The weekend-long West End art and music festival is celebrating 21 years in 2022.

The beloved Sand City art and music celebration West End Festival is turning 21 this year, and while its longtime organizer Steve Vagnini guarantees the event remains “family-friendly” through and through, “the festival has certainly matured and evolved over the years,” he says.

What began as a tiny art gathering has since become a sizable music festival, with around 17,000 attendees last year. Still, the artistic vibe is palpable.

“It’s a makers’ festival,” Vagnini says. This year he received so many applications for arts and crafts vendors that he had to put 60 of them on the waiting list. “It must be the ‘Great Resignation,’” he reflects, referring to the social trend of pandemic job quitting. “Lots of people work from home now, making jewelry, woodwork and posting it on Etsy. I’m getting a lot of last-minute emails asking if it’s too late to join the festival.”

The quality of the affordable art, “the piece of furniture for $200 that you can walk away with,” Vagnini explains, is what he thinks makes this community festival special. That, and a group of dedicated volunteers that have been the backbone of the festival since its inception in 2000.

West End has established itself permanently in the summer life of the Monterey Peninsula, and it continues to attract new people and new performers – this year’s lineup features over 30 musicians (see schedule, right). The youngest performer is Pacific Grove-based Katherine Lavin, who will play at noon on Saturday on the main stage.

While West End Festival, now age 21, can officially drink and smoke, the same cannot be said about Lavin, age 14. Despite her young age, Lavin is a seasoned singer-songwriter.

As a child from a family full of musicians, she experienced the West End early, maybe as a 7-year-old, she wonders out loud. “I was impressed by the bands and this is really cool that I get to play there, and on the main stage.”

Lavin’s mother taught her ukulele; she then moved on to guitar, writing her own songs practically from the beginning. Now, she has 54 in her catalog and is about to record her first album in the Bay Area.

Even with all that work, Lavin doesn’t see her professional music career as a priority that should affect her other educational plans. “I’m writing songs and having fun,” she says. “I will see how far it takes me.”

In terms of songwriting, she credits The Beatles as the absolute masters who taught her different, inspiring song structures. She has been a good student and Lavin’s original songs, such as “Waterfall” and “Rebel,” are composed in such effective ways that it’s hard to imagine the level this young songwriter will be at 10 years from now. Lavin’s young voice soars in and above those professionally done pieces, filling them with beautiful vulnerability.

This songwriting prowess is a key thing Vagnini considers in crafting the West End lineup each year. “We have a lot of bands on the Peninsula playing covers,” Vagnini says. “At West End, musicians are playing their original tunes. It’s a showcase of original music.”

Music and art is a dual domain of Morticai, who will present soundscapes and “live looping” at noon on Saturday on the Hear & Now stage. In addition to creating ambient music, Jeddy Grant (aka Morticai) practices spirography, which is an art of making postcards, in his case, Christmas cards. For many people like him, West End fest is a double treat.

Like most local events, West End took a year off in 2020. Last year, 2021, brought complaints about excessive police presence at a festival. “Some people say Sand City police have been too heavy-handed,” Vagnini says. “I defer to the police chief,” he adds. “Because I had other people telling me that police presence made them safe.” That’s the nature of hosting a large public gathering these days – always looking for new steps in a dance between freedom and safety.

“We had 17,000 people last year and we expect as much or more this year,” Vagnini says. But no matter how many people fill the streets over the course of the weekend, the general spirit of the festival remains the same – music and art bringing people together.

WEST END CELEBRATION 11am-5:30pm Saturday, Aug. 28 and noon-5pm Sunday, Aug. 29. Throughout the streets of Sand City. Free. westendcelebration.com.

The Sand City West End Celebration Lineup

INDEPENDENT STAGE

Saturday, Aug. 27

11am Guitars Not Guns

12pm Katherine Lavin

1:15pm Adrea Castiano

2:30pm Gary Meek

4pm Maria Muldaur

Sunday, Aug. 28

12pm Dirty Cello

1pm Matt Masih

2:30pm Cindy Alexander

4pm The Sun Kings

REDWOOD STAGE

Saturday

12:30pm Next Exit

1:30pm Wolf Jett

3pm Jon Griffin & The Lightfighters

4:30pm Meex831

Sunday

12pm B-Keepers

4pm Chuck Brewer Band

4pm Hayley Jane

4pm Wrockinfoose

HEAR & NOW STAGE

Saturday

12pm Morticai

1pm Merley Amuse

2pm Reverend Stephen Sams & The Savages

3pm SEA.LVL

4pm DJ Razzvio

Sunday

12pm Holysea

1pm Meredith McHenry

2pm Palo Salto

3pm The Bassment

4pm DJ Hanif Wondir