The rhythms of the Earth will shimmer and shake at the third annual New Music Utah, Friday, Oct. 7, and Saturday, Oct. 8, in Springdale, gateway to Zion National Park.
The festival gets under way at 8 p.m. Friday at the O.C. Tanner Amphitheater with a concert by Bitoto, a nine-member group combining primal African rhythms, chanting and guitars to create Soukous, hypnotic dance music from Zaire. Tickets are $7 in advance, $8 at the gate.Saturday events begin at 10 a.m. with the first-ever Pandemonium Parade. Wending down Zion Park Boulevard, from the Bumbleberry Inn to the Springdale Town Park, the parade is open to all instruments and voices, from drums, horns, pots and pans to animal calls or whatever. The unusual is welcome, with the best entry possibly being awarded an opening slot on that evening's concert, to which all entries will receive free tickets.
After the parade, at 10:30 p.m. Julie Kubat and the Young Composers of Zion will present a free concert in the Springdale Town Park. Kubat composes and performs music for voice, glass harmonica, musical saw and homemade percussion. Various Springdale children will also take part.
Also free is an African Drum and Dance Workshop, featuring members of Bitoto and the Springdale World Drum Brigade, at noon, also in the park.
Then at 8 p.m. at the Tanner Amphitheater frame-drummer Glen Velez and bamboo flutist Steve Gorn will perform. Again admission is $7 in advance, or $8 at the gate.
For more information, or advance registration in the parade, call 772-3839.