Homer-grown musician opens Alaska World Arts Festival with Billy Joel tribute

Published 1:30 am Tuesday, May 19, 2026

The Alaska World Arts Festival will look a little different than normal this year. Rather than hosting a packed schedule of events in September, the 2026 festival will be spread out across several months, from May through September.

Don’t worry — there will still be a plethora of artistic events and performances by local and visiting talent featured this summer. Some of the highlights, according to producer Sally Oberstein, include a 48-hour Film Slam in June, a mural meeting of the minds with returning festival mural artist Kathleen Dose-Koehl throughout July and August, and a musical comedy by Oberstein and Michael McKinney debuting in September.

“For such a small town, it’s just so intense to have something every day, so we’re trying this summer to spread it out,” Oberstein said.

With concerts, storytelling, stand-up comedy, workshops and more, the eighth annual Alaska World Arts Festival will have something for everyone.

Kicking off this year’s celebration of the arts is Homer-grown artist Andrew Vait, bringing a Billy Joel tribute concert to the Porcupine Theater stage.

Oberstein said the festival has included tribute concerts in the past. The 2019 Alaska World Arts Festival featured the Fab Four, whom she previously called “the best imitation Beatles group in the world,” and ABBA tribute band ABBAFAB performed on the Mariner Theatre stage in 2023.

Vait has also given performances in previous Homer arts festivals — last year, he recreated the music of Elton John in a tribute concert performed at Alice’s Champagne Palace.

An accomplished musician and vocalist based in Seattle, Washington, Vait heads a number of tribute acts, including, since 2022, a Fleetwood Mac tribute called The Little Lies, which is also composed of Seattle-area musicians Miranda Zickler, Linzy Collins, Harry Wirth and Cyra Wirth.

Vait said performing tribute concerts was a way into reinvigorating his live music career after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Although he’s spent most of his adult career in Seattle, Vait moved with his wife to Berkeley, California for “a brief stint” beginning in 2019, just three months before the pandemic hit the U.S. Up to that point, he was a full-time musician, “broad spectrum” — teaching lessons, performing in wedding bands, and working on his own original projects.

“When we got the opportunity to move to California, I had started focusing on music production, so producing music for myself, but primarily as a job for other artists. So that was my primary focus through the pandemic, and of course, live music was not really a thing,” he said. “I came out of the pandemic feeling a little bit burnt out on the idea of going back into live music performance.”

Vait returned to Seattle in 2022. He described a conversation he had with a friend who is a music manager and event talent buyer, where Vait said he didn’t know if he had it in him to pick live music back up again.

“I was telling him … all of these things that I felt were out of my system, and he said, ‘Yeah, no, I hear you, but what if you started a Fleetwood Mac tribute.’ I was like, ‘Okay, touche,’” Vait said, explaining further that his friend needed a Fleetwood Mac tribute for his events and that there wasn’t one already existing in the area.

“We kicked that up, and that reinvigorated my live music career.”

Two years later, Vait was tapped to perform at a corporate event, dubbed “The Piano Men,” that featured a mix of music by Billy Joel and Elton John.

“In the Fleetwood Mac tribute, I play (lead guitarist) Lindsey Buckingham, and I have always kind of jockeyed between keyboards and guitar as my primary instrument since leaving saxophone in the dust in college, so this was an opportunity to really hone my piano,” he said.

“Of course, it’s two of the greatest piano songwriters of all time, and what I found and rediscovered was a deep connection to Elton John’s music.”

Vait launched a full-production Elton John tribute, “Madman Across the Water,” at the end of that summer.

“That’s been my primary tribute focus since then,” he said.

He said that after his Elton John tribute concert in last year’s Alaska World Arts Festival, Oberstein told him, “I’d like to do this again — I’m kind of thinking Billy Joel next time.”

“So of course, I had spent all that time learning the Elton John music alongside the Billy Joel music, and it was pretty seamless for me to just kind of pick back up where I left off from the Piano Men tribute … (I) dusted off the chops of the Billy Joel songs, and now I’m ready to put on a full-production Billy Joel concert in Homer,” he said.

Vait had been rehearsing “My Life” just before talking with Homer News. He elected to save most of the surprises for the show, but gave away a couple things for concert-goers to look forward to.

“I like to play the hits … I’m always looking at the most popular songs to make sure that I’m balancing what I’m interested in with what people are expecting to hear,” he said. “That being said, (Joel’s) album from 1989 — it’s called ‘Stormfront’ — there’s a song on that album called ‘And So It Goes,’ and I’ve been performing that song since college, when a vocal arrangement of it came across my desk. It’s one of my favorite songs to perform, and that will be one of the centerpieces of the concert.”

Vait also said there will be surprise guest performers at the show, but declined to provide any further hints.

He added that he’s looking forward to giving a concert in the revitalized Homer movie theater.

“For the type of music and the type of show that I want to put on, the Porcupine Theater is going to be an incredible space,” Vait said. “I truly cannot wait to play music in that venue. I grew up in that movie theater … so it’s going to be a great full-circle moment. I think it’s going to be a really special event.”

As for being a returning performer in the Alaska World Arts Festival, he said it’s a great opportunity to continue working with Oberstein and to come back to Alaska.

“I go way back with Sally … we really enjoy working together. My dad still lives in Alaska, so it’s a great opportunity for me to get to come back,” he said. “I’ve always enjoyed performing in Homer. I think that this is something that I’m interested in continuing to develop.

“As long as Homer will have me, I will come back and perform.”

Find the full 2026 festival program and purchase tickets or a membership online at www.alaskaworldarts.org/events-1.