ANNOUNCING THE 2010 (B.C.) INDEPENDENCE FRUITCAKE FESTIVAL
---  AND THE MUMMIFICATION OF THE FRUITCAKE PHARAOH  ---

FRUITCA K E ~ THE SACRED FOOD OF THE PHARAOHS
MORE ENCRYPTIONS WILL BE DECIPHERED SHORTLY

THE 2010 INDEPENDENCE FRUITCAKE FESTIVAL IS SPONSORED BY
THE ILLUMINUTTI

Fruitcakes in Space
Fruitcake or Eggnog is required for admission
COME AS YOU ARE NOT

   
"Take me to your fruitcake."

We have a limited number of these spectacular T-shirts.
CivicShirts@InyoCounty.Info
The long-sleeve black shirts come in sizes
S, M, L, X-l, XX-L and XXX-L.
If you can't make it to the Festival but you want a shirt,
send us an email followed by a check to
Independence Civic Club Tee Shirts
P.O. Box 482, Independence, CA 93526
We'll mail you the shirt. Add $5 for foreign orders.
All shirts are $30.
Profits go into our charitable fund.

See the 2008 Independence Fruitcake Festival on Owens Valley Channel 33 Click Segment 2

 
The Fruitcake King
The 2007 Fruitcake Festival Video
The article the Perpetual Fruitcake King will forever regret
Fruitcake Fest Sets Sights on Trifecta
 Inyo Register, Bishop California       December 15, 2007
It’s true. The Fruitcake Festival is no longer “our little secret” in the Owens Valley, where it’s sort of the valley’s version of crazy Aunt Nancy living in the attic that no one really wants to talk about. The twittering is the result of some national media attention for the rather odd festival, which celebrates the annoying mixture of cheap cake, chunks of cast-off dried fruit, almost-rotten nuts, and enough booze and other preservatives to make a mummy blush that is also known as fruitcake.

California Festival Celebrates Fruitcake
Weekend Edition Sunday     December 16, 2007
National Public Radio and the Independence Civic Club's
Nancy Masters get together for this hilarious interview.

Listeners Defend the Fruitcake
Weekend Edition Sunday     December 23, 2007
Our story last week about a California fruitcake festival brought letters from listeners who love and defend the much-maligned fruitcake. NPR's Liane Hansen reads a few of these letters, and then hears from one listener who was moved to song.

OUR SCHEDULE OF EVENTS Click on the image to view our local schedule of events.

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    Independence Update   

Our very own disaster flick is in the making!
Latest update Sunday Nov 30 7:45 PST
Fire, Flood and Mud
It's been a tough 371 days in Independence
and it looks like rain...
Click F11 for fullscreen; F11 again and esc to exit.
Right mouse click for menu and quality settings.


Special Report
HOLDING ON TO INDEPENDENCE
How the fast-moving Inyo Complex Wildland Fire of July 2007 almost torched the little town of Independence, threatened the historic
Mt. Whitney Fish Hatchery and nearly killed nine firefighters.
 

A model for any civic group under normal circumstances, residents went above and beyond to help their neighbors when disaster struck.
Download 4-page PDF story by clicking the link below
Community Group of the Year
Independence Civic Club

Darcy Ellis    Inyo Register    October 30, 2008

    There’s sort of a running joke among members of the Independence Civic Club about which sign of the apocalypse will strike their small community next.

    A sardonic sense of humor has become somewhat of a trademark here – this is the group, after all, responsible for the International Fruitcake Festival – and yet one can’t help but wonder how much genuine concern underlies the mock speculation about tornadoes, earthquakes, even locusts and plague.

    After two consecutive summers that saw the Inyo Complex Fire bearing down on their town in the summer of 2007 and the Oak Creek flash flood and mud slide tearing a path of destruction through two dozen homes this past July, it’s not hard to see why these men and women  - who watched as their neighbors, family and friends lost everything they owned, who themselves suffered at the indiscriminate, merciless hand of Mother Nature – are a bit gun shy.

    Yet ask just about anyone familiar with not only the Independence Civic Club’s recent humanitarian efforts but also its more routine community action endeavors and they’ll no doubt say that regardless of what the gods have in store for the county seat tomorrow or 20 years from now, the Civic Club won’t hesitate to be among the first to react.

    Indeed, when the sky opened up at the base of the Sierra on July 12, relentlessly dumping an hour’s worth of hail in mere minutes onto terrain left bare by the prior summer’s fire, the Independence Civic Club responded almost immediately to the ensuing flash flood that devastated Oak Creek and Fort Independence.

    Within 24 hours the group had established a relief fund at a local bank and its members – some of whom were personally displaced by the mud slide – were already scrambling to collect food, clothing and a place to stay for their newly homeless neighbors.

    The club’s effort would only accelerate and expand over the following days and weeks, until it was able to start distributing to flood and mud slide victims the more than $30,000 it had collected and raised on their behalf in less than two months.

    It is for many reasons, but primarily their selfless response to the flood, their resilience in the face of adversity, belief in civic well-being and their testament to the power of solidarity, generosity and grass-roots spirit, that the members of the Independence Civic Club are being honored in 2008 with The Inyo Register’s inaugural Community Group of the Year award.

    The way the independent panel convened to select a recipient saw it, the group was really a no-brainer choice for the honor, considering its above-and-beyond flood relief efforts on top of the community improvement and civic endeavors it organizes on a regular basis.

    Members of the Civic Club Executive Committee were nevertheless taken aback, citing the club’s work as nothing any other community group wouldn’t have done in the same circumstances.

    That’s not to say, however, that they aren’t thrilled to be recognized.

    “I am stunned,” said Civic Club President Nancy Masters, “I’m surprised because what we did is what anyone would have done, and receiving an honor is not why we organized these relief efforts.  But I feel very honored that our organization was selected.”

    The club’s secretary and Master’s sister, Mary Roper, echoed those sentiments.

    “It’s unbelievable,” she said.  “You never expect recognition, and that’s certainly not why you do all this stuff.  I’m flattered.  There’s a lot of community groups in Inyo County who do a lot for their communities, so it’s really an honor to be singled out.”     more

• Flash Flood, Mud Slide Wreak Havoc    
  Mike Gervais     Inyo Register, Bishop California     July 15, 2008

• Relief, Aid Available in Independence
  Inyo Register, Bishop California     July 19, 2008