Three-day Tarboo fest this week in Quilcene

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Samuel Hughes works in the barn at the Quilcene Lantern, the venue for this weekend's Tarboo music festival. Photo by Angela Downs  [/caption]

News by Angela Downs

It’s music festival season, and the opportunities abound. Coming right up is the immersive, community-centered Tarboo fest at the Quilcene Lantern this Thursday through Saturday, July 3-5.

Brothers Bergen and Willem de Koch run the Quilcene Lantern at 7360 Center Road, with their parents Laurie and Steve de Koch, along with Willem’s fiancée Tamsin and sister Tessa Pargiter.

Bergen is a graduate of Evergreen State College with a degree in media studies, and runs the Lantern’s social media, while working on its ongoing construction projects.

Willem is a performing musician with a bachelor’s degree in classical and jazz trombone. He also holds a master’s in nonprofit arts management, and has a history in educational work. Willem is in charge of booking, programming and accounting at the venue, and has a hand in the builds as well.

Half of the Lantern’s 53 acres, with Tarboo Creek running through, are protected by the Jefferson Land Trust.

This farmland was originally homesteaded in the early 1900s by the Iseri family. The Iseris were Japanese Americans, and in the wake of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066, their land was seized in 1942 and the family was forcibly incarcerated in internment camps. The Iseri family was never able to regain ownership of their Quilcene land, and the property passed from owner to owner until the mid-1970s.

In 1974, Alan Iglitzin transformed the barn into the venue for the Olympic Music Festival, a summer series that ran for more than three decades. The festival later became the Concerts in the Barn.

In mid-January 2024, the de Koch family began a new era by taking over the Quilcene farm, with the promise to keep it an arts venue.

Now the Lantern hosts live performances with a heart for indie music and rock, showcases studio art, and hosts event rentals for fundraisers, weddings, memorials, and other activities, along with offering overnight cabins, limited RV spaces with no hookups, and tent camping.

This year’s Tarboo fest is the second annual, and the Lantern’s flagship event.

With an almost all-Northwest lineup and 30 percent of its artists from the Olympic Peninsula, the acts include Nate the Junco, N3gativ3 Numb3rs and Nyby on Thursday; Chong the Nomad, Great Grandpa, Desolation Horse and three other bands on Friday. Saturday includes Jonas Myers, The Sky Is a Suitcase, Uwade and headliner Blind Pilot.

Yoga, nature walks, a cornhole tournament and a Linger Longer-themed photo booth are also part of the festival. About a dozen vendors per day will sell jewelry, clothing, art, zines and stuffed toys, while two artists will offer flash tattoos. Camp N Car will have a couple of model camper buildouts on display.

Flutterby Pizza Pie will be there, along with Fiddlehead Creamery and other food purveyors. Bumbu Truck will dish up Indonesian fare; these vendors happen to be Chong the Nomad’s parents. Second Child and Fossil & Fawn will offer wine tasting, while Chimacum Grainery will be doing beer tastings.

“It should feel like if you were to drop in from outer space, you’d get a taste of the Olympic Peninsula culture,” Willem said.

“As a family, we want to bring our values of intimacy and breaking down boundaries for connection, creating familial and lasting relationships,” added Bergen.

The festival’s maximum capacity is 500, but the organizers are expecting about 300 a day.

Tickets are available at quilcenelantern.com, children 12 and younger will be admitted free.

The Tarboo Totality pass including camping and parking costs $145, while the weekend pass without parking and camping is $100. A one-day pass for Friday or Saturday costs $55; those who want to attend on Thursday can get in free with tickets reserved on the website. Parking fees for daily visits are also listed at quilcenelantern.com.

Festival organizers are also looking for volunteers, and offering free passes and T-shirts to those who work a couple of four-hour shifts. Volunteer application forms are found at the bottom of the Lantern website, by direct messaging the Quilcene Lantern on Facebook or Instagram, or by emailing hello@quilcenelantern.com.

Volunteer jobs range from working in the box office to parking management to artist hospitality. Goat herders, photo-booth Polaroid-takers, and lighting setup and breakdown workers are also needed.

“We are really proud of being a family-run production with only local support,” said Bergen, “and we always appreciate when people come out to what we are offering, when there are so many alternatives for entertainment.”