West Virginia festival organizers hope Jerry Garcia birthday bash with Blues Traveler and Rusted Root will keep them in the red

Friday, August 15, 2003

By Scott Mervis, Post-Gazette Weekend Editor

They sprouted like mushrooms -- grassroots festivals where the tribe could gather on farms or fields to boogie to jam bands big and small, deal in tie-dye, eat veggie burgers, trade Phish tapes and do whatever else they do when the sun goes down.

Organizers hope crowds will return to pack the campgrounds at Sunshine Daydreams in Terra Alta, W.Va. Click photo for larger image. Jerry Garcia's Birthday Bash Brew-Glass 4 WHERE: Sunshine Daydreams Campgrounds, Terra Alta, W. Va. DIRECTIONS: Take I-79 south to I-68 east, go 25 miles to Exit 23 Kingwood/Bruceton Mills. Go left at the end of the ramp on Route 26 north. Go approximately 2.5 miles to Route 3 Brandonville Pike. You can only turn right. Go 15 miles and the Sunshine Daydreams Music Festival Campground driveway (Route 34) is on your left, inside a sharp curve. WHEN: Today and Saturday ADMISSION: $80; $50 Saturday after 3 p.m. Main Stage Today 2 p.m. The Shantee 3:34 p.m. The Ordinary Way 5:10 p.m. Toni Brown 6 p.m. Derek trucks Band 7:50 p.m. Magic by the Legendary Rick Beatty 8:15 p.m. Yonder Mountain String Band 10:20 p.m. Toni Brown 11 p.m. Blues Traveler Saturday Noon: Johnny Staats & Delivery Boys 1:30 p.m. Wild Magnolias John Brown's Body 4:40 p.m. Toni Brown 5:15 p.m. Yonder Mountain String Band 7:30 p.m. ekoostik hookah 9:55 p.m. Warren Haynes 11:30 p.m. Rusted Root For more details on the jam-band scene, including news, reviews and listings, go to www.jambase.com

With Phish off tour the past two summers and nothing like multi-band Further or the H.O.R.D.E. festivals on the road, the camp-out concerts -- free of Clear Channel and Ticketmaster trappings -- became a natural way to fill the void.

But now it seems festivals have become too plentiful, and there's been neither the flocks nor the weather to support them.

The Connecticut-based Terrapin Presents, one of the biggest of the jam-band promoters, was forced to cancel its two remaining festivals this summer after the first two flopped.

And now, Sunshine Daydreams in nearby West Virginia is sending out a plea that its four-year-old venue could shut down for good if this weekend's 17th annual Jerry Garcia Birthday Bash/Brew Glass Festival, featuring Blues Traveler, Rusted Root and the Yonder Mountain String Band, doesn't bring in big numbers.

"There's definitely been an influx of new festivals over the past two or three years," says Geoff Harrison of JamBase, a full-service Web site for jam fans. "There were a couple core festivals about five years ago, and since then, every guy and his brother has pretty much decided to run a festival with very similar lineups across the board."

Harrison rattles off names of the festival's usual suspects: Karl Denson's Tiny Universe, Keller Williams, Jazz Mandolin Project, ekoostik hookah, Yonder Mountain String Band, Particle, Charlie Hunter, Galactic and Warren Haynes.

A lot of them are playing week after week, particularly along the East Coast and in the mid-Atlantic region.

"In the West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio area," Harrison says, "there are two to three festivals per weekend it seems, and at least one festival per weekend this summer with at least a couple of those bands I mentioned."

The glut of festivals arose in part to keep fans busy during Phish's hiatus in 2001. This summer, Trey Anastasio and the boys were back in action, culminating in the tour-ending It Festival in Maine the first weekend of August that drew 70,000. The Dead were grateful to be on the road this summer, including a show before 80,000 at the second Bonnaroo Music Festival in Tennessee in June.

"Our competition this year has been from The Dead and Phish going on tour," says Greg Gabor, operations manager at Sunshine Daydreams, which takes its name from a Dead tune.

	A painting honors former Grateful Dead frontman Jerry Garcia, the subject of this weekend's festival. The artwork is from China's Gallery in Masontown, W.Va. Click photo for larger image.

"Bonnaroo started last year and was hugely successful, so you had a lot of people who thought they wanted to get into this type of thing. The number of festivals doubled, because they thought they could make a quick buck on it. And basically, nobody's doing well."

"Phish's It and Bonnaroo," Harrison says, "those two events alone grossed probably $17 million combined. Put in the Phish tour which probably grossed close to $15 million. And all of a sudden there's not the money to go to each of these other festivals."

And that's not the only competition for Sunshine Daydreams. This weekend, there's Berkfest in Great Barrington, Mass., with the Greyboy Allstars, The Flaming Lips, Medeski Martin & Wood, Galactic, Warren Haynes and the Steve Kimock Band. And there's Floyd Fest in Virginia with Donna the Buffalo, David Grisman Quintet, Old and In the Way and the Yonder Mountain String Band (who, as you may have noticed, are double booked).

Also on the horizon, though farther away, are major events like Austin City Limits Festival (Sept. 19-21) with R.E.M., Ben Harper, Lucinda Williams, Yo La Tengo, Steve Earle and others; and the Jazz Aspen Snowmass (Aug. 29-Sept. 1) with Neil Young and Crazy Horse, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, Clint Black, Bo Diddley and others.

Terrapin Presents got two of its festivals off the ground this summer. But the Summit on the Hudson in Croton Point Park in Westchester County, N.Y., featuring Chuck Berry, Arlo Guthrie, Branford Marsalis, Martin Sexton and Little Feat was plagued by high winds and electrical storms. Then, attendance figures were down at the eighth annual Gathering of the Vibes, outside of Albany, N.Y., and featuring James Brown, the Allman Brothers Band, Gov't Mule, the Derek Trucks Band and Rusted Root.

In canceling the subsequent Bridgeport Blues and Summit on the Sound festivals, Terrapin issued a statement saying, "Summer 2003 has proved to be a tough season for many music festivals. The sheer number of events taking place this year, coupled with the tough economic times that make spending entertainment dollars difficult, has meant lower attendance numbers at shows across the country. Independent promoters have borne an exceptionally large share of the fallout surrounding the current environment, as most do not have the luxury of significant corporate financial backing."

The troubles at the Sunshine Daydreams site, about two hours from Pittsburgh, are compounded by the fact that one of the two original owners is pulling out and wants a pay-out for his share of the property (about $100,000) later this month.

	Gordon Stone and Al Schnier of Al and the Transamericans played the Higher Ground Festival at Sunshine Daydreams earlier this year. Click photo for larger image.

"We're trying to come up with the money to satisfy that debt and take full ownership of the park," says operations manager Gabor. "If this show is successful, we very well could. If we have 5,000 people, we'll definitely raise more than that."

Gabor says Sunshine drew 7,500 for the All Good Music Festival last year, but that the first Higher Ground Music Festival, which they picked up when another promoter dropped out, was a disaster. The June event drew only 1,800 people and turned out to be a $40,000 loss.

The Jerry Garcia Birthday Bash, which Gabor has been presenting somewhere for the past 17 years, began with small acts last night and continues through the weekend with Blues Traveler, Rusted Root, Warren Haynes, ekoostik hookah, Derek Trucks Band, Garaj Mahal, the Wild Magnolias and Splintered Sunlight, among others. It's being combined with Brew Glass, a microbrew and glass-blowing event.

One of the obstacles with the birthday bash bill drawing people from Pittsburgh is the fact that Blues Traveler just played at the Three Rivers Regatta and Rusted Root is closing out the Hartwood concert season on Aug. 31.

Rusted Root drummer Jim Donovan was at Sunshine for a drumming workshop during Higher Ground and was struck by the beauty of the farm.

"The venue itself is truly phenomenal, way up on the tip top of a mountain, just what you would think of when you think of the mountains of West Virginia. Very sweet, homey feeling. It doesn't feel like one of those big corporate-run festivals. It's more like a mom and pop, and I like that."

Gabor says Sunshine has had its ups and downs with the people in the Terra Alta area, but that they're starting to become very supportive. "[Our] owner walked in the bank today and the bank president came out from behind his desk and said [excitedly], 'Hey, I hear you have Blues Traveler.' We've definitely contributed to the per capita income of the county. It's a pretty depressed region, so anytime you're bringing this much money into the region, it's good."

On one of the other Garcia birthday bashes, Gabor says, Sunshine collected about $5,000 from fans and then matched it to help a family in the town that lost their house. He says they also donate computers to the community.

This weekend, Sunshine, Berkfest and Floyd Fest all have their sights on Deadheads who suddenly have gas in the van and time on their hands.

"The Dead finished its tour on Sunday in Jones Beach," Gabor says, "and we're getting a lot of calls from people getting off tour and coming here, so we're really happy about that."

Scott Mervis can be reached at smervis@post-gazette.com or 412-263-2576.

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