paddleboard that he and his pops made on their ranch in Ojai.

Dan, Ross and Keith paddled and surfed these
boards along 60 miles of California coast.

From behind the wheel of his beat up white van, and mobile home, Thomas Campbell always seems to be in search of life, surf and subject matter. He had an impressive wall art display and also showed a promo for a longboard film he's working on called The Seedling. Keep an eye out for this one, it's going to be truly amazing. Also on the walls were works by Norcal's Barry McGee and Margaret Kilgallen, and Wolfgang Bloch showed quite a collection of his stark, striking studies of breaking waves.

Performances and exhibitions on the second night of the festival included skateboarder Ray Barbee's guitar stylings and a folk music gathering with Jon Swift. There was a preview of Chris and Emmett Malloy's pending surf film and then this barefoot Aussie got up onstage. His name was Xavier Rudd, and he showed up with three didgeridoos, foot drums, harmonica and a slide guitar. "He's a kid I met in Australia," said Malloy, "He came up to me and was very bashful and humble. He said, 'It's so nice to meet you, I've really enjoyed your films'. We had a beer that night and I watched him play. I was blown away."

Xavier Rudd blew the crowd away.

For the first few minutes of Xavier's set, the noisy crowd paid him little attention. But within a few minutes, more and more people began to gather around the small stage. The background noise diminished as this human force of nature absolutely ripped through one of the most amazing performances I have ever seen. Cross Bob Dylan, Midnight Oil, and maybe Arlo Guthrie and you could get a small hint of this kid's talent. By his last song, the place was going nuts. Then came Jack Johnson and G-Love -- amazing of course. They were soon joined onstage by Donovan, who killed it with an improvised Hendrix tune. Eventually everyone, including Xavier was onstage jamming. If you weren't there, I hope these words have done the show a little justice, because it was frickin' awesome. Afterwards, people just shook their heads and smiled.

What Would you pay a scalper to see Jack Johnson
and G-Love from this far away on acoustics?

In the end, the that thing that was so terrific, or such a bummer, about the Moonshine Festival, was its intimacy. On the one hand, it was such a priveledge to be at the kind of event where Kelly Slater, Jack Johnson, G-Love and the Malloys could walk around without being accosted by hordes of fans. On the other hand, a lot of people who would have loved the event simply couldn't come because tickets were so scarce. That problem, if you want to call it a problem, may be partially solved next year if the Moonshiners and Pennartz are able to hold the event at a larger venue they've got their eye on. I hope so, though if it does go down at a larger space, folks like Kelly won't be able to just be part of the crowd. That's the price of fame I guess.

Impressive boys. Can't wait to see what you come up with next year.

Click here to visit www.xavierrudd.com
There's an amazing performance on his multimedia page or MP3's on his CD Page.