Sacred Acre is kicking off its 2024 festival with three days of music and exploration from Sept. 6 to 8. This year’s lineup features Peekaboo, The Glitch Mob, Wreckno, Zingara and more in the midst of the Alaskan landscape. While the event itself is quite isolated, the festival’s directors Chris Miller and Hannah Stearns managed to find a way to make it all happen. The two built off of their sister event, SalmonFestl, and its previous infrastructure.
“The challenge of marketing an event, especially in such a rural location, is a hurdle in itself,” Miller tells Pollstar. “Many people have this wanderlust they want to fulfill, but it’s really hard to make people take a leap of faith. This year, over 40% of ticket sales are from out of state, so I think we’re doing a good job at capturing that out of state market. It reminds me of when Jim [Stearns, festival director for SalmonFest] and Hannah were sitting around Jim’s table talking one year about, let’s book CloZee and LSDream, and we did it. But we got a lot of Fyre Festival comments right out the gate, it was really rough because we were in the middle of nowhere. There’s so many events that are popping up everywhere, and we have seen a lot of events that have taken a hard nose dive or had weather hit them really hard. People look at Alaska and they’re like, it’s going to be freezing cold or it’s going to be hard to get to. That hurdle has been a big one for us. Thankfully we had SalmonFest to help us with getting our foot in the door in a lot of regards on the lineup and artists and people to come work at the event. We already have a plug-and-play facility. It’s been really amazing to walk above some of those first-year struggles because of the SalmonFest team.”
The festival’s mission is to combat factory trawling, which damages the Arctic ecosystems. Factory trawling scrapes the ocean floor, which in turn harms ecosystems and leads to the capture and discard of unwanted marine life. Throughout the festival, Sacred Acre hosts workshops, including ones that focus on the harmful fishing practice.
The festival also features the biggest laser show in Alaska, performance art and fire dancers. Fans can also embark on excursions to see all the nature Alaska has to offer.
Advertisement
“We have helicopter flights leaving right from the festival site,” Stearns says. “You can go for 30-minute tours or half-day tours to a glacier. We have our Bumping on the Bay tour, which is a three-hour tour in Homer with a national DJ. There’s 24-hour programming in that space where you can go and do workshops and simply do self-improvement. Really getting in touch with yourself, that is something you can do without experiencing any of the bass music.”
In order to build the festival, SalmonFest will utilize steamships and semis. Sacred Acre uses much of the same setup as SalmonFest, making the build a bit easier. Load in takes 10-12 days, and they’ll use up to 53 semis. This year’s laser production is coming straight from Burning Man, making for a quick turnaround with the shipping process.
“SalmonFest has been able to parlay the challenges of getting here and the remoteness of it into a bit of a mystique,” Stearns says. “Last year, we sold tickets in 48 states and 17 countries. Sacred Acre has the same goal in mind, to make this a destination festival.”
The first Jesuit missionaries in Alaska sailed up the Yukon River in 1887. By the turn of the 20th century, the religious order of the Catholic Church had as many as 50 Jesuits in the state.
Now, only two remain. And by the end of June, there will be none.
The Jesuits’ nearly 140 years in the state was honored at an event at Bethel’s Immaculate Conception Church on June 16. A procession of priests wearing long white gowns with red hems walked down the aisle to open the event. The Bishop of the Diocese of Fairbanks, Stephen Maekawa, thumped the ground with a shimmering silver staff known as a clozier as he approached the altar.
Bishop of the Diocese of Fairbanks, Steven Maekawa, walks toward the altar at the Immaculate Conception Church in Bethel.
“My brothers and sisters, we gather together to celebrate this wonderful and blessed occasion to acknowledge the love of God and the work of God through the 139 year mission of the Society of Jesus of the Jesuit fathers,” Maekawa said to open the event.
Advertisement
A traditional Catholic mass followed, with readings in both English and Yup’ik. During the sermon, Maekawa acknowledged the vastness of the Fairbanks diocese, and the tremendous amount of work done by the Jesuits to establish it.
“All of the 46 churches of the Diocese of Fairbanks that we currently have were established by either the Jesuit fathers or by direction of a Jesuit bishop,” Maekawa said. “We have a long history of the Society of Jesus’ presence and ministry here in all of Alaska.”
The Jesuits are an order within the Catholic Church, akin to the Dominicans or Franciscans. They have a reputation for taking on some of the Catholic Church’s most remote assignments.
That missionary spirit brought the Jesuits to the Yukon River in 1887, where they built churches, schools, and ministries. Without their work, Catholicism may not have taken root in huge swaths of Alaska, particularly among Alaska Native communities.
The Immaculate Conception Church in Bethel.
But the Jesuits leave a complicated legacy. Their methods of converting Native people to the religion, particularly in the first half of the 20th century, created generational traumas still felt to this day.
Advertisement
Fr. Sean Carroll is the provincial of the Jesuits West Province, which oversees Alaska and nine other states.
Fr. Sean Carroll, provincial of the Jesuits West Province, speaks at an event recognizing nearly 140 years of Jesuit service in Alaska.
“Thank you for all that you have taught us about who Jesus is and how to love and serve Him wholeheartedly,” Carroll said. “I also thank you for your patience with us. For there have been times when we have sinned and when we have hurt you.”
Missionaries, including the Jesuits, forcefully converted and assimilated Alaska Native people into Western culture and religion. Students at Jesuit-run boarding schools were forced to abandon their Native languages and physically punished when caught speaking languages other than English. Native dancing and drumming were also banned.
The Jesuits West Province maintains a list of 150 Jesuits with credible claims of sexual abuse against minors or vulnerable adults. A quarter of the accused Jesuits served in Alaska at some point in time.
“I ask for your forgiveness for all that we have done that was not rooted in Christ and love for Him, and for when we did not value your culture nor recognize the presence of God in you,” Carroll said.
Advertisement
Carroll gave the order to withdraw from the state last spring. A big issue was the recruitment of Jesuits willing to travel and serve in remote villages. He told the congregation that the Jesuits’ work would continue, just without a permanent presence.
Fr. Rich Magner, one of the two remaining Jesuit priests in Alaska, attends a ceremony in Bethel.
Fr. Rich Magner is one of the two remaining Jesuit priests in Alaska. His last day serving Chevak, Hooper Bay, and Scammon Bay is June 30.
“We all always knew coming in, or should have known, that we’re not going to be here forever. It’s going to be mission accomplished at some point,” Magner said. “And then we hand it off to the diocese that we’ve helped create, and so that’s a good feeling.”
Magner’s next stop is a Clinical Pastoral Education residency in Tacoma, Washington.
The other remaining priest, Fr. Tom Provinsal, first came to Alaska in 1968 to teach. A fond memory, he said, was meeting Elders that practiced traditional subsistence lifestyles.
Advertisement
“Some of the grandmothers, their fingers were just all bent with arthritis and stuff like that, you know, their whole lives they’ve been working out in the cold and the wet, doing food, sewing, all that kind of stuff,” Provinsal said. “I’d say I just feel very privileged to have come when I did come and to see that.”
Provinsal returned in 1975 as a priest and has served in the region ever since. After moving away, he plans to take a five month sabbatical. What happens next, he said, is in God’s hands.
Two lines formed in the aisle for communion at the end of the mass. After taking communion, Bethel’s Parish Administrator Susan Murphy gave a final thank you.
“It’s difficult to say goodbye to people who have been a part of our lives for so long,” Murphy said. “We know that you have done what was yours to do, and have taught us to do what is ours to do. We are grateful.”
Jesuit priests form a row along the altar of Bethel’s Immaculate Conception Church as members of the congregation lift their arms and pray.
Dominic Hunt, a Yup’ik deacon that flew in from Emmonak for the event, led the congregation through a final prayer.
Advertisement
“Bless them with your wisdom, that they may be a word of hope, a world in need. We ask this through Christ, our Lord. Amen,” Hunt said.
About 70 people posed for a photo on the altar – priests, deacons, parishioners, Elders and children — many of them smiling, some standing quietly.
The photo doesn’t tell the whole story. But it’s a moment when gratitude, grief, and memory all shared the same room.
Bishop of the Diocese of Fairbanks, Steven Maekawa, stands in the middle of a crowd waiting to take a photo at Bethel’s Immaculate Conception Church.
JUNEAU, Alaska (KTUU) – The Supreme Court of Alaska will be taking up the case of the State of Alaska, Division of Elections v. Daniel J. Sullivan, Jr.
The oral arguments will be held Monday at 10 a.m. via Zoom, according to an order and opening notice.
The document also specifies that a decision is expected to be made before noon on Tuesday.
According to documents from the Division of Elections, the state must start printing ballots at noon on the same day.
Advertisement
This comes after an Anchorage Superior Court Judge ordered Dan J. Sullivan on to the ballot Friday.
See a spelling or grammar error? Report it to web@ktuu.com
