A8 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 1, 2018
LOCAL
Melons and music at Irrigon festival
By ANTONIO SIERRA
STAFF WRITER
The Irrigon Watermelon
Festival had the titular fruit
available for sale and seed
spitting contest, but melons
are more of a theme than an
overarching focus.
Watermelons were not
directly involved in the car
show, the numerous raffles,
the carnival games, and the
lip-sync contest.
The latter is in its second
year after a 12-year break,
an attempt to revive a popu-
lar event of yesteryear for a
new generation of children,
according to event coordi-
nator Charlene Cooley.
Cooley said not as many
children participated this
year as they did in 2017, but
it still found an audience.
“It just takes one kids,
and then all the other kids
start to flock around,” she
said.
Stephen Pells was the
first one on the stage, where
he performed Silento’s 2015
hit “Watch me (Whip/Nae
Nae).”
Stephen
not
only
lip0synced to the song,
but also performed all the
dances that are mentioned
in the song, including the
whip, the nae nae, the stanky
leg, the break your legs, the
duff, and the superman.
Performing first meant he
would have to sit back and
watch the rest of the com-
petition as they performed
their renditions of “Bar-
bie Girl,” “Ring of Fire,”
“Happy” and “Let it Go.”
One girl even lip-synced
“Uptown Funk,” the song
Stephen lip-synced to when
he won the 2017 contest.
But in the end, Stephen’s
non-singing and very real
dance moves would not be
denied as he won this year’s
contest based an informal
applause meter.
His reward? “Cold, hard
cash,” according to the
emcee.
After Stephen collected
his $50 prize, he explained
that he practiced for quite
STAFF PHOTO BY ANTONIO SIERRA
Alysen Hesselroth plays her marimba at the Irrigon Watermelon Festival Saturday.
“I’m used to moving
crowds, so I have to remind
myself to do the banter,” she
told the audience.
As she packed up her
marimba after the set ended,
Hesselroth, 30, explained
how her career in busk-
ing evolved from her
time at Washington State
University.
A music major, Hessel-
roth was originally a pianist
before a professor suggested
she look at joining a percus-
sion ensemble.
She was blow away by
the instrumentation, and
learned the marimba to join
the ensemble.
But the thought of busk-
ing didn’t really occur to her
until she took road trips to
Austin, the musically rich
capital of Texas, and Burn-
ing Man, the radical art
gathering in the Nevadan
desert.
After graduating college
in 2012, she bought a Win-
nebago and drove around
the country playing her
marimba out in the open.
When her rig needed
repairs, she ended up in
the Bay Area, where she
developed a regular host of
spots to play her stand-up
instrument and also got the
chance to play a string of
kids’ camps up and down
California.
Hesselroth
currently
finds herself back home
in Othello while she saves
up her money for her next
adventure, which could pos-
sibly include traveling to
Europe to teach English.
She’s doing local gigs in
the meantime, but she longs
to be back on the road.
“I like being free,” she
said.
Wherever she ends up,
she hopes to get all the
wanderlust out of her sys-
tem before she sets down
roots. When Aly the Trav-
eling Marimba Busker does
finally find a stopping point,
she hopes to set up a com-
bination yoga/music studio
where she use the marimba
and other instruments to
teach kids music.
WORSHIP
COMMUNITY
STAFF PHOTO BY ANTONIO SIERRA
A contestant performs an Imagine Dragons song during the lip-sync contest at the Irrigon
Watermelon Festival Saturday.
a while in preparation for a
title defense.
Learning a half dozen
dances was not easy, and
when asked which was the
hardest to learn, young Ste-
phen was resolute: “All of
them.”
It took a while for Aly-
sen Hesselroth to find the
marimba, but it led to an
unlikely career for the Oth-
ello, Washington-native.
Performing as Aly the
Traveling Marimba Busker,
Hesselroth added a trop-
ical feel to the warm Irri-
gon afternoon, striking the
wooden bars with two mal-
lets in each hand and play-
ing a combination of pop
songs and instrumentals.
In between some of her
songs, Hesselroth explained
that she was used to play-
ing at sidewalks and farm-
ers markets.
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