THURSDAY
I was not fortunate enough to make it on Thursday but I learned that bands such as The MaIah and Tennessee Jed were canceled due to rain. Luckily, people who arrived early got to experience Donna the Buffalo jam out till 6am, wow!
FRIDAY
Making our way to our camp down by the river, we circled around the venue and I was able to get a glimpse of the Yacht Club Ranch. A beautiful rustic white Tennessee country home was on the forefront of the drive in; it overlooked acres of flat fields with bales of hay everywhere you looked. Within the venue were 4 event tents, 2 stages, and a nicely flowing Clinch River. We found a great spot on a newly mowed strip of grass that was only about 10 feet from the river. After taking a refreshing dip it was time to catch some music on the main stage. The stage was located on the back deck of the house and was named the Booty Band Stage. First on our list was Jonathan Scales Fourchestra. Scales, hailing from Asheville, NC, ripped it up on the steel drums with his innovative way of blending his sound with the other great musicians on stage. (Ryan Lassiter – Drums, Shannon Hoover – Bass, and Duane Simpson – Guitar) Their music gives you a warm jazzy island feel that can sweep you off your feet if you’re not too careful. After they concluded, we set off to see what else Booty Band Land had to offer. Walking down to the other stage we passed 2 large event tents one with a massage therapist ready to give anyone a rub down and the other housed a nice little stage, this was called the Badonkavilion Stage. On to the second stage considered the Don Juan Stage was Tennessee Jed another band from Asheville NC, who was very fun and energetic. They have a fantastic repertoire of folksy, rocking, bluegrass style tunes that can surely get you shaking your hips. Having to ask to see who the band was and who is next hinted to the fact that there were absolutely no program guides or schedules to be found anywhere. It looked like we are on our own to find out the what, where and when for the weekend ahead. After investigating a bit we found one schedule taped behind the Booty Band Stage where I was able to write all the times down for the weekend. Jeff Sipe and 
Friends was coming up next! Jeff Sipe, Melvin Sears, and Neil Fountain delivered a culminating eclectic set;seemed to elevate their playing by the impressive high energy drumming of Sipe. As the evening approached, Gent Treadly from New York City hit the stage with a very special guest, Steve Molitz of Particle. The mostly all dead set was fantastic; Steve, who had played with Phil and Friends, gave his electrifying twist along with Gent and his band. They found a way to give such meaningful dead songs a fresh new sound. Following the dead set was Donna the Buffalo on the Don Juan Stage. DTB shined on the stage with their assortment of zydeco, folk-rock style music. The sound seemed to be a little off, it sounded like Jeb Puryear (Vocals and Guitar) was singing from a bullhorn for a bit which actually gave it a nice rag time feel. Playing through the sound difficulties, DTB gave an outstanding performance continuing well past their time slot despite the sparse crowd that was there. Next on the agenda was Yo Mamas Big Fat Booty Band who definitely brought the funk to the festival, putting on a show that mama would be proud of. The costumes were sparkling, the band was tight and the energy was on fire. For the 30 to 50 people that were there it was a hip shaking, pelvic thrusting good time. It was so good that one individual ripped off all her clothes and rolled around in the 
grass grooving to the music. She in turn disrupted the awesome visuals that were casted on the lawn in front of the stage from a golf cart that had a projector and laptop mounted to it. The late night set featured Sci Fi, from Wilmington NC; has the ability to throw together a jazzy trance fusion groove that is on the top of its game. We danced until the wee hours of the early morning. The only disappointing aspect of the show was the lack of people and energy that should have been there. I assume everyone that was planning on coming to the festival was scared off by the weather report. With an 80% chance of rain on Saturday I can understand the hesitation people had.
SATURDAY
The morning of the 26th started off with a light drizzle; waking up to the nice sound of the
river and rain was quite refreshing. I was hoping we would be in the 20% part of the weather report but that was not the case. As the morning progressed we were confronted by security who told us that we should move because the river might rise due to a Flash Flood Warning Advisory. Looking where the river was and talking to our neighbors we decided to stay put, there was no way the river would raise above 10 feet. Waiting patiently for some music we hung out and had a great breakfast under the hospitality tent. Looking around I did notice one thing, there was only one food vendor, The Fired-Up Pizza Kitchen. I hope everyone that paid brought their own food or else they are getting pizza for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The morning soon became afternoon with still no music to be heard because of the rain that had since turned into a downpour. Eventually we were confronted again by other security people that told us we really needed to move our camp. So we went down and picked up our tent and screen house and moved it to the field underneath one of the event tents that was not being used. The river still didn’t look like it had risen at all but I’m sure they were thinking it was not going to stop raining and it’s better to be safe than sorry, I concur. After we were safe from the so called rising river we learned that the rest of the bands for the weekend, both Saturday and Sunday were being canceled. The storm was so furious it damaged the Don Juan stage that put it out of commission for the rest of the weekend. The roof of the stage collapsed due to the amount of rain that collected on the top. That was so disappointing because there were so many bands that I really wanted to see like The Mantras, Hot Politics, Eymarel, and many others. The few that were not scared off from the storm came together and created a nice family feel. Everyone seemed to work together and help to make the best of the bleak situation. As the night approached the rain finally let up and the bands that stayed let the party continue with a performance on the Badonkavilion Stage. On the stage were members of the Dot Line Projekt, The Blue Haired Ladies and other bands. Asher McKinney on keys really stood out with his hot hands and his fantastic vocals which reminisced that of Jim Morrison of The Doors. The culmination of musicians jammed on from 7 pm till 3am. The Effigy Burn that was scheduled for Saturday night was canceled due to the waterlogged wood used to build the Bootylicious Effigy. Luckily with a team effort from the staff, a gasoline drench bale of hay was used in her place. The huge bale raged till the late morning hours pleasing the few remaining. SUNDAY
Waking up on this beautiful sunny day, we decided since there was nothing going on that we would pack up and hit the road. Before leaving we decided to walk down to the river to see how high it had gotten, and wow! Were we surprised! Where we had set up camp was at least a foot under water, we would have most definitely floated down the river on our air mattress if we didn’t move. We couldn’t believe our eyes; the once calm river was now a full blown rager. The rain soaked muddy field had really put a damper on people trying to leave; a tractor had to pull every car out of the field which took most of the day. I would like to thank the security for saving us from floating away, the tractor pullers for getting my car out safe without ripping off the bumper, Ryan and Carly who worked all weekend on keeping the staff and bands fed and Gypsy Dave with his beer soaked mustard and black pepper based pork tenderloin. Yummy!
.gif)
For the record the bands were not cancelled because of the rain even though it was a bad storm. The reason the bands were cancelled is because the promoter Don Pickett said that he could not pay the bands. Had the bands still been recieving their money they would have continued their journey's to Sneedville and kept jamming out late Saturday and all day Sunday. It is the promoter's responsibility to honor the contracts with the bands even if no one shows up. It saddens me that Booty Band allowed their name to be used for this event with a promoter that did not follow through on a laundry list of his obligations(other examples being no schedules that were supposedly on their way and no actual caterer for hospitality or other food vendors because they were not contacted back). The Booty Band boys (and now girl) are some of the hardest working guys I know and it stinks that their reputation may be hurt by the lack of honesty and preperation of a so-called promoter. But yes, the music that did get played was AMAZING!
I doubt the rain had anything to do with the lack of ticket sales. These same bands play a fest about every 3 months in NC over and over and over. They all seem to think that their name is enough to sell tickets. It is always poorly organized and one disaster after another. Then the staffed is praised up and down for complaining and talking trash all weekend for helping and doing their jobs for a minute.
For all this concert was meant to be, for all this concert became, it was well worth the inclimate weather, flooding etc. The best people around were on hand, the music was great and will for a long time be the talk of many.
Missed this one ... but Don always throws the hella party! You all should have been to Turniptown ... he got the same shit storm but all people talk about now is how great they were!
Fun times had by all ... I saw a well planned festival, great layout, marginal venue, affordable ticket with a great valued for what was offered and a ton of player hate'n on Don. He is awesome in my book, great host that did not loose his cool through a ton of BS. See ya next year!
The most upsetting thing to me at this festival was, again, the lack of responsibilities that were not taken care of.... Some of the more important being, contracts not honored, refunds not given for a festival canceled on saturday morning, bands not being payed, programs not printed, schedules not adhered to, and... most of all.... PORTALETS NOT BEING MAINTAINED.....
I know, personally, how important it is.... but so did the poor girl that was running around all saturday morning looking for a shovel and a roll of t.p.
There were some plus sides to this argument... i.e. Thursday night's music, Friday Night's music..... but IF this fest is to be thrown again, it should be planned better... and the money spent should go towards the important parts of the actual event, not the hundreds of thousands of high dollar fliers that were printed before hand....
I do not know what your talking about as far as porto-lets, on Monday the worst unit was maybe half-full, there was about a dozen porto-lets there and less than 50 people all weekend. Also, your talking about no program? Did you not see that no one came? What should they have paid for programs if your claiming bands aren't paid? Is it not more important for a festival to pay bands over printing a program? And fliers being printed, if I am not mistaken, that is how you promote a festival. I think this post is a perfect example of how issues are being made from nothing, blowing everything way out of proportion trying to trash a good man. I worked this festival and I saw first hand people draining the kegs when Don had to go get water because the health inspector condemned the well was as it was untested, the plan was to give free ice water in water stations from the well. So, he gets back and 7 kegs are drained. So, he takes control of the situation pissing off everyone that was drinking for free, that had nothing to do with any staff I ever met! They did the same thing with the food tent to Carly & Ryan who never worked a festival in their life. I know 10 people on staff that did not make it, leaving the small crew that showed up for Don overwhelmed with people coming out of the woodwork claiming to be staff wit the Booty Band, but when help was needed, no one could be found! From what I saw, money was spent where it needed to be. The staff did not have golf carts or other items costing money. We had a streamlined operation focusing on covering all the festival expenses and keeping the patrons happy. Also, aren't festivals rain or shine events? If you saw the storm damage on Saturday, you know there was no chance any bands could play! So basically, your comments tell me you were not there, I was for 6 days! It's nice to see the positive postings not being censored as on another writers blog!
After everyone that freeloaded left on Saturday morning, the festival was awesome! Everyone I saw with a paid wristband told me that had a great time and if only more people were here!
I had a great time and still not sure all the fuse was all about. Great music until the adventurous monsoon came! I had fun and hope these guys do it again next year ... wish it worked out better for you all!
I'm tired of all this he/she said talk. It seems to me that both sides have a part in the blame.
On to Bear Creek!
I had a great time,
My Girlfriend and I made the best of the situation.
The music was canceled and it was upsetting but the staff and remaining bands rocked it out, with hospitality to those in need and music in the tent, all made it that much better.
To everyone that was there RAGE!
To "Truthspeaker"
Yes, I did remove one of your posts. I even passed on approving one of yours today. Seriously, if you or anyone else who wants to be this "vicious" with your personal attacks against a person, don't be ANONYMOUS!! I don't care to "approve" comments like that from people hiding behind an unknown address. There's a lot of HATE in your comment posts, dude - to the point where it's pretty disturbing to read. If you know this guy as well as you say you do, and if it were all true, then why put yourself in this situation all over again?! Common sense has to play a role in here somewhere. I'm not taking anyone's side here but if you're going to start throwing names out there I think you should at least start with yours first.
BEAR CREEK 09 COMING UP - WOOT!!!
VOTE FOR YOUR FAVORITE HGMN album of the year - http://www.homegrownmusic.net/news-and-views/vote-for-the-hgmn-2009-albu...
C. Robie
Post new comment