by Kirby Lindsay, posted 17 June 2013
At the 2013 Fremont Fair – June 22nd & 23rd – 100,000s of attendees will be grooving to music played on three separate stages, with most enjoying the free entertainment completely oblivious to the generosity and community spirit that makes that music possible.
All three stages happen because of sponsors. One stage – the Waterfront stage located at the intersection of 1st Ave NW, N 35th St and Canal Street – has entertained crowds and provided musicians with a place to play since 1999, entirely thanks to the Daylight Masons Lodge #232.
Conceptual, Not Geo-centric
While long-time supporters of our Fair, the Daylight Lodge meets at the historic Green Lake Masonic Hall not the Doric Temple in Fremont. According to Anthony Monaco, a member of the Daylight Lodge since 1998 and a past Grand Master, “ours is a conceptual lodge, not geo-centric.” This Lodge, chartered in July 1920, brings together members who share similar interests and professions – in entertainment – rather than people that share a geographic area.
In fact, the Daylight Lodge doesn’t have a long history in Green Lake, and some of its members including Monaco and Coe Tug Morgan, a Mason since 1956, live in Fremont.
The Daylight Lodge – known as the ‘Lodge of Music, Theater, Arts and Technology’ – first began meeting on Broadway, in the Egyptian Theater building. Meetings took place in the daytime, “because people in the business always work at night,” Monaco observed. The Lodge later moved to Yesler, then to Green Lake. (A comprehensive history, written by Morgan, can be found on the Lodge website.)
A Place For Musicians To Play
While not bound by geography, the Daylight Lodge does exhibit an intense dedication to community involvement – and has won awards for its overall Lodge activities. Lodge members cook Sunday morning breakfast (starting at 6a) twice a month for the Roots Young Adult Shelter. The Lodge has a long history of support for the Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestra.
And another community effort, the decision to support a music stage at the Fremont Fair, came from a desire, Morgan recalled, of “wanting to do something to attract a younger energy.”
A past Grand Masters of the Lodge, Morgan recalled, would motivate the other members by observing, ‘we can’t screw up if we don’t try.’ “Things change in the theater world. There is constant change in the entertainment world,” Morgan said, “The Lodge took its spirit from that.”
As the only working musician in the Lodge, when he joined, Monaco brought in other young, musically inclined members. Together, the musicians talked about creating a parade float for musicians, jamming together, like an ever evolving garage band. “There were three young members that presented the idea,” Morgan explained, and unaware (like most people,) that the Solstice Parade and the Fair are organized separately, the Masons took the idea to then Fair producer Al Parisi. When Parisi observed that the Parade didn’t have amplified music, the musicians lost interest.
Then, “in May of 2000,” Morgan, who served as Secretary at the Lodge for 33 years, recalled, “we got a call, ‘Do you want to sponsor a band stage?’” The Lodge gave an enthusiastic and energetic, ‘Yes!’, both men recalled.
Sponsor A Bandstand, And A Booth
That’s when the screw-ups started, and the Lodge showed its ability to prevail and adapt. The first year the stage emcee didn’t show up… so the Lodge members – who Morgan described as “a bunch of hams and clowns,” – took to the microphone.
“We started with nothing, and didn’t know anything,” Morgan recalled, “We didn’t even know we were entitled to a booth.” The second year Parisi asked if they planned to use their booth that year, or give it away, and the Masonic booth quickly became a popular part of the project. “We learn fast,” Monaco explained.
Unlike the stage, which is requires largely passive support, the Masons’ booth takes aggressive, sweat equity from the Daylight Lodge members – as well as any brothers from other Masonic Lodges including Doric Lodge #92 in Fremont. The Masons spend Fair weekends each year handing out balloons – for free – to the kids, while they also, eagerly, field questions on the work and history of Masons to hundreds of curious people.
“We have a fun time working the booth,” Morgan reported, “We love the people who come up to us and tell us all about what they’ve read about Masons on-line.” Members can choose to work inside the booth – inflating 2000+ balloons – or stand out front, engaging passers-by and distributing flyers. Still others, ‘the older guys’ as Morgan described them (and himself,) can sit in the shade, ready to field any serious inquiries about Freemasonry.
“Before Bold Hat [Productions] took over, it was a total disaster,” Morgan said. Every year the producers – Bold Hat and their predecessors – will move the stage or make other adjustments – but Monaco and Morgan seem willing to work with what they get. However, one disastrous year, both men recalled, a (thankfully) long-gone Fair producer moved the stage to the foot of Evanston Avenue. As Monaco reported, the sound bounced off the concrete roadway that sloped upwards from the stage and back into the faces of the musicians. Perhaps worse, as Morgan reported, the audiences couldn’t find them.
“I would say it is very successful,” Monaco said of the Lodge supporting the stage. “It doesn’t pay for itself,” he acknowledged, smiling, but, “being able to say, ‘We sponsor a bandstand!’ That sounds so cool!” When talking with other Masons, and explaining the work of the Daylight Lodge to curious passer-by at the Fair, Monaco likes to acknowledge how the Masons, literally, are “providing a place for musicians to play.”
While strolling the Fair this year – enjoying the free, live music and entertainment – consider a stop at the Mason booth to thank the guys for their dependable and vital support that makes the Fair a harmonious place to groove!
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©2013 Kirby Lindsay. This column is protected by intellectual property laws, including U.S. copyright laws. Reproduction, adaptation or distribution without permission is prohibited.