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.
