Spring is here, and South Whidbey noisemakers gathered Tuesday evening to celebrate.

Around 50 people from a few months old to seniors encircled a propane fire pit by a historic barn in the Whidbey Island Fairgrounds to mark the season with rhythm. They came with hand drums, toms, five-gallon buckets, shakers, cowbells, glass bottles and more. The weather prevailed, and at one point a shooting star flew across the clear sky.

This is the second event of the sort, said David Stern, fairgrounds events and marketing coordinator. Similar spirited drum-bangers circled for the winter solstice in December. They want to continue, be it a drum circle or other “rhythmic gathering” at each solstice and equinox “to celebrate the passing of time with our friends and neighbors.”

Stern has been drumming since he was a kid, he said. He started hand drumming in groups of people not so different from Tuesday’s gathering. In high school, he joined the marching band. More recently, he was a member of the Seahawks Blue Thunder drumline for three years.

“I’ve taken kind of a circuitous path to this, but I’ve always come back to the idea that gathering people together to play drums, regardless of experience, is a bonding experience and a moving experience and can be quite spiritual for some people as well,” he said.

Worldwide there are many modern and historic traditions celebrating the vernal equinox. Easter, prior to its Christian association, originated with the pagan, Anglo-Saxon festival of Eostre. The “Easter Bunny” was a fertility goddess often associated with the rabbit, hence the egg symbolism, according to the Smithsonian.

The equinox is especially important to acknowledge here, Stern said.

“Winter is tough in the Pacific Northwest,” he said. “It can be particularly isolating for people, I think, and so it’s sort of crawling out of our winter slumber and seeing each other again for the first time and playing music together and reconnecting at the beginning of the beautiful season.”

The drum circle creates a literal vibration which can help “change things for people and just, you know, feel good. It feels good,” he said.

It doesn’t matter if drummers perform “correctly” or stay on beat, Stern said. It’s about coming together and playing. Success meant decent weather and a fun time with community, friends and neighbors.

“I have a magic equation when it comes to doing events on Whidbey Island,” he said, “and that it is not a successful event unless there are kids and at least one dog. Well, (Tuesday) we had a puppy and lots of happy kids running around and dancing.”

Stern sees many more low-pressure community gathering events at the fairgrounds in the future.

Drummers at Tuesday’s equinox drum circle used hand drums, toms, five-gallon buckets, shakers, cowbells, glass bottles and more. (Photo courtesy of David Stern)

Photo courtesy of David Stern The “magic equation” for Whidbey Island events is kids and dogs, said Tuesday drum circle organizer David Stern.

Around 50 people from a few months old to seniors encircled a propane firepit by a beautiful historic barn of the Whidbey Island Fairgrounds. (Photo courtesy of David Stern)