Community Festival Focuses on Art, Music

Fleming Park exploded with art on Saturday, Sept. 14, when Reality Rock and Sonic Summons Productions presented the first Lost and Found Music and Art Festival in Colton. Hundreds of visitors from Colton and surrounding cities made the pilgrimage to the community park in the heart of the city for the inaugural event, which presented a vast array of music artists, painters and dancers who performed in the 2 to 9 p.m. event. The festival also featured a skate and scooter park, which many younger residents took advantage of, as well as bounce houses, face painting booths, art displays and food vendors. Interested visitors also had the opportunity to meet and speak with some of the presenting acts and purchase merchandise. Artists included Manafest, Pawn Shop Kings, NickdoG, The Divide, Altar Billies, DJ Triune, Savannah Moon, Henry Martyn, Sentry, Roxie Jane, the X Factor Dance Crew, Renovated Rootz and Fiendish Thingies. Music genres presented included alternative rock, electro, pop, hip hop, reggae, gospel, rap, Latin and post-modern. Jason Morris is a San Bernardino resident who heard about the event on his radio station of choice, Air 1, through an alert he set up on his mobile phone. He saw that Manifest, a band whose songs are regularly played on the station and to whom Morris enjoys listening, was slated to perform, so he decided to come check it out. The festival’s aim to provide a family-friendly event made it that much better for him, he said. “When I heard there would be stuff for the kids to do, it was a win–win,” he said. Morris brought his two boys, Adam, 5, and Evan, 4, who were busy drawing colorful chalk art on the ground, courtesy of the Kids Cures Foundation booth. Nick Ondatje, also known by his stage name as NickdoG, told the Colton City News in early June of this year, “We wanted to bring something to bring attention to the positive things happening in our City.” Ondatje is a Colton native who now lives in Beaumont, but his pride for Colton is still strong. “We want others to know that Colton is a good city and that they can move into Colton and become part of our family,” Ondatje said in June. The event was a longtime dream of Ondatje and his friend, Trino Padilla, who had experience throwing large events like car shows and other fundraisers in the past. When the opportunity arose for the group to bring various entertainment acts together for a day of community fun, the duo jumped at it, explained Padilla. “There were no divisions,” said Padilla. “It was everyone’s event. Anyone who wanted to be a part of it could be a part of it,” Padilla said. “We wanted to try and build something positive and also enjoy the various talents [in our] community.” The festival emphasized bringing people together in common beliefs, according to Albert Zamora, an actively involved resident and The COIN Foundation founder. He said, “We wanted to try and build something positive and also enjoy the various talents [in our] community.”