Wilco, Los Lobos to Headline 2nd Annual Sound Summit Festival & Mount Tam Benefit

By Carlos Olin Montalvo | June 17, 2016, 11:34 am

Sound Summit: A Benefit for The Mountain returns to the slopes of Mount Tamalpais on September 17, featuring performances by rock band Wilco, Mexican-American rockers Los Lobos, jazz fusion act Bill Frisell’s Guitar in the Space Age, blues rock group The Stone Foxes, plus local SF acts Matt Jaffe and DJ Andy Cabic. Tickets for the one-day event of great music and celebration with one another go on sale today.

The outdoor festival is produced as an annual fundraiser for Mount Tamalpais State Park by Roots & Branches Conservancy, a not-for-profit organization. Sound Summit takes place at the historic Mountain Theater, a 4000-seat natural stone amphitheater with stunning views of San Francisco Bay.

Charismatic Bay Area radio personalities Murph & Mac (aka Brian Murphy and Paul McCaffrey of KNBR-AM) will return as the day’s dynamic masters of ceremonies. DJ Andy Cabic will be spinning tunes between sets. Tickets for the daylong festival, which runs from 11am to 7pm, are $100 for adults and $50 for youth 12 and under. Children 2 and under are admitted free.

In the wake of drastic cuts to the State Parks’ budget, this festive event celebrates this local landscape gem and aims to raise funding and awareness of the mountain’s preservation and upkeep needs. After last year’s successful Sound Summit event, Roots & Branches Conservancy’s announced a $40,000 grant to Mount Tamalpais State Park, allocated for essential projects that would focus on fire prevention, water conservation, emergency equipment, and visitor services.

Last year for the inaugural event, we spoke to the founder and architect of the Sound Summit Michael Nash on how he developed the event, the biggest needs of Mount Tam, and what to expect from the one-day festival on the mountain. Sound Summit is a double entendre meant to evoke both musical gathering and mountain peak and speaks to the goal of one serving to sustain the other. “Our ultimate goal is to have Sound Summit serve as an annual, sustainable revenue source for Mount Tam. We hope to do so for many years to come,” says adds Nash.