Squeeze Play

<p>The 78-year-old squeezebox virtuoso Dick Contino</p><p>headlined the first half of the two-day Cotati Accordion Festival, which drew an estimated 2,400 people to La Plaza Park on Saturday.</p><p>Dressed in a black outfit that was part Zorro, part Elvis Presley, Contino wowed hundreds of accordion fans sitting on lawn chairs and</p><p>picnic blankets in front of the main stage.</p><p>Organizers said attendance at the 18th annual festival was off about 10 percent this year, and they blamed a poor economy as well as competition from the Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival in Golden Gate Park this weekend.</p><p>Online ticket sales from San Francisco were about a third of what they were last year, festival producer Scott Goree said.</p><p>He said few festivals of its size pack as many musical acts into two days as the Cotati Accordion Festival, which continues today from 9:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. The venues include two stages of nonstop accordion acts; a polka tent from 1 to 5 p.m.; a Zydeco dance party from 5:05 to 6:25 p.m.; and a Cajun/Zydeco dance party from 1 to 5 p.m.</p><p>A "jam tent," where members of the three branches of the Golden State Accordion Club hold court, offered familiar tunes rendered with either piano or button-box accordions.</p><p>Jack Turk, a 74-year-old retiree from Citrus Heights, said accordion music is part of his culture. Turk, originally from Slovenia, has been playing the accordion since the 1950s.</p><p>"When the harvest was over, back in the old country -- we had a vineyard -- we would get together and someone would always bring an accordion," said Turk, speaking with an accent he said becomes more pronounced when he gets tired.</p><p>For many, the music brought back old memories.</p><p>After Contino ended his performance, he made his way from the main stage to a table where his CDs were being sold. Star-struck fans swarmed about him, seeking autographs, a hug, a handshake.</p><p>Lou Fabrizi, a 78-year-old retiree who lives in Petaluma, recalled how he once saw Contino perform many years ago at Fort Ord.</p><p>"He was in the Army the same time I was, but he was on a stage playing the accordion, and I was out in the audience with a bunch of other soldiers," Fabrizi said.</p><p>Fabrizi said there's something "peppy" about the accordion, and that "it seems like it's authentic, you know, from the heart."</p><p>You can reach Staff Writer</p><p>Martin Espinoza at 521-5213</p><p>or martin.espinoza@</p><p>pressdemocrat.com.</p>