Local musicians embody baby boomer-era music style

The 11th annual Rogue Festival kicks off tomorrow in the Tower District and continues through March 10.

More than 60 independent performers and groups will host over 200 hour long events at over a dozen venues throughout the Tower district.

With the growing popularity of the festival, many performers consider Rogue to be a potential springboard for their latest creations. Artists recognize the importance of reaching large audiences with high expectations. This is both incentive and inspiration for performers.

In recent years, many artists have made significant advancements in the quality of their performances to better accommodate the increasing expectations of audience members.

Performer, Abigail Nolte and her all new ensembles, Gayle and Bowties, spent months perfecting their upcoming work. “I wanted to do a project with more instrumentation,” Nolte said.

The Rogue Festival is modeled after fringe performance festivals throughout the world. The festival encourages performers of all kinds to affordably present their stylized talents to the Fresno community.

At any given moment during the festival, attendees of all tastes can choose from a wide variety of performances, including musical ensembles, magic shows, plays, storytelling events, belly dancing, comedy routines, and drunken Irish music and more.

With Gayle and the Bowties, Abigail, Jared, Benjamin and Vince seek to embody the ambience and nostalgia of old club scenes. “The tunes that we’re doing are between 1954 and 1965,” said Nolte. “When you come to our show you’ll enter that time period.”

If all goes well, Gayle and the Bowties plan to expand. “We would like to add a horn section eventually. We could open for a lot of traveling acts that come to Fresno from old time genres,” said Nolte.

This attitude towards excellence and originality fulfills the spirit of the Rogue Festival.

“We get to reach all sorts of audiences as opposed to playing in a club somewhere,” Nolte said. “[Rogue] gives performers an outlet to try something new.”

The Rogue Festival operates as a non-profit. Venues including the Starline, Spectrum Gallery, Tower Theatre, Veni Vidi Vici’s, the Broken Leg Stage donate their space on behalf of the festival. Hundred percent of ticket proceeds go directly to the artist.

Gayle and the Bowties’ will perform at the Broken Leg Stage on March 3 at 6:15 p.m., March 4 at 3:45 p.m., March 9 at 6:15 p.m. and March 10 at 2:30 p.m. Tickets to their performance cost $4 per person.

This year, festival producers have made several changes to how tickets are purchased. Attendees must first purchase “Rogue bucks” from the Tower Theater, the Starline Grill, the Broken Leg Stage, or from a floating street vender. The Tower Theater location will accept credit cards.

When purchasing larger quantities, customers will receive free Rogue credits. Twenty dollars yields 22 in Rogue bucks, $50 earns 60 Rogue bucks and $100 nets customers 125 Rogue bucks.

These credits can be distributed among friends to purchase merchandise and attend performances.

The Rogue Festival provides an outlet for unique and upcoming performers and artists to share their talents with the community for a minimal cost.

Ticket prices range between $4 and $8 for most performances.