There are so many festivals going on in Port Townsend. Why not add an accordion festival into the mix?

That was the question Port Townsend’s Paul Rogers once asked himself. He had been wanting to include a squeezebox celebration into the local festival rotation for sometime, so when fellow accordion player Maggie Martin pitched the idea, they went for it and hosted the inaugural Deep Squeeze Accordion Festival last year over Labor Day weekend.

“It was beyond our expectations,” Martin said of last year’s event, which was a benefit for Jefferson County food banks. “That’s why we’re doing it again.”

This year, they’re bringing another accordion-filled weekend featuring more than half a dozen bands to town Sept. 1-3 to benefit the Hospice Foundation for Jefferson County.

BENEFIT

The 2016 event raised more than $1,000 for the food banks, and set a record for attendance at the Pourhouse, where the first two days of the three-day event were held

The final all-ages day at Pope Marine Plaza included an accordion auction, which is slated to happen again this year on Sept. 3, Rogers said.

This year, Rogers decided to make the event a benefit for the Hospice Foundation for Jefferson Healthcare, which supported both of his parents. “It’s a completely volunteer organization and these people are doing amazing work to provide end-of-life care,” Rogers said.

The festival is free of charge, and for those who wish to donate, a tip jar is available. Funds also are raised from the accordion auction, which features two accordions, one donated by Petosa Accordions of Seattle and the other by Michael J. Arralde Accordions of Kent. “A $10 ticket gets you a chance to go home with one,” Rogers said.

OLD FRIENDS

Rogers’ band, Those Darn Accordions, and Martin’s band, the Mad Maggies, form the backbone of the festival and are playing all three days.

Rogers and Martin go back decades. “We’ve crisscrossed paths in the accordion world,” said Martin, who currently lives in Quebec.

They’ve shared drummers and bass players ,and gone on a couple of tours together, too. “It’s a small world,” Martin said. “Most of the accordion people know each other.”

Rogers describes his band as rock ’n’ roll, with a good dose of humor that fans of his will recognize – Rogers hosts an annual comedy show every holiday season.

Martin said Mad Maggies plays what she terms world rock fusion. “We’re hard to define and easy to love,” she said. The music is all over the map (“If you don’t like one [song], you’ll like the other”) and is 90 percent original. “If you like horns, you’re going to like it, if you like accordion, you’re going to like it, if you like to dance around, you’re going to like it,” Martin said.

ALL STYLES

Other bands join Rogers and Martin over the weekend.

Friday night features Vickie and Michael Townsend; Saturday offers the Alternators, Creosote, Nordic Spirit, and Bertram Levy’s Tangoheart. And on Sunday, Tsunami Piñata and Portland singer/songwriter Michael Danner perform.

Friday’s and Saturday’s performances take place at the Pourhouse and are for the 21-and-older crowd (“You’ve got to have beer if you’re going to have an accordion festival,” Rogers said with a laugh), while Sunday is for all ages at the Pope Marine Plaza. “I wanted to make sure everyone can come down with their kids,” Martin said.

Along with the auction, Sunday also features a “Squeeze In.”

Everyone who has an accordion – either one they play regularly or one that’s lying dusty and in the back of their closet – is invited to come down to Pope Marine Plaza on Sunday at about 3 p.m. and play the Beatles’ “Octopus’s Garden” and “The Beer Barrel Polka” (sheet music is available for download at deepsqueeze.org). “The band will back them up,” Martin said.

The bands are set to play a range of music: Brazilian, jazz, Scandinavian, tango, folk, cabaret, rock and, of course, polka, Rogers said.

“It’s a great chance for people to come out and have a great time and hear lots of different kinds of accordion music, and at the same time, support the Hospice Foundation,” he added.