Gogol Bordello, Big Gigantic headline Emerald Cup cannabis fest in Santa Rosa

The 15th annual pot fest features an appearance by Willie Nelson and performances by Gogol Bordello, Big Gigantic and Kevin Smith.|

If You Go

What: Emerald Cup

When: Saturday and Sunday, Dec. 15-16. Doors open at 10 a.m. both days.

Where: Sonoma County Fairgrounds, 1350 Bennett Valley Road, Santa Rosa

Admission: $80-$499

Information and full schedule:

theemeraldcup.com

Tickets:

eventbrite.com

To Eugene Hutz, founder and lead singer of the “Ukrainian gypsy punk band” Gogol Bordello, life is a carnival, with a variety of performers crossing the stage at different times.

Hutz, a Ukrainian native who came to the U.S. in 1992, brings his current lineup this weekend to the 15th annual Emerald Cup cannabis celebration and music festival at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds in Santa Rosa. A dozen other musicians have passed through the group since it started 19 years ago, and Hutz finds that perfectly normal.

“The group has a very interesting structure. In the early years, every show had a four-piece band with guest musicians, who were constantly rotating. We would have Brazilian samba drummers or Mongolian throat singers or a ballerina troupe. It was very much a carnival atmosphere,” he said by phone from his New York home.

“Our first years were spent playing galleries and art happenings. That’s the roots of Gogol Bordello. So it remained in a similar pattern, even when we became a touring entity. That is a great asset to longevity, because it’s never been the same since day one. It was never supposed to be,” Hutz said.

“People would come in and they’d bring something valuable to the band and some of them went on to do something else, but the principal core of the band remains as it was in the very beginning.”

As a festival headliner - the band’s first performance at a marijuana festival - Gogol Bordello will close the first day of the Emerald Cup, which has its own carnival atmosphere, with a show Saturday. The Colorado electronic hip-hop and jazz duo Big Gigantic headlines the Sunday lineup.

The festival also will feature an appearance Sunday by legendary country singer Willie Nelson to receive an award for his long history as an advocate of marijuana legalization.

In another weekend highlight, cult film heroes Kevin Smith and Jason Mewes will record a live performance of their top-ranked comedy podcast “Jay and Silent Bob Get Old” Saturday.

The festival will feature four live music stages both days with a long list of popular acts, including Nashville country singer-songwriter Margo Price, contemporary reggae singer and songwriter Protoje, indie hip-hop artist Lyrics Born, the Dirty Dozen Brass Band from New Orleans, the Funky Meters, Los Angeles-based soul ensemble the Elevators, Rising Appalachia and more.

The weekend also includes a cannabis competition, as well as lectures and seminars at four different sites on the fairgrounds, dealing with legal, health-related, agricultural and other aspects of marijuana.

“It’s pretty wild to see how far things have come regarding cannabis in the last decade,” said drummer Jeremy Salken of Big Gigantic in an email interview. “Going from illegal to decriminalized to medically and then recreationally in a few states is pretty incredible.”

Salken and Big Gigantic producer and saxphonist Dominic Lalli perform live within their preplanned traveling electronic audio and visual stage show.

“We try to prepare as much as possible for each show to make it unique to the type of show it is or the place we’re playing,” Lalli said. “We pick our spots where we can open up and do something different every night, but all through the night, we’re improvising our solos and different parts as much as possible.”

If You Go

What: Emerald Cup

When: Saturday and Sunday, Dec. 15-16. Doors open at 10 a.m. both days.

Where: Sonoma County Fairgrounds, 1350 Bennett Valley Road, Santa Rosa

Admission: $80-$499

Information and full schedule:

theemeraldcup.com

Tickets:

eventbrite.com

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