Foggy Bottom

The 10,000 Lakes Festival

Put on your dancin’ shoes and boogie on over the Detroit Lakes for the best 4th of July music celebration around

By Janie Franz

Contributing Writer

ever before in the region have there been so many headlining jambands in one place. The 10,000 Lakes Festival at the Soo Pass Ranch is primed to be one of the leading jam festivals in the nation.

Festivals like these draw large crowds, but of a particular sort - usually musicians, dancers, tapers, and laid-back groovers -- who all come because of the music; to say they were there, in Minnesota, the summer of 2003, when Chuck Garvey from moe. laid down that sweet guitar riff that seemed to go on forever.
And fans of jambands are marked by one quality: they are kind. That kindness produces a peaceful atmosphere where many of the festival-goers actually clean up after themselves. The scene draws people who are environmentally conscious and many who are just plain polite. They care about the music and how they see it. You can't hear a band when people are fighting, nor do you want to dance and get hurt.
These are fans who aren't into the money end of the music business but who have supported independent bands through club and concert revenues, who spin the radio dial hunting for alternatives, who buy band merchandise, and get savvy through their own review networks, especially tape swapping. These are the fans who made Phish the biggest concert draw in the country.
Cheryl Sparks of Soo Pass Ranch is trying to create that kind, music-loving atmosphere at the 10,000 Lakes Festival. For 21 years, the site has been groomed as a premier outdoor music venue, with a state-of-the-art sound system and pristine camping. They have produced the blockbuster WeFest and the family-oriented Spirit Fest Midwest, a Christian music festival.
"We have 7,000 big, beautiful campsites," Sparks says, "with showers." They spent $1 million, bringing in city sewer and water lines, to put in 250 flush toilets in the concert bowl. "I don't think there's another outdoor concert facility," Sparks says, "where there's no line to the bathrooms!"

Looking to the Winnipeg Folk Festival as an example of what can be done in a smaller venue, Sparks says, "If you produce a really good show, the people will come."

That was clear when the small Tennessee town of Manchester, population 8,000, hosted the Bonneroo festival last year. Using Bonneroo as a model, Soo Pass Ranch put together the 10,000 Lakes Festival in a few months. Sparks, whose background is in rock and country booking, admits that when she first saw the lineup for Bonneroo, she only recognized one name on the list.
"I started researching the music," she says, and talked to her husband's percussionist, Cyro Baptista, who also plays drums in the Trey Anastastio Band. She realized then: "This is the music that people will come here for."

And, they are coming. Over 95 percent of the ticket sales have been from states other than Minnesota and North Dakota. "They aren't driving all the way from Florida," Sparks says, "just to drink beer on the Fourth of July. They're driving from Florida because they want to see Widespread Panic or they want to see Jerry Joseph and the Jackmormons or they want to see Leftover Salmon or they want to see Gov't Mule. People are coming to this show for the music, and they're requesting family areas in the campgrounds."

The 10,000 Lakes promoters made a smart move, first advertising the festival at jambase.com -- the mecca for all jam fans. They made a special promotional CD with one or two songs from every band on the festival bill and sent it to college radio stations in Wisconsin, Minnesota and the Dakotas. "We were afraid that their libraries might not be deep enough to have the Kung Fu Hippies," Sparks says.
The bands are also getting involved in ways other than just showing up and performing to help to make the festival a success.
"Widespread Panic has been really actively involved in everything we're doing," Sparks boasts. "That's very unusual. They called us up and said, 'It's about lakes. You should put more blue in your website.' When the artist is involved, you're going to have a better product."

Widespread Panic's management has also worked closely with festival technicians, putting together a taping section for music collectors and swappers.
With band involvement and kind festival-goers, Sparks hopes that 10,000 Lakes will be different from all of the events at Soo Pass Ranch.
"In keeping with the music and the community and the politics and the spirituality of it all, we want to have no environmental damage. We want people to bring what they want to use and take it back with them." That's why there are restrictions prohibiting glass anywhere in the concert bowl and the campgrounds and no upholstered furniture or pets.
When you have an environmentally-aware audience who is into really listeni - High Plains Reader: Fargo, ND