Many variations on the stone soup folktale exist, but it basically goes like this: A few hungry travelers happen upon a hungry village, and none of the villagers are willing to feed them, so the travelers pull out their cauldron, fill it with water from a nearby creek, and announce they’ll make stone soup and feed the entire village. They place a single stone in the water and put it over a flame.
One by one, curious villagers come up to see the soup’s progress, and the travelers tell them it’s looking good but could be better if the villager would just add a little something. So one brings a handful of carrots, another a few meager potatoes, another a pinch of salt, and so on, and before too long, there’s a big steaming pot of delicious soup, and the travelers remove the single stone and ladle the soup into the villagers’ bowls, feeding everyone including themselves.
On Saturday and Sunday, Aug. 29 and 30, the Clark Center will once again oversee the free Stone Soup Music Festival and Street Fair. According to Clark Center Executive Director Dave Pier, the free Grover Beach festival and the folktale about sharing, cooperation, generosity, and community connect on multiple levels.
Cooperative community fun
The Stone Soup Music Festival returns to Grover Beach in and around Ramona Garden Park on Saturday, Aug. 29 (10 a.m. to 9 p.m.) and Sunday, Aug. 30(10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.). See 16 bands on two stages, visit the Kidz Zone and vendors, celebrate the Central Coast with friends and neighbors, and witness the canine cavalcade that is the Mardi Paws Dog Parade on Sunday at 10:30 a.m. It’s free and open to everyone. Visit clarkcenter.org/stone-soup-lineup for details.
“Certainly, on the music front, all these different music groups come together to put on something much bigger than any one group could do,” Pier explained. “That ties directly into the story. It’s the same thing with the street fair. We have all these different kinds of food vendors that come in, all different ethnic foods, and then also all the vendors’ booths. There’re all sorts of crafts and all different kinds of wares, artwork.
“So it’s a pretty big mixing pot, and it’s basically the idea of all these different people from this region, from this community, some travelers, some people coming in from out of town, being part of this festival and bringing them all together to put on something that’s much bigger than anyone alone could do. We also like to talk about the nourishment of the community. It has a great impact.”
This year, the festival boasts 16 bands and 56 vendors. It’s grown by leaps and bounds from its first festival 35 years ago. Former Grover Beach Mayor Peter Keith was among the initial organizers. The festival idea was inspired by Keith’s own travel experiences.
“My wife and I have traveled around the world many times, pushed the envelope of adventure, and met and talked with and had relationships with people from various cultures,” Keith explained. “I got back to Grover and thought, ‘We have Asian people, a Filipino section of people, a very small assortment of Black people. We have white and of course Hispanic people, but it’s not like we’re intercoursing with one another.’
“I thought, ‘I saw all these other cultures, so why not put something together in Grover that reflects our various cultures?’” he said. “We initially named it the Grover Beach Ethnic Street Fair, a one-day event.”
Keith put together a group of people to get the first festival off the ground, and though he missed it because he had already booked a trip to Italy, the first festival happened and had some attendees but wasn’t an overwhelming success. Still, Keith and his core group of organizers persisted. Its name was changed to Stone Soup early on because Cal Poly offered a grant under the condition it could be renamed. Now the event is a community favorite.
“One of the nice things this year is that Ramona Garden Park is freshly renovated, so there’s a brand-new amphitheater there with a new stage that’s set up,” Pier noted. “There’s also—for the kids—this large, elaborate playground area, which we never had before. We used to do balloon houses and things like that, but we don’t need to do that anymore. There’s a huge playground there with all these activities for kids.”
And of course, the music is paramount: “The basic idea with the music is it switches back and forth between the two stages,” Pier added. “Every hour there’s a new group starting up, then it just goes continuously for the two days.”
‘It’s basically the idea of all these different people from this region, from this community, some travelers, some people coming in from out of town, being part of this festival and bringing them all together to put on something that’s much bigger than anyone alone could do.’
—Dave Pier, Clark Center executive director
Another annual tradition is the 10:30 Sunday morning Mardi Paws Dog Parade.
“There’s a costume contest, so the people dress up their dogs,” Pier laughed. “One of the prizes is the best matching costume between the dog and the person who’s walking the dog. That’s a lot of fun. People have a great time with that.”
Keeping the festival free and open to the public is a community undertaking, with Grover Beach, the Nichols Foundation West, private supporters like Peter Keith, stage sponsors like Mechanics Bank and the Arroyo Grande Community Hospital, and various band sponsors all chipping in to make it happen.
“For many years, it was produced by the South County Chambers of Commerce,” Pier explained, “and at one point, they asked if we could help program it. Then after COVID, they said, ‘Why don’t you guys just run the festival?”
There’s certainly a lot to do over the weekend. The Grover Beach Exploration Discovery Center is open on Saturday for a nominal fee. The SLO Symphony will be facilitating an instrument petting zoo, and the Grover Beach Library will be hosting some readings of the Stone Soup folktale.
“You can go to our website, and we list all the bands that are performing and different activities that are going on,” Pier added. “People can check that out and map out a plan for what they want to do, or they can just come and, you know, embrace it all and just spend the day or two there.”
Go to clarkcenter.org/stone-soup-lineup for details.
“It’s really an engaging event,” Keith added. “It’s something you don’t want to leave, and you don’t have to go elsewhere to find something to eat because there’s lots of food from Asian to American and Mexican, et cetera, et cetera.
“It’s a fun event, and most people come back for the second day.” ∆
Contact Arts Editor Glen Starkey at gstarkey@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Aug 20-27, 2026.
