{"id":252229,"date":"2026-04-04T23:51:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T23:51:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/252229\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T23:51:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T23:51:11","slug":"spring-harp-fest-celebrates-24-years-of-harmonica-blues-in-la-mesa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/252229\/","title":{"rendered":"Spring Harp Fest celebrates 24 years of harmonica, blues in La Mesa"},"content":{"rendered":"

The sun was already bearing down by 11 a.m. Saturday morning when families began spreading blankets across the grass at Harry Griffen Park. Dogs wandered between lawn chairs. Children darted toward a snow cone stand. A food truck hummed nearby. And from the stage, the unmistakable wail of a harmonica cut through the warm April air.<\/p>\n

This was the 2026 San Diego Spring Harp Fest \u2014 the 24th edition of a free, all-day music festival that has made La Mesa its home since it started.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt started as a group of friends getting together to play music and it\u2019s morphed into something bigger,\u201d said Ann Daugherty, a board member of Spring Harp Fest.<\/p>\n

\"PatronsPatrons watch as Troy Sandow performs during the Spring Harp Fest, celebrating the unique sounds of the harmonica, at Harry Griffen Park on Saturday, April 4, 2026 in La Mesa, California. (Meg McLaughlin \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n

By the time the third act took the stage, roughly 300 people had gathered beneath the open sky. The lineup included Dan McDowell and the Tradition, Mike Maldonado and Jump Start, Troy Sandow, Billy Watson and the Silver String Submarine Band, Gonzalo Dremoniz and the Tango Project, and headliner Brody Buster.<\/p>\n

But beyond the music, the festival has a stated mission: keep the harmonica alive in the hands of young people.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur primary goal is to bring music to the youth, primarily the harmonica, because it\u2019s a dying art,\u201d Daugherty said. \u201cWe go to a classroom or a Boy Scout troop or a group of children. We teach them how to play the harmonica and they get to leave the instrument.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AubreyAubrey Kendall, 4, practices playing the harmonica during the Spring Harp Fest. (Meg McLaughlin \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n

That mission is personal to John Frazer, also known as \u201cHarmonica John.\u201d He\u2019s the festival\u2019s co-founder, board chair and MC, who also performed with his own band. Frazer traces his love of the harmonica to 1970, when San Diego\u2019s KPRI radio introduced him to acts such as Paul Butterfield, Canned Heat and John Mayall.<\/p>\n

\u201cHarmonica is an instrument that sounds the most like the human voice of any,\u201d he said. \u201cThe only one that comes close is the saxophone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Frazer created the festival in part to solve a problem he had experienced firsthand as a player. \u201cI would go to a festival and want to play and they\u2019d say, \u2018Oh no, we can\u2019t,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cSo now everybody can play.\u201d<\/p>\n

That democratic spirit is embodied in the Unknown Players Jam, a midday open competition drawing 15 to 20 participants, with separate trophy categories for adults and children.<\/p>\n

Frazer said the festival has had a tangible effect on the local music community. \u201cSan Diego, we have upped our harmonica game,\u201d he said, \u201cpartly because of the Spring Harp Fest.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Patrons<\/p>\n

Patrons watch as Troy Sandow performs during the Spring Harp Fest. (Meg McLaughlin \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n

\"Troy<\/p>\n

Troy Sandow plays the harmonica during the Spring Harp Fest. (Meg McLaughlin \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n

\"Judy<\/p>\n

Judy Jacquez and Willie Dorsey, of San Diego, dance during the Spring Harp Fest. (Meg McLaughlin \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n

\"Spring<\/p>\n

Spring Harp Fest patrons watch as Troy Sandow performs at Harry Griffen Park on Saturday. (Meg McLaughlin \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n

\"Tera<\/p>\n

Tera Gardner and Salomon Rojas dance during the Spring Harp Fest on Saturday, April 4. (Meg McLaughlin \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n

Show Caption<\/p>\n

1 of 5<\/p>\n

Patrons watch as Troy Sandow performs during the Spring Harp Fest. (Meg McLaughlin \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n

Expand<\/a><\/p>\n

This year\u2019s headliner, Brody Buster, 41, offered an outside perspective that bolstered that claim.<\/p>\n

Buster is a professional touring musician who began playing harmonica at age 7 \u2014 inspired by his mother, herself a harmonica and guitar player. He is no stranger to major stages. As a child prodigy, he performed alongside Quincy Jones and Chaka Khan. In 2017, he beat 150 competitors to win the Memphis International Blues Challenge.<\/p>\n

For the festival, he was backed by the Blue Healers, a local band formed by Don and Diane Forsyth and drummer Ric Lee, who learned his original material in advance.<\/p>\n

Buster played 250 shows last year and expects to surpass that in 2026. He pushed back on the notion that the harmonica is fading.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe harmonica, I feel, is kind of on an upswing,\u201d he said. \u201cA lot of people think it\u2019s a dying art, but there\u2019s definitely people still playing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"HarmonicasHarmonicas from John Whiteman’s collection seen during the Spring Harp Fest, celebrating the unique sounds of the harmonica, at Harry Griffen Park on Saturday. (Meg McLaughlin \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n

That sentiment resonated with Clara Snell, 63, of San Diego, who was dancing near the stage with a group of girlfriends. Originally from Louisiana, Snell grew up listening to blues and harmonica with her father and was attending the festival for the second year in a row.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just not as popular as maybe it has been,\u201d she said. \u201cBut it\u2019s not dying. It\u2019s part of this country, the blues, the music. It can\u2019t die.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bill Merkle, who said he\u2019s been attending the festival since the beginning, was already on his feet near the front, dancing with his girlfriend of 11 years. He has been coming since the festival\u2019s earliest days and sees something larger at stake in events like this one.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think people are losing their soul a little bit,\u201d he said. \u201cMusic\u2019s such a soulful, human thing. That\u2019s why these kinds of things are so important. It\u2019s good to just come out and listen to music and dance.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The sun was already bearing down by 11 a.m. Saturday morning when families began spreading blankets across the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":252230,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[7,3053,6572,23,100,74,84,76,75,1696],"class_list":{"0":"post-252229","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-california","9":"tag-east-county","10":"tag-la-mesa","11":"tag-local-news","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-san-diego","14":"tag-san-diego-county","15":"tag-san-diego-headlines","16":"tag-san-diego-news","17":"tag-top-stories-sdut"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=252229"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252229\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/252230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}