Who The Funk

Down To Funk Fund started as a small gathering of musicians, organizers, and creatives. Some were old pals from the Davis music scene. Some were Sacramento music mainstays. There were a few East Bay shakers and movers, and one Seattle heavy hitter. Many who’ve volunteered, performed, and attended great indie festivals. All were funky folks with some big ideas. This gathering transformed these friends into a team. We planned, and played, and got some groundwork laid.

We all have many fond memories of our experiences at music festivals over the years. We quickly discovered that the vision to curate our own Funk Music Festival existed in each of us! As organizers and performers with decades of collective experience in this realm, the conversation quickly evolved to a fever pitch on how it would look if WE were running the show, from a ground-up perspective.

Group of people hiking on a dirt trail in a wooded area.

That weekend we started a dream. The dream of a new little festival, but this time it would take care of everybody. The folks working and attending would all leave feeling the love. All the artists would be paid well. The tickets would be affordable, the digs would be comfy, and everyone would get fed. People would be relaxed, exhilarated, and blissful. It would build a community that would love each other. Folks would go on to try and make the world a little better.

A live band performing at a cozy indoor venue with colorful lighting, including a singer, drummer, guitarist, saxophonist, and bassist.
“One Nation Under a Groove, getting down just for the funk of it”
— Pfunk

Community & Diversity

Funk connects us! We delight in bringing people together across backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives to celebrate Funk Music and build communities that reflect the full range of human expression and create space for everyone to participate.  We welcome different voices, stories, and sounds and believe embracing diversity will better ensure our leadership and efforts overall reflect the full range of human expression and equal opportunity.

Funkster Values

Financial Sustainability

Everyone deserves to be compensated fairly for their services. We prioritize living-wage pay for artists, staff, and vendors. While also building a model that supports the long-term sustainability of the festival and values and the larger project behind it.

Holistic Accessibility

Accessibility is part of the entire process, from planning through production and execution.  We design experiences that honor the whole person, creating spaces that are physically accessible, emotionally safe, and environmentally mindful from start to finish.

Funkster Vision

Reflecting on our own journey

We’ve lived the hustle that so many artists know: long nights, low pay, and the constant fight to keep creating in a system that doesn’t always see or understand the value of art and historic culture.

How do we want to make people FEEL

We want people to feel like they are free to express themselves, filled with joy, and inspired. We want them to walk away thinking, “This is what community can look like.”

What do we want to be known for

We want to be known for building a festival that delivers great music and puts people first. We want to be known for being a festival that does things differently: creating a model that challenges the status quo of the events world, proves that inclusion, integrity, and joy, that can lead the way.

The impact we want to make

Our hope is to spark a funky ripple effect that inspires others to feel good while doing good and to create safer, fairer, and more human-centered events everywhere.

Meet the Team

  • A man with long dreadlocks, glasses, and tattoos playing a tambourine inside a wooden room. He is wearing a brown hat and a black T-shirt with colorful graphic art.

    Billy D Thompson, Co-Founder & Board President

    Billy is a musician, recording engineer, and educator based in Sacramento CA. Billy D is an active drummer in the NorCal scene and toured the western US with acts like The Gold Souls, Boot Juice, Sun Hop Fat, and Ten Foot Tiger. With a love for many genres, and instruments, Billy D has lent his ear to a myriad of projects on stage and in the studio. As the owner and operator of Warm & Fuzzy Music, he’s digging deep to create classic records with the contemporary artists of Sacramento and beyond.

  • A woman with long, curly dark hair and a nose piercing, standing in a forested area with trees and fallen autumn leaves.

    Juniper Waller, Co-Founder & Board Vice President

    Juniper Waller is lead singer and band leader of Northern CA funk/soul band The Gold Souls. Juniper is also a teacher of singing, performance, songwriting, breathwork, and creativity coaching. She loves bringing people together in music community, and is especially passionate about creating more opportunities for women in music.
    You can find Juniper at https://linktr.ee/junipersings

  • A woman with long brown hair, wearing a black T-shirt with teal text, smiling outdoors in a wooded area during autumn.

    Winter Williams, Co-Founder & Board Treasurer

    Winter is a Funk-loving event production macgyver from Oakland, CA with passions for creative concert curation and financial feminism.  Her tool kit includes 20+ years of impact banking experience, 35+ years of lessons learned as a community activist and an ethnic studies degree from UC Berkeley. More about Winter can be found at winterwilliamspresent.com.

  • A man outdoors in a wooded area wearing a black cap with a tree logo, orange-tinted sunglasses, and a black V-neck shirt, smiling at the camera.

    Jason Gray, Co-Founder & Board Secretary

    Jason is a well known bassist and recording engineer who’s been heavily rooted in Seattle’s Deep-Funk and Soul music scene for the last 20 years, and founding member of Seattle’s Afro-Psych band, Polyrhythmics for 15 years. He’s also the owner and operator of Blue Mallard Recording Studio (founded 2010) where many a Seattle funk band has passed through to add top-quality recordings to their legacy. Several of these recordings have occupied top Billboard chart positions as well as Grammy nominations.

  • A man with a beard and mustache wearing a black wide-brimmed hat, a black hoodie, and a graphic t-shirt, standing outdoors in a wooded area during autumn.

    Josh Haines, Board Member

    Josh, a local Sacramento favorite sound engineer, brings extensive experience and genuine enthusiasm to every project he touches. Born and raised a bluegrass festival enthusiast, Josh has built his life around a passion for live music and community building. Known for his warmth, expertise, and dedication, he is a trusted presence in the Sacramento music scene and a steadfast advocate for creating meaningful, connected experiences through sound and performance.

  • A young woman with glasses and pink hair tied in buns stands in a forest during autumn, wearing a tie-dye T-shirt with vibrant colors.

    Liz Kat, Board Member

    Liz is a content strategist who’s spent 10+ years in marketing and events. She runs a boutique social media agency working with clients across multiple industries to bring their stories to life online. She’s deeply passionate about building community through creativity and the arts, and inspiring people to chase their potential. She’s also the lead singer and songwriter of The Midnight Dip.

  • Madi

    Madison Armstrong

    Madison Armstrong is a saxophonist and woodwind instrumentalist based in Sacramento, California.
    Originally from Las Vegas, NV, she relocated to Sacramento in 2016 to attend Sacramento State University studying clarinet performance under Professor Sandra McPherson and jazz saxophone under Professor Mike McMullen.
    Currently she plays and acts as the horn arranger/horn section leader in The Gold Souls, a powerhouse funk band based in Sacramento. 
    In addition to performing around the greater Sacramento area, she also teaches privately out of her own home studio in Sacramento.

  • Smiling woman with black hair, wearing sunglasses on her head, a floral-patterned jacket, black top, and jewelry, standing outdoors near the coastline with blue sky and ocean in the background.

    Via de Jesus

    Via’s passion lies in fostering community and helping others reconnect to nature and one another. Originally from Quezon City, Philippines, they made San José their home in 2023 after earning a Master’s in Environmental Conservation at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. As a newcomer to the region, they view every day as a chance to explore the rich culture and history of the Bay Area. You can often find them applying their keen attention to detail as the Operations and Development Coordinator of Environmental Volunteers, a nonprofit based in Palo Alto, or while creating intricate embroideries that feature local landscapes and wildlife.

  • A woman wearing a black headscarf and large spiral earrings outdoors in a wooded area, looking off to the side.

    Nicole Gentry

    Nicole Gentry is a multi-instrumentalist, music director, music event producer, educator, and artist developer based in Northern California. As a musician, she works across live and recorded settings, while her leadership extends into directing performances, producing events, and guiding creative process. Nicole is known for creating intentional musical spaces that value collaboration, artistry, and growth, supporting both her own creative work and the work of others through mentorship, curation, and community building.

  • Close-up of a smiling woman with blonde, wavy hair, blue eyes, and multiple facial piercings, against a plain background.

    Elle Jaye

    For over 20 years, Sacramento photographer Elle Jaye has been playing with light, water and laughter to capture electric images in her work. She’s taken photos for G.I.R.L.S Rock Sacramento and held sessions with local acts like Katie Knipp, The Gold Souls, Jessica Malone and Dear Darling. She has a fiery passion to capture drummers and their instruments, enchanting musicians like Karen Wulff, Questlove, Daru Jones, Corey Strange and Mike Johnson.

  • A person with long dark hair, wearing sunglasses and a black blazer, playing a keyboard in a room with white shiplap walls, a vintage armchair, and some equipment.

    Karl Rasmussen

    Karl is a multi-instrumentalist. He has been moving air professionally for over 15 years with bands such as: Big Sticky Mess, Boca do Rio, ideateam, Jonny Gold Trio, Joey Carusi Organ Trio and more. You can find him and his shenanigans on insta @greazycharles.

  • A man with long hair, a beard, glasses, a black beanie, wearing a blazer and a patterned scarf, standing behind a turntable with records, in front of a dark wood-paneled wall with a window, holding a vinyl record sleeve.

    Joel Ricci

    American music artist, Joel Ricci (fka Lucky Brown), writes and records in his tiny forest cabin in the foothills of the North Olympic Mountains on the Olympic peninsula. When called to do so, he assembles and conducts dynamic live public ceremonies/spectacles employing some of the most sought-after Funk and Jazz artists in the Seattle, Washington, area. Via his dozens of self-produced vinyl singles released in Europe over the past two decades, he has been hailed by music mavens worldwide as a deep funk pioneer.

  • A smiling older man with glasses and a beard wearing a black t-shirt with KPFA and 94.1f written on it, against a plain white background.

    Peter Stickney

    Peter Stickney was born in Denver, Colorado. When he was three, his family moved to Modesto, California, and later settled in Sonora. His interest in photography and graphic arts was sparked by frequent visits to the Central Pacific Coast, Yosemite National Park, and the Ansel Adams Gallery. His aunt nurtured his budding passion by giving him her old cameras, an enlarger, and developing trays. 
    Over the years, Peter has worked in graphic arts, technology, and business administration, each role contributing to his creativity and expanding his skills. 
    For the past decade, he has focused on videotaping interviews with senior citizens and photographing portraits, headshots, and special events. He has also produced documentaries and short films.
    Peter mentors students at City College of San Francisco and KPFA 94.1 FM, guiding them in photography, audio, and video production.

  • A man wearing a blue blazer and white shirt, holding the straps of a backpack, looking to the side, standing in front of a colorful, geometric background.

    Darius Upshaw

    Darius is a music industry professional with over 30 years of experience as a front man, collaborator, recording artist, and live production contributor. With a background that includes performing with multiple artists, producing and promoting events, working in studio environments, and participating in filming and media production, he brings a full-spectrum understanding of what it takes to create powerful live and recorded music experiences.

  • A smiling man with glasses and a colorful patterned shirt standing outdoors in a wooded area with trees in the background.

    Matt Vollmer

    Matt is a professional full-stack software engineer with over 10 years of experience, and currently works for an educational nonprofit called Big Minds. He has also played trumpet, trombone and tuba with a variety of norcal-based bands since 2015. He is a lover of all things funk and assists Down To Funk Fund with technical work, including web development, payment processing, and Discord moderation.