Video: Sunday August 20, 2023 Video & Photo Highlights of annual Cotati California Accordion Festival.
Video 2: Cotati Accordion Festival

The Cotati Festival is a fantastic accordion event for all types of accordion music, instruments, and accordion lovers. This year’s event was a huge success as always. Andy Adams who writes for the “Community Voice” summarized the versatility of the 2023 Cotati Festival which took place on August 19 and 20, 2023:

Thousands showed for Cotati’s 32nd Annual Accordion Festival. Including over 30 performances, nearly 100 vendors, and nine “future accordion stars,” the event spanned nine and a half hours both Saturday and Sunday in La Plaza Park, closing surrounding streets. The accordion festival is a non-profit organization that celebrates the accordion and donates thousands to local youth groups and school programs. 

“Last year was our biggest turnout ever,” said event director Scott Goree. “So many people find they wanted to come out after being stuck at home, and I think people don’t take festivals for granted anymore.”

The festival began in 1991, run by Jim Boggio and Clifton Buck-Kauffman. After Jim Boggio passed away, Buck-Kauffman talked of retiring the festival at a dinner party of eight, but Goree had other plans.

“Next thing I know, I’ve been doing it for 20 years, just from going out to dinner with the wrong guy,” Goree joked. The polka tent on the park’s south side gathered crowds that filled the tent, inside and out. The Steve Balich Band was one band featured in the tent, playing a variety of polka with many couples dancing through the afternoon. The band has been performing at the festival since its start, and while Steve Balich Sr. has since retired, his son, Steve Balich Jr., remains in the band.

This year, The Cotati Accordion Festival named The Great Morgani the 2023 Honorary Director. The Great Morgani is a popular Santa Cruz accordion street performer who has performed at the festival for 22 years. Making his first appearance in 1996, Morgani has around 30 accordions and 150 costumes, including six recently developed costumes entitled ‘Blaque and Bleu,’ which he wore around the festival. Morgani, who used to have almost 50 accordions, contributed two accordions to the festival, as he has for the last few years. Morgani retired in 2022 but came out of retirement for what the festival’s poster calls “The Great Morgani Retirement Party!” Goree wanted to make sure Morgani had a last hurrah before retirement. 

“I wasn’t going to show up at all, but then they have me all over the poster as the Great Morgani’s retirement party, and they’ve given me the honorary director,” said Morgani.

He initially received honorary director 20 years ago, in 2003. Morgani teased, “My next award will be in 2043, I’ll be 101 years old, and I want to come in on a zipline.” Six ‘Future Accordion Stars’ competed at the Church of the Oaks down the street simultaneous to the festival. The first Judy and Dick Contino Accordion scholarship was the highest at $1,000 and went to Evan Yuan, and $17,000 was awarded between 5 more contestants. In recent years, the Accordion Festival has not only been an annual celebration in the community but has been a philanthropic group for local non-profit organizations. The festival donates thousands of dollars of funds raised by the event to benefit local youth. Organizations such as the Education Foundation, the Boy Scouts of America, and local schools such as Thomas Page and Penngrove Elementary have had thousands donated.

Get ready for the 2024 Cotati Accordion Festival which will happen at La Plaza Park!

For further information: info@cotatifest.com