newsminer.com

What: Cinco de Blossom Dance Party

When: 9 p.m., Saturday

Where: Lacey Street Theater

Admission: $7; all-ages show on main floor, 21 and older beer garden in the balcony

The Cinco de Blossom Dance Party is scheduled for Saturday, and organizer Jay Stange is happy to keep things quirky.

The event — a fundraiser for the Clucking Blossom Festival — will feature local jam band Sweating Honey and Athabascan rapper Hastyle Reign, among others, at the historic Lacey Street Theatre.

Stange, the Clucking Blossom treasurer, said he’s excited to offer an eclectic evening.

“I’m really psyched,” Stange said. “My goal is to try to honor the Clucking Blossom tradition by mixing audiences.”

Cinco de Blossom is the last of four fundraisers to support the Clucking Blossom Festival, a free music, art and community awareness event scheduled for May 17.

Stange said the festival should reach its goal of about $4,000 with a good turnout at the Lacey Street Theatre. “We earn it one dirty dollar at a time,” he said with a laugh.

Saturday’s show includes Sweating Honey, a longtime favorite among Fairbanks music lovers, and Hastyle Reign, also known as Matt Stevens, who is making a name in the hip-hop world. Wayward Space Cadets will open the show, with deejays between sets and The Good Daze closing the night.

Stevens grew up moving between California and Fort Yukon, and his rhymes draw from that heritage. He sometimes raps in his native Gwich’in language.

“It’s a big part of who I am,” he said. “I’ve never tried to be something I’m not, and I have a lot of pride in who I am.”

His style has begun to draw attention, with gigs opening for established visiting hip-hop artists like Too Short, Tec 9 and tonight’s concert with Devin the Dude.

“I wouldn’t go too far to say we’ve done shows with some of the biggest hip-hop shows in Alaska,” Stevens said.

Stevens said he’s been contacted to do shows at various Indian reservations in the Lower 48, he said. Next week he’ll play his first out-of-state concert, with a pair of shows in Lawrence, Kan.

Having diverse artists like Hastyle Reign performing is part of the mantra for Clucking Blossom, which will pack more than 50 bands into the festival this year at Birch Hill Recreation Center. This year’s event is also highlighting sustainable living in the North, with workshops on building a root cellar and straw-bale home construction.

Stange said it seems like an appropriate theme, with high fuel prices gaining so much attention.

“We’ve already panicked about it, and instead of freaking out we’re going to have a party,” Stange said.