Gator By The Bay 2017: Music, Dance, Food, Fun!

16th Annual Gator By The Bay Zydeco, Blues, and Crawfish Festival
May 12 – May 14, 2017
San Diego, CA
 
Fake news, bad news, scary news, the world is a pretty contentious place these days, but never fear.  Three days of peace, love, and understanding is a five-minute walk from my room on the 12th floor of the Sheraton Hotel and Marina in San Diego. They're not kidding when they bill this as "Music, Dance, Food, Fun."
 
After an hour inside the festival grounds, my entire body is downshifting. Gator By The Bay Zydeco, Blues, and Crawfish Festival is purging the drumbeat of discordant chatter on the airwaves. The only drumbeat that matters for now is coming from the stages around this sliver of land called Spanish Landing Park. I’m in an alternate universe. I shall marinate blissfully here for three days.
 
It feels like a giant crane has eased a protective bubble over the Park, capturing all the good stuff going on inside it and warding off the dispiriting news flashing across TV screens outside it. We aren’t missing a damn thing. It will still be there when we disperse on Sunday evening.
 
The crowd of thousands is a mix master of age, race, and social background.  They are feeding their souls with music that resonates with them so deeply that it erases for the moment all the angst-provoking headlines of a world in turmoil.

The age range is from college kids to men and women who've been eligible for an AARP card for a couple of president's administrations. Parents with toddlers and pre-teens sprawl on blankets on the grassy knolls throughout the park.  Pre-teens are getting an eyeful of what it looks like watching adults having a whale of a time on the dance floor.
 
Plain and simple, live music makes you feel good. With four stages and over fifty bands playing from late morning till dusk, I’m feelin’ it.
 
There’s no stereotype for a dance junkie. The Fred and Gingers look a lot like librarians, or a teachers, dentists, surgeons, flight attendants, secretaries, commercial loan officer, small business owners, retirees, maybe your local electrician.

No dance snobbery here. When the music speaks to you, you get up and dance. For every styling couple on the small portable dance floor, there are a few people boogying all by themselves. Everyone is smiling. This sliver of land on the shore of San Diego Bay is an oasis of let the good times roll, a small grain of sand in an ocean of turbulent times.
 
I have yet to witness an altercation of any kind, I’ve had conversations with loads of people either waiting in a food line or sitting on hay bales on the perimeter of stages, many centering on the ”Where are you from” opening and offering hosannas to the salutary effect of music on the psyche.
 
Thousands who pack the park every day have checked their political affiliations at the gate. You want to talk about what you’re loving about the music on the stages, tell someone where you’ve just tasted sweet African jerk chicken with collard greens and rice, or the Mariposa ice cream, or those two guys selling scrumptious home made apricot or pecan or apple cobbler, or that you’ve just had a to die for dance with a woman you’ve never met before, this is the place.
 
The sun is shining, the temps are in the high 60s, a cooling breeze keeps the banners gently waving.  San Diego is showing off.

The only places I’ve ever been to where people smile, mind their manners, and chat each other up with no agenda other than to connect for a few minutes are dance festivals like this.
 
Food from Louisiana, Africa, China, and local eateries do land office business. It’s the norm to see long lines snaking to the counters of the food tents along the narrow food concourse set smack between the two largest stages. In the outside world outside, this could lead to grumpy, impatient customers. Here,  amiable chats and an occasional philosophic rhapsody about the magic of music.
 
It's billed as a Zydeco, Blues, and Crawfish Festival. The big name Cajun and zydeco bands like Steve Riley and The Mamou Playboys and Chubby Carrier and The Bayou Swamp Band are probably the reason many people have come here. But I'm tellin' ya, some of the most fun shows are the diamonds in the rough playing at the smaller Fountain Stage and Bourbon Stage…think country, rockabilly, honky tonk, blues, gypsy, gospel, Latin, and Irish rock!
 
This is my fourth straight year at the Gator Festival.  Next May won’t be soon enough for my next fix.

View of San Diego from 12th floor of Sheraton Hotel and Marina. Note Coronado Bridge on R that leads to Coronado Island. If you look real close, that's the aircraft carrier USS Midway docked on shore to L of bridge.

 Photos by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.

Comments

[Catherine Miller]

Thank you so very much for the write up on Gator. We are very appreciative and heartened to hear that you enjoyed (enjoy) the experience and share it with your readers.

I know that you and I have spoken in the past. Love your writing. To be honest I had forgotten until I saw you name come up. I plan on sharing the link to your blog with others around town. I hope you approve.
Catherine Miller
For Gator By The Bay

[Paul A. Tamburello, Jr. aka pt at large]

Hi Catherine,
A tip of the hat to you and to the over 200 Bon Temps regulars who make the event roll along so seamlessly. The fact that, except for the volunteers with badges, they remain generally invisible is a sign that the logistics are well in hand. I’m sure that this requires months of planning and probably last minute rearrangements.

I was reminded of that after my conversation with “Glenn” whose company is in charge of the electricity. He was glad to get my feedback about the smooth operation and took a moment to show me the enclosures that housed the generators. A shout out to his company, whose name I forgot!

I read in the San Diego Union-Tribune that 15,000 people attend the event. In the same article, I read that Peter Oliver said that, “We truly pride ourselves in offering San Diegans and visitors alike the chance to experience authentic Louisiana culture.”

IMO, It’s a gift for attendees not only to experience Louisiana culture but to take pride (and probably learn more about) the terrific local and regional bands that make San Diego a robust and diverse music scene.

Several amateur videos i made with my little Canon camera are found at https://www.youtube.com/user/ptatlarge1/videos

I'm mighty pleased that you'd like to share the blog with others around town. Click the tab in the R side column for more stories about the 2017 GBTB.

[Ann Baker]

Enjoy every minute ! It sounds wonderful ! keep smiling.

[Connie Rees]

Your Gater travelogue was beautifully written.. you must have roped us all in to the fun and food and music scene as you described it.