Voodoo Experience 2014- Take It Or Leave It, Changes Need to Be Made (FESTIVAL RECAP)

What Festivals Can Learn From the Voodoo Experience

It’s nearing the end of festival season, a changing of the guard now so regimented that it’s ushered in via SXSW and dispersed in a bewildered cloud of Rock the Bells and scant, smaller events. Someday that vacillating gap between large-scale live music’s downtime and its uptick will be nil, but for now, there’s just enough of a break to introspectively look at the way the year has treated the festival machine as it chugs on neither needing coverage nor requiring much improvements. The starkest, and perhaps largest of these to transform itself into nothing but a money grab is New Orleans’ Voodoo Experience. The sixteen year old festival started with a bang under the helm of Stephen Rehage. It enters 2014 now part of the LiveNation family and with Rehage allegedly overseeing all North American festivals. His baby is all grown up and here’s what we can learn from it.

1. Camping festivals aren’t everything –

Voodoo experimented with camping at their City Park grounds just two years ago, to the dismay of many locals. Deep within the vast lands of Manchester, TN’s farm for Bonnaroo or within the spacious grounds of the Polo Fields for Coachella make far more sense rather than the grassy swamplands of New Orleans. Compromising even the camping aspect, Voodoo this year settled on VIP only with garish pop-up tents for the wealthy who already had their own fast-pass into the festival. Why allow for camping when there’s no community to it?

2. Conversely, the VIP section doesn’t have to be so unwelcoming –

We get it -festivals, like any other business, are in the business to make money. Last year, Eddie Vedder mentioned the gated-off front grass of the main stage as the “jacuzzi section” during Pearl Jam’s expertly Steve Gleason-curated set and this year, that phrase left the mouths of the masses almost as much as the complaints of a lengthy entrance line. Few musicians made mention of the divide because it’s become festival de rigueur, but that combined with the explicit pushing of VIP tickets and perks was rough to stomach.

3. This only makes its epic lines and ill-equipped security look even worse-

VIPs casually sauntered into City Park at a pleasant trickle throughout the festival while Halloween day and up until the evening, folks with day passes, and general weekend wristbands waited and waited ad infinitum. Speaking with multiple fans, the consensus of said wait was at least 45 minutes, though many waited as long as two hours to enter the festival grounds. Past years saw few line issues, or at least, the types of issues that are unavoidable at large-scale festivals: say, cumbersome bag checks and poorly laid out police barricades. A crying shame of a line into Rehage’s flagship festival is a sour note to start upon. Though it was amended the next day, line woes remain a fear for the festival that should know better.

4. You can only retool so much. Get it right, right quick –

There were significant improvements in moving stages and reconfiguring Voodoo’s set-up, though sonic bleed-through was still a problem, to say nothing of its production issues, self-made or otherwise. OutKast’s video wall cut out during their performance, which is simply inexcusable, especially given its heft. The duo may never play another show together again. Andre 3000’s jumpsuit message of “I don’t know what else to say” [sic] certainly points to not much happening post-OutKast 20. The self-made issue was a decision to cut Lauryn Hill’s mic during “Ready or Not”. Guess they weren’t ready?

5. Book the talent you really, really believe in –

Nobody enjoys a seriously shortened set nor do they enjoy set times pushed in all sorts of directions. Though a serious breath of fresh air given the circumstances and playing at perhaps her strongest to date, songstress Lauryn Hill has sadly amassed a reputation of being flighty and wholly unreliable. It’s certainly not a vote of confidence from the festival if they’re looking to just shove her off-stage and then issue a make-up time in which she’s late for the second time, her tardiness being the original cause for Hill’s performance being cut short.

6. Keep it in the family –

Once Bonnaroo skipped over Phil Lesh in favor of Kanye West, the damage had been done and the festival entered a new, contemporary era. Voodoo Fest at least gets honoring its past all-stars right, with multiple Deja Voodoo after-parties and festival sets, including a rousing onsite performance of ska funksters Fishbone, who carried their jubilance well into the night over at Downtown New Orleans’ Joy Theatre. Deja Voodoo could stand a bit better marketing and packaging with the festival whose past it aims to highlight, as well as a bit more context: Fishbone has played the festival in 2011 and 2008 in addition to this year and it’d be a damn shame for fans to forget those epic performances.

7. Celebrate clean vibes –

Voodoo apparently went with the city of New Orleans’ own trash-keeping issues and opted to keep trash cans hidden and the trash flowing, perhaps as some sort of means to measure success? Where other festivals get by on clean vibes and clearly marked compost, recycling, and trash cans along with volunteers who score free tickets to help the environment and steer a drunkard’s biodegradable fork into the correct bin, Voodoo sadly does no such thing. A way to ride the green wave and appeal to the struggle student or environmentalist would work in all those in attendance and working at the fest’s favor.

8. Keep it original and keep it local –

Voodoo fest excels in showcasing local artists, musicians, and food in a way that may not be as expansive as Outside Lands but certainly emits the quirky vibes of the city it resides in a far more approachable manner. The buzz of art biennial Prospect.3 certainly helped the fine art aspect of the festival, as fans were treated to a gargantuan red flower sculpture installed near the opening gates. Voodoo could stand to work in tandem with what’s going on in and around the city during such a busy season if it wants to take that local pull to the next level.