By Kimberly Alexsandra Madrigal
What started off as a jam sesh between close friends during the COVID-19 lockdown turned into the resurgence of the infamous Titlow raves — possibly the coolest underground festival scene, at least in Humboldt County. Their last and biggest event to date in October 2024 had four stages, over 40 artists and over 1,300 people in attendance.
Collin Wick is the founder of Eclectic farms, Humboldt County’s main collective combining art, music, cannabis and community.
Wick has been around music his whole life and enjoys being involved in multiple projects. After touring around Europe and South America, he returned to Humboldt County and started his cannabis cultivation farm, Eclectic Farms.
During the pandemic, he began to have jam sessions for those who lived on the farm. As restrictions were lifted, there were still hardly any gigs, which led him to open up his home to more artists to share their craft.
Post-pandemic, more and more people would come to these jam sessions. As they expanded, they then began to put DJs outside onto the deck to give them a separate section to shine while still keeping the original intimate jam session going on inside.
As these events grew bigger, so did different areas along the property as they opened up different sections of the house, which then evolved into building stages and spaces for interactive art.
At these unique and one-of-a-kind raves, you could find both local and international musicians, DJs, performers and artists. This collective has birthed music groups like Makenu, and held space for up and coming artists, such as KRFH’s DJ Princess Tornado. Some performances they had have been aerial and silk dancers, fire dancers and live glassblowing and painting.
“Being able to connect so many people and have everybody really love the vibe, to do that has really been special for me,” Wick said. “It gives a lot of meaning to be able to actually connect people and provide an experience that’s really enlivening.”
Now, they are working with visual artists to create a 360 visual tube greenhouse, constructing a medical attention area to ensure safety of patrons at their larger events and collaborating with Humboldt Comedy to host a space that will allow attendees to enjoy live comedians in between music and dancing.
June 14, July 12, Aug 9, Sept. 27 and Oct. 25 are upcoming event dates for this year. Volunteers, musicians, artists and performers are welcome to contact them for more information on how to collaborate.
More details on @Eclecticfarms and https://www.eclecticfarmsart.com/
Kimberly Alexsandra Madrigal is a 3rd year Journalism major from Fresno, CA who enjoys spring, wired earphones, unemployed friend activities and lavender matcha.