Paste talks with Brett Mosiman, head coordinator for Wakarusa (2009)
Headstash Magazine: Let’s talk about Wakarusa’s identity. Bonnaroo is huge and gets more mainstream acts. Summer Camp has three nights of moe. and Umphrey’s. All Good stays pretty close to the jam band genre. Where does Wakarusa fit in?
Brett Mosiman: We’ve always tagged it as music before Mother Nature. And I think the two festival sites we have had have set us apart – two idyllic festival sites. We’re not in a cornfield. [Our previous site] was a state park with a huge lake and beach. Now, our site is in a national forest on private land with waterfalls and ponds and hiking trails and amazing wildlife.
I do think that our musical lineup has always been extremely deep and diverse. More so than taking on the identity of other festivals – we have more stages and more multiple sets with the idea of trying to really marry more bands to more fans. A lot of lineups run out of steam after the fifth, sixth or seventh artist on the bill. But Wakarusa, you can look down to the fifties and sixties and still find amazingly talented musicians.
HM: Wakarusa seems to be notorious among fans for being intimate despite getting bigger year after year. How did that develop?
BM: I think that’s organic. It’s been a long, slow build of our reputation and the vibe and that isn’t because we landed AT&T or Ford or Wal-Mart to sponsor us. It’s been an organic process.
Early on, we recognized how critical the web and web marketing was going to be if we were going to be a national festival. From there, we opened up that conduit and let the lot do our talking. It's been word-of-mouth the last three or four years especially since we got to Mulberry Mountain. You could tell that we struck a nerve. Fans felt that we had the perfect venue. You can stumble into some amazing sets while having the ability to get close to the artist and see amazing production value.
We’re never going to produce the perfect festival, but we try really hard every year to make sure the Porta-Potties are clean and the security is friendly and just creating a really positive festival experience.
HM: Two things really struck me about the lineup – it’s huge and has a ton of diversity. When you were putting it together, were you nervous hardcore jam or electronic fans may not embrace it like they would an event with all their favorite acts?
BM: We walk a fine line and we always want to dance with those who brought us. So we never want to turn our back on the jam music and sometimes you see when festivals have stepped over that line with their fans and they just get slaughtered.
I think you have to know who your fans are and how they’ll react. I’ve been at these shows and it’s amazing to me sometimes that Yonder [Mountain String Band] fans and Sound Tribe fans can often be the same fans. And Bassnectar fans and Umphrey’s fans can be the same fans even though genre-wise they may be very different.
One of the things with Wakarusa that we found early on because of the breadth and depth of the lineup is that people were responding to those lower artists in the lineup. This year, we have a ton of reggae and Americana. Some years, we may have a little more hip-hop. There’s a little something for everyone.
HM: You have so many bands on the bill this year. How did you find them all? What is your overall goal when putting the lineup together?
BM: Being a promoter, I’m very familiar with all the acts. We tend to go more for a party. Every environment has its own vibe and Wakarusa has turned into a pretty high-energy event with round the clock music and crazy crowds.
There are bands out there like Feist or Cat Power that are great acts but wouldn’t necessarily be a great act at a tent at 3:00 a.m. We tend to go high-energy, bands like Ozomatli or Trombone Shorty – ones that make you get up and make you want to dance.
HM: One of the most unique things about Wakarusa is that there’s music pretty much all day and night. Interstellar Meltdown definitely factors into that, too. How did that concept develop?
BM: It evolved from our days in Lawrence, KS when we’d book Bassnectar and there’d be this great reaction, but because it was state property, they wouldn’t let us go past 2:00 or 3:00 a.m. Once we got to private property, we said, “Hey, let’s have a sunrise set.” And boom, there are 3,000 people rocking out to VibeSquaD at 6:00 a.m.
We see Tiësto and Deadmau5 and Skrillex and Bassnectar blowing up, and we have to follow that and hopefully be a leader in that and offer more electronic. In essence, we responded to that and put together a dedicated stage or two and we decided to brand this as a festival within a festival.
We have over 50 acts and we think Interstellar Meltdown [on its own] is one of the top two electronic festivals in the country.
HM: With all that goes into the event it seems like even in it’s eighth year it’s still a daunting thing to plan.
BM: You’re building a small city in a week’s time and you have to bring in power and plumbing and security and medical. Every element of city planning including fire, police, hospital, roads, power, sewer, water – we have to create all of that on a dime.
Although it comes together, it does take a monstrous amount of planning. We even offer some off-site camping now so we’re into public transportation, too.
It’s actually really exciting and really fun. It’s a great job. Even though one hundred things can go wrong, most of us wouldn’t trade it for the world.
HM: There must be something that stands out as being the most difficult part of the planning.
BM: I think the most frustrating thing is we have thousands of employees, staff, vendors and volunteers and, invariably, you can’t speak with all of them. It’s impossible to have a staff meeting.
Often times, you’re communicating in January over a couple of emails with someone who might be in charge of 20 or 30 people. We don’t get a lot of face time with a lot of people working for us. Hopefully, we do better than most and that everybody on site is on the same page. And for the most part that page is the fans are here, they’re our customers and we’re trying to make this the best experience possible.
HM: Speaking of faceless anonymity, how much attention do you guys pay to responses and criticisms online?
BM: We pay a lot of attention toward it before and after. Part of the task is anticipating the reactions. We have a couple full-time people that do nothing but monitor feedback and we openly, actively ask that of our fans at the end of every event. We want to make sure next year is better. so we’ll ask them to send us a note on what you liked and what you’d like to see changed. And we read every one of them and take it to heart.
I think that goes back to the organic nature of the event. We do care and we do listen and we do act on what we hear. That being said, you can’t make everyone happy all the time.
But over the years, I’ve been absolutely floored as to how positive our forum and our Facebook have been. By and large, our world online has stayed pretty positive and that’s invaluable to us.
HM: Even with such a positive reputation, new festivals are popping up all the time and even really popular ones, like Nateva and Rothbury, have folded in recent years. Do you pay attention to trends in the scene so as to ensure longevity?
BM: I certainly pay attention to the other festivals. You do kind of see the kisses of death and one of them is overshooting the mark. Especially with the small festivals. You have to be realistic with what you can pull off. And I always believe you should grow slowly rather than come out of the box with Dave Matthews Band and pay them $1.5 million and be out of business.
HM: What are the benefits of dealing with jam band and electronica fans from your perspective?
BM: In general, that is a group that enjoys Mother Nature. They enjoy dancing and having a good time. From the very first festival, I fell in love with that community because they were so laid back and so courteous. They’d come to a four-way stop in the state park and no one would go because everyone’s waiting for everyone else when back in town they’re all flipping each other off and honking.
It struck me that these people aren’t wrapped around the commercialism of the rest of the world, and they seem to be more relaxed and happier with less. And it was a big statement to me. A lot of people in American society could take a lesson from these folks: you don’t need a fancy car or a big house or a 50” flat screen to be happy.
And along with that, they’re perfectly comfortable and, in fact, love camping. They’re who brought us. Every year there’s a new lineup, but we like to think that every year is Wakarusa – the same fans and friends and vibe. The music changes year to year but the vibe and the community and the event really doesn’t.
HM: What do you think about the modern festival scene today? Is Wakarusa just a big party or does it have a deeper meaning like in the 1960s?
BM: I think it’s very much still about the music and the community. I personally feel like in Wakarusa’s case, getting to a mountain with a waterfall and trees and nature and wildlife – getting unplugged is almost critical for your sanity.
These four or five days on the mountain can really re-energize your core. We get so wrapped up in the blur of technology in our lives that if you don’t unplug every few months and get back to what’s the nature of our being, you’re going to be fried.
I look at Wakarusa and some of these festivals as a much bigger social thing now. It’s a way to put the phone and the computer and the TV and the cable and the games away and put your feet on the ground and dance and get under the stars and take hikes around the mountain and connect to friends again.
HM: So what will you be doing during Wakarusa 2011? Do you feel a sense of accomplishment?
BM: I tend to ride around my bike a lot, interacting with the fans and just watching the smiles on attendees as they sit around campfires with friends.
We all sit down Sunday night and have a glass of wine and tell ourselves good job. Throughout the weekend, we’re making notes of what we can do better every year.
Our reward is the fans’ happiness and the bands’ happiness and creating that perfect marriage of energy and music between the two. We feed off the same energy that the artist does. We live for those moments – to please our fans and get the job done.
HM: Thanks for the time, Brett. Looking forward to Wakarusa.
BM: Thanks. Me, too.
