Preview: A Chat w/ All Good Founder Tim Walther

This year the 16th annual edition of the All Good Music Festival moves from its home of almost a decade in West Virginia to Legend Valley in Ohio. The 2012 All Good Music Festival features headliners Allman Brothers Band, The Flaming Lips, Bob Weir and Bruce Hornsby with Branford Marsalis, Phil Lesh and Friends, Michael Franti and Spearhead, Yonder Mountain String Band and Lotus.

[All Photos by Andrew Bender]

Andrew Bender has covered the All Good Music Festival for the past two years for Hidden Track. Earlier this month, Andrew spoke with All Good Music Festival founder and promoter Tim Walther about the festival’s move and what it takes to put on a festival for over 20,000 fans.

Andrew Bender: The idea of a larger outdoor camping and music festival with only one stage of music at a time is pretty unique – what was the inspiration for that, originally?

Tim Walther: We’ve been doing that since the beginning when we had a split stage. It was maybe a 30-foot stage with 15 feet dedicated to 1 band, and when that band would finish and we’d turn it over to the next band. As we grew we realized that the number one complaint for fans at larger festivals was that they just could not see all the music that they paid to see. They would be chasing music. You have 30 minutes of this band at this stage and then you’re running over to this other stage to catch a piece of this other band, and it really takes away from the experience. We worked really hard to keep it all in one place, to bring everyone into one central location and have that energy build all day long. At the All Good Festival you see that energy grow from day to day. By Saturday afternoon everybody is completely moved in to their experience and their surroundings and they are just part of that overwhelming, thrilling energy in the space right in front of the stage. That’s what I really think is the magic of having non-overlapping sets.

AB: I know you’ve also worked with other formats – with such a large crowd and just one set at a time, What have been of the largest unanticipated challenges with that format, as far as artists, staffing, or logistics?

TW: I can’t really say there were any major hurdles. The stages have worked very well for us. It works well for production as far as having the stages next to each other and having the teams coordinate and the timing. One difficulty from a logistic standpoint is that the bands don’t really have any opportunity to do any kind of full sound check. What we tend to do is give them a live check, but it’s prohibitive for them to make any noise while the other band is playing 20 yards from their stage. Other than that, it works like a charm.

AB: You’ve grown All Good into one of the premier camping and music festivals in the country – with attendance of over 20,000 last year. Was it your original vision to grow it to be so large?

TW: Way back in the day with our first event in Brandywine, Maryland we had 800 to 950 people. At that time I had a goal that 10 years from now I’d like All Good to be up to 20,000 people. But my sense is that it doesn’t really need to grow beyond where it’s at now because I feel like we’re at the tipping point of having a larger festival that can still feel intimate. I think we have that, I think we have that charm, where every fan can feel like they’re a part of the event, as opposed to being at an even larger festival where you’re just one of the many thousands of fans.

AB: What proportion of your staff are volunteers?

TW: Last year we had approximately 22,500 paid attendees. Our volunteer program is called WET which stands for Work Exchange Team. Basically, someone pays for their ticket in advance, they work their 15 hours, and they get a refund on their ticket. We typically have 300 to 350 WET folks working with our team of people in 65 or 70 departments throughout the site. It’s a great way to have the fans involved not only in the experience of being a fan at All Good but also participating in what it takes to build and make an event run like it has the last few years.

AB: A lot of college-aged fans are interested in festival and music production and promotion. Do you have any additional ways for people to get involved in that side who are interested beyond the WET experience alone?

TW: We’re only as good as our staff is and we feel very fortunate to have some of the most seasoned and experienced staff in the country. A lot work the largest festivals like Bonnaroo and events year round. Many folks who are interested in production at the entry level do end up on the WET team and they can express that interest to the department heads that they’re working. So they really have an opportunity to show their worth with the work they do for our event and show that they want to take this to another level. Each year we pick up some people who have been WET volunteers in the past and we put them to work on more of an hourly position. So there’s definitely the opportunity to go from the WET perspective to more of a paid team player.

AB: You spent the past 9 years in Masontown on Marvin’s Mountaintop, and the prior years in the Maryland / Cumberland area. There were reports that Masontown was imposing new ordinances and tax hikes that were prohibitive.

TW: We just didn’t feel welcome any longer in West Virginia. The county and community had pushed back and we felt like it was time to move on.

AB: Ohio seems like a long way to move the festival. What are you most excited about in terms of relocating?

TW: We were looking for a new location, and when we visited Legend Valley it just felt really good. I was there in 1989 as a fan of the Grateful Dead and had a great experience. It’s got a rich history, and it’s laid out very well for this type of event. It’s within a mile off Route 70 but it’s still a very rural area with rolling hills, and beautiful scenic views. One of the bigger problems we had at Marvin’s Mountaintop was the traffic. We were bringing all those people up a one lane country road, and as we grew it just became more problematic with the community, and that’s one major benefit of where’re we’re going in Legend Valley. In comparison to Marvin’s Mountaintop it’s much easier to access and manage getting folks in and out.

PAGE TWO – Prepping For All Good 2012 and more on the move to Ohio

AB: How long before the festival begins do you have people working on the festival site?

TW: We’ve already been working on the site since early April. We’re building roads and drilling wells for showers and water, clearing the deadwood from the woods, creating some really nice shaded camping, and we’re putting in culverts so the water runs off in case it rains. As far as more of a crew showing up, that’s getting done by a handful of folks including the owner of the venue, Steve Trickle. Other than that we’re showing up 3 weeks before the event and really starting on the layout.

[via All Good Festival Facebook]

AB: Legend Valley has a phenomenal history for bands like the Allman Brothers Band, and more recently it’s held smaller events like Hookahville and the Werk Out Festival. How are you using the space at Legend Valley differently for a larger event?

TW: We’re utilizing 150 acres of property that hasn’t been utilized in many years. So, that’s what we’re adding to as far as that large of an event coming into the space that typically does events of 3,000 to 7,500 people. We’re using lots that were used when the Grateful Dead were there. It’s a really nice layout and it works very well for the event. I think people are really going to enjoy the space.

AB: I also saw that this year you’re offering hotel packages, and such. Beyond the traffic issues what kinds of logistical improvements does the move to the Columbus area permit?

TW: It’s a much more comfortable and flat setting for people as far as walking back and forth to the campsites.. We’re much closer to major metropolitan areas, and it allows people to fly into Columbus from all around the country and you just have a 30-minute drive to get to the event. We are offering the hotel packages and we have some other packages this year. We call them “Glamping” packages, which is glamour camping. For those packages, we have VP tents set up, we offer services like coffee and wine and really the whole 9 yards when it comes to an all-inclusive festival experience.

AB: All Good is moving from nearby one college town to another – Morgantown to Columbus – obviously All Good in WV drew fans from all over, but did seem to draw a lot from the region. Do you think you’re going to lose those fans because of the convenience factor, and if so do you think you’ll just make that up with the younger fans from Ohio State?

TW: It does seem like we’ll lose some folks from the east coast because of the longer drive. But from our ticket sales, it seems the majority of our long term fans are making the trip even though it’s a couple of hours further into Ohio. We’re doing a lot better obviously with our ticket sales in the Ohio region, Michigan, Kentucky, and Chicago is doing really well for us. It seems like the Midwest is really excited that we’re closer for them. I think we’re getting a lot of first-timers from the Midwest.

AB: What are you doing to establish the All Good brand in Ohio?

TW: Outside of print ads, radio, and Facebook, we’ve also been a big proponent of word-of-mouth, even in this day of electronics taking over the world. We have an army of people in Ohio and the five states surrounding going to small events, handing out flyers, and talking up the event. We take surveys and find out how people heard of the event and it’s 65 to 70% word of mouth. A lot of that happens on the street and on the Internet as well. Our secret to success is keeping the ground game going strong and working it. We’re working it from Florida to Colorado to California. We have flyers all over the country going to these events, and turning people on one by one.

AB: For those fans that can’t make the trip, what are your plans for streaming the performances?

TW: We are part of an iClips festival package that has – depending on the approval from the different artists; it’s a pretty reasonable package. [Ed. It’s $13 to stream all 4 days of All Good, or $5 per day in advance.]

AB: Over the years there are a lot of repeat acts that play All Good, and it also seems like you try to bring in newer acts with each successive year. How do you try to balance that when you’re creating the lineup and the idea that the community has a rather set and often Grateful Dead-centric mentality? How much have those considerations driven your choices for the lineup?

TW: We’ve always had a really strong mix of jam bands, electronic music, bluegrass, reggae, funk. Every year we mix up those elements. If you’re familiar with the jam scene there’s 10 or 15 acts that are the favorite acts of these fans and they’ve been around for a long time. Bands like Yonder Mountain String Band, Lotus, moe., or Umphrey’s that fans want to see every year. At the same time fans are very open too – the most intriguing part for me when I’m booking the lineup is to introduce the fans to some bands they haven’t heard before. This year, for instance, the Lumineers are the band I think the fans are going to really like they haven’t seen before. And Trampled By Turtles are really exciting. Also, bands like Moon Hooch, and Pimps of Joytime – that’s a really fun thing to see the crowd of people in front of those stages see a band for the first time and see how they react to the music.

AB: And I would imagine that’s one of the challenges in the sense that when you have 7 different stages, you can have more risk of lesser known acts, than a set up like at All Good where if there’s a lesser known band there’s more risk.

TW: The goal is to have an energy that’s growing throughout the day. The goal when booking the lineup is that each band fazes into the next band with a good, strong transition where it all makes sense. And you’re right, when you have everyone in your festival all in one place and they have a band they haven’t heard of you want to make sure that band is going to turn everyone on and get people excited about their music. That’s certainly something I try to do and most of the time it comes off fairly well. I can’t recall any time that people were turning away from the music. The fans are great, they’re open-minded, they’re excited about new bands, and they give every band a shot.

AB: What can fans expect in terms of changes? Will the Dragon and Crane stages stay the same? Are you introducing new decorative elements or are you trying to keep things more consistent?

TW: A bit of both. You’re going to see the pagodas in the entranceway, and our Buddha will be back in a prominent position. And yes, we’re definitely adding art installations throughout the site that I can’t really talk about because it’s going to be a surprise to everybody. It’s the old and the new – we’re bringing back some staples and adding some interesting pieces to the puzzle. Every year we work in cooperation with Chris Kuroda who’s the light designer for Phish and it’s really exciting to have him on board. He really gets a kick out of setting up the lighting across the board. And he just loves working with the All Good festival and he’s working with us on the ambience and lighting for the entire site. Not only the lighting for the bands at night but he gets out in the campgrounds and lights up the trees and creates multiple different scenes throughout the site. I’m really excited to have him on board. We also have crowd performers that will be new to the scene – I think the fans will love it.

Check back with Hidden Track over the course of the All Good Music Festival from July 19th to 22nd as Andrew will be reporting each day on the event highlights in his All Good FestivaLog. Also of note, festival promoters have just announced that they are releasing a limited number of Friday Arrival 3-Day (Fri-Sat-Sun) and Saturday Arrival 2-Day (Sat & Sun) passes (available here). “There has been quite a bit of demand for All Good to offer ticketing options like this in the past but with the remoteness of our previous site in West Virginia, it didn’t really make sense. We have come to realize that being so close to large cities changes everything, and we are delighted to offer these choices to our fans,” a statement said. Full 4-Day Passes are still being sold at $199. The 3-Day Friday Arrival pass is $175. The 2-Day Saturday Arrival pass is $109.