First Festival.  River Walk, West Sacramento CA.  May 6-7. 2017.
Crowd surfing. First Festival, River Walk, Sacramento, CA. May 2017. Photo Anouk Nexus

“It’s a fantastic thing, seeing the sheer will and hard work of one very determined and talented woman (Danielle Vincent) bring together an event of this magnitude for Sacramento. I’m excited about what this does for a segment of the scene and First Fest’s very promising future.” -Elijah Jenkins, Musician

“I’m so honored to have served on the First Fest team this year and to have been given the opportunity to curate a Pop Up Gallery and several large-scale installations. The response this year from the community has been so moving, and I cannot wait to see what the city has in store for next year. I’m so deeply grateful for everyone who showed up and poured their heart into the weekend!” -Laura Marie Anthony, Artists of Sacramento

“I had a lot of fun. It’s not an event I normally would have gone to, but seeing how much support there is for local artist and local art is very inspiring. It also exposed me to music I wouldn’t normally listen to.” -Manushi Weerasinghe

“Creating the installment piece (One Mother) was a huge undertaking. I wanted my piece to reflect the true diversity of people. Everyone comes in different shapes, sizes, and colors. I wanted to make a statement that when we realize that we are all human how we look aesthetically doesn’t really matter. I enlisted some of my friends to sit as models and be molded in plaster casting to really show the diversity. It was really laborious for me and a huge challenge for the models to sit still for an hour and a half while I casted them. I collaged pieces of world maps over the bodies and used flowers in color order of the rainbow to go with the theme also. First Fest was a great experience. I loved the myriad of art and vendors and the outpouring of support from everyone.” -Linda Whiteman, First Fest Artist

The Moans. First Festival. River Walk, West Sacramento CA. Photo Melissa Uroff May 2017
“You already got your money’s worth with all the other bands. We’re on the house.” -Danny Secretion, The Moans, before launching into a song

“You get to experience local music and it’s really incredibly reasonably priced. It’s $20 — even if you only come for an hour or two it’s totally worth it. … I like to support local music. It’s an incredible deal. … I’m just here for an hour or two because I really want to support this, and hope it continues every year. Throughout the summer, some of these bands I see today I’ll go see them. So it introduces me to all the different music that’s here.” -Bob Solecki

“I like First Fest because there’s a lot of cool art, local art, local musicians. It’s important to support local. … I came here the first year and I had a lot of fun and I wanted to experience that again. I hope they keep it around.” -Sarah Elliott

Words Kate Gonzales, Heather Uroff

Photos Anouk Nexus, Joey Miller, Heather Uroff, Emma Montalbano,

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