Last weekend, Juneau gathered at Centennial Hall for Trollfest, a celebration of art, music and environmentalism inspired by the legendary artist Ray Troll. To get an idea of the event, picture a salt-encrusted dive bar hosting a psychedelic science fair–meets–family reunion; that should get you about halfway there.
This was a family affair, with each band in the evening’s lineup made up of some combination of Trolls and Troll-in-laws. In the wake of the recent closure of Soho Coho, Ray Troll’s iconic store in Ketchikan, Trollfest felt a bit like a tilt of the hat to his hard-earned stardom.
Walking into Centennial Hall, crowds entered that unique, punk-hallucinogenic sphere that is at the root of Ray Troll’s artwork. Five-foot-long fish were plastered along the walls, guiding people past booths in the lobby staffed by advocates from SEACC and SalmonState ready for conversations about harvesting, deforestation, mining and more. The lobby was fully abuzz with such a spirit of anarchist conservation as to make Edward Abbey himself proud.
Inside the main hall, groovy graphics and animations set the backdrop to the evening’s performances. The audience enjoyed visuals like a tyrannosaurus rex doing the stanky leg to a trombone solo preluding a giant halibut romping across the screen to the refrain, “shake that halibut, baby, shake that halibut.” As much as it might sound like one, no, this wasn’t a trip. Instead, it was something arguably more elusive, rare and moving: Trollfest, an event as quintessentially Southeast Alaskan as it’s possible to get.
“How do you even tell someone what you’re doing? People just had to see it. That’s part of why it was so truly special that so many people, even not really having a sense of what it might look like or feel like, were willing to take a risk and get a ticket and show up,” said Erin Heist, co-producer of the event and one of Ray’s nieces. “The biggest thing was just the feel in the room – it was absolutely electric.”
The evening’s lineup featured three wildly popular bands, each representing a distinct musical style: The Heists, known for their rich folk roots; the indie-rock outfit Whiskey Class; and Ray Troll and the Ratfish Wranglers, who describe their sound as “sub-aquatic neo-folk, fish-punk-funk rock.” Any one of them could have easily headlined a stage of that size on their own. But instead of competition, the night unfolded with a generosity of the spotlight — a seamless passing of energy and affection from one act to the next. Then again, that kind of warmth makes perfect sense when you remember they’re all family.
“I feel really honored to be at such an event where this incredibly talented family from all across Southeast came together in all these different bands and brought together this whole community,” said Amanda Breslow, an attendee of the event. “The vibes are just so light, so happy, so joyful, and what’s incredible is that it’s all for the sake of expression itself and community building.”
The transition from The Heists, one of Southeast’s premier bluegrass duos, to the ethereal Whiskey Class (whose lead singer, Liz Snyder, is another of Ray’s nieces) was seamless, dancers swapping the waltz for headbanging without skipping a beat.
However great the tunes, if the crowd came for the music then they stayed for the kaleidoscopic projections and lighting design by Greg Mitchell and Mike Inwood.
“He’s kind of a mad scientist,” Heist said of Mitchell. “He and Ray really clicked, and so the vision was to give him Ray’s unbelievable archive of work – you know, 40-to-50 years worth of beautiful, kind of wacko graphics. Greg had so much to work with, and they both were very kindred spirits.”
Mitchell spent months animating Ray’s archive, syncing visuals to every twist and turn of the Ratfish Wranglers’ set.
Tears were shed as Ray recounted how the band’s journey began nearly 40 years ago when he was a substitute teacher and met his now-bandmate, Russel Wodehouse, a student at the time.
“It did start with that smart-aleck student when I was trying to be an art teacher in Mr. Jendar’s class,” Ray said of the band’s keyboard player. “I guess I just liked this guy’s attitude.”
At times, the Ratfish Wranglers felt like a science lesson mixed with a Grateful Dead performance. Perhaps the first concert to ever feature an accompanying study guide, Ray took multiple opportunities throughout the night to chat on topics from paleontology to ichthyology, citing scientific papers and studies before launching into songs about archeology, tide pools and fossils.
During the event, Ray’s son Patrick, who is also part of the Ratfish Wranglers, shared a trailer for a documentary he’s spent years working on about his father’s legacy throughout Southeast. For Heist and all of the other members of the Troll family and production team, it was the first time they were seeing any footage from the project.
“We had this moment in the middle of this giant dance party where the entire hall went silent to watch a piece of film. It was very sweet and very emotional and beautiful and quiet,” said Heist. “Just that moment in particular was surreal and I think it highlighted the fact that every single person in that place was feeling the same thing at the same time.”
Well-loved, well-salted Ray Troll t-shirts adorned the crowd – spurring conversations between attendees wearing the same designs and inspiring jealousy at older pieces no longer being sold. Few and far between were the people who hadn’t been christened with glitter upon entry, making for an event heavy on the effervescence.
“He’s such an icon,” said Heist of her Uncle Ray. “Even if people don’t know his name, they know his art. It’s everywhere, and his style really has informed a lot of general pop art in Alaska in a way that I think people just don’t even notice all the time. So, it was really special for me to get to do something to recognize him in a way that I don’t think he’d been recognized before.”
Rachel Levy is a Juneau-based photojournalist whose work culminates at the intersections of environmental justice, arts and culture, and sustainable tourism. A 2022 graduate of Harvard University's Environmental Policy program, she is also the director of the award-winning documentary "Hidden in Plain Sight" that exposes the labor exploitation and colonial framework burdening Tanzania's safari industry.
