By: Jason Harter

Friday January 22nd 2010:

No Rothbury 2010

It was announced today that there will be no Rothbury 2010. Just as plans were starting to be hatched this was handed down from Rothbury management:

"During the past three years, all of us involved with ROTHBURY have greatly appreciated the tremendous outpouring of support for the future of the festival. For 2010, we have had to make the tough decision to postpone our efforts. A contributing factor in our decision is that, due to various artists recording and touring schedules, we now believe that timing will not allow for us to assemble the cutting edge roster that everyone has come to expect from ROTHBURY. The result for this year is that we are not able to move forward with the integrity and high standards that we demand from ourselves and for the festival.

Despite the 2010 postponement, we intend to move toward continuing ROTHBURY in 2011. This event is something very special, and we are unwilling to potentially tarnish what ROTHBURY is, and can become, by working under conditions that will produce anything less than a magical experience.

ROTHBURY is more than a festival. It is a mission intended to discover strength in community, and what it means to be a large-scale sustainable event in these times. Our efforts are certainly not coming to an end.

It is important for us to thank the people of Michigan, Oceana County, The Village of Rothbury, Grant Township, and the Double JJ Resort. Also, we thank our team members, volunteers, creative contributors, media partners, and sponsors. We have made many friendships that will last a lifetime.

To all who attended the first two years of ROTHBURY we thank you for the soul you gave the event. Those times entered rarified air because of your energy.

We hope you have a fantastic July 4th this summer."

It looks like the Hoxeyville, Dunegrass, & Earthwork Harvest Gathering, Michigan Music Festival, Power Trifecta finally dealt the death blow to the upstart.

Rothbury 2009

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Thursday July 2^nd, 2009 - Where’s Carl?

Now I will be writing this from a groundview perspective. I will be camping, eating, sleeping, walking, and accumulating dust amongst the crowd. A communal experience for certain. This site is dedicated to Live Michigan Music and capturing, for good or ill, shows from the fan's persepective. I am sure my editor would love for me to be the first to break a glossy story, hot off the press, with an instantaneous and fleeting ratings boost that would surely make his bosses pop champagne cork's. But I must admit there will be no champagne. I am going to absorb the weekend. Gain some perspective, and try and give the most accurate account of the weekend that I can. I didn't go to Rothbury last year so I don't know the lay of the land or what to expect.

Rothbury aims to be the greenest, most minimally invasive, large music festival in the world. Now the greenest festival of all is no festival at all. So this is a balancing act. They have three trash cans at every spot that most festivals have one. One is for compostable materials (food,paper,coffee grinds,etc). The second is for recycling (plastic bottles, aluminum cans, etc). And the third is for Landfill (trash, everything else). They are color coded to help placement and they have people manning them inside the festival grounds. But in the end it is left up to the people to put stuff where it can do the most good. We will have final numbers as they become available.

The gates were supposed to open at 8:00 a.m. today but they were opened late Wednesday night to help minimize the back-up. I got here about 1:00 p.m. thinking that I would be early only to find 16,000 who were already losing things. I have a few different groups of friends that I am meeting from various places. I have phone numbers and a Nextel phone that barely works. I thought this would make things simple. But it hits you that even if you know where your friends are at, it might be a long walk to get to them. After a 20 min. slow procession thru the campground, and several thoughts of whether I was headed where I thought I was, I reach my final vehicular destination for the weekend. It is amazing how fast a tent city in Michigan can grow.

Now at this point names like Bass, Bluegill, Pike, Trout, Brookie, Catfish, Muskie, and Perch are just fish names. But I will need these because they are the names of the different sections of the campground. There are times when 2 plastic cups and some string get better reception and charge than my Nextel, so I will need to employ scouting, maps, smoke signals, and rendevous points to stay connected thru this festival.

I am all the way at the end of the main drag in camp Pike. I call some friends who are already set up as well. We use the highest flags we can see to relate our positioning to one another. It turns out I am only 100 yards away from them, by chance, they are in camp Bass. With one group of friends located and camp set up things are calming down. On my way to their site I see my first casualty of the weekend. It was a stuffed duck on top of a car with Mardi Gras beeds on (pictured below). His head with a tilt and a turn that signaled things were getting cranked up.

I didn’t want to come in with a set schedule of all the music I wanted to see. My 9 must see’s were Keller Williams, The String Cheese Incident, The Dead, Zappa Plays Zappa, Willie Nelson, Ani DiFranco, The Ragbirds, Steppin In It, and The Macpodz. I have never seen Ani DiFranco, Willie Nelson, Zappa Plays Zappa, or The String Cheese Incident so I’ll have 4 first time shows this weekend. I’m a huge Keller fan and who on earth would miss The Dead? All the other music I see will be based on the currents of the weekend.

“Carl” was the only person arrested last year according to Rothbury lore. Hence the “where’s Carl?” hats, t-shirts, and stickers. It was said that the naked guy running around Sherwood Forest was Carl. I guess we can never be sure. I am sure there were many other supposed Carl sightings, but either way he had 2 options. If Carl was the only person to be arrested at Rothbury last year he could either come back in 2009 or vow never to return to Michigan again. If he vowed to never come back obviously there will never be another sighting at Rothbury. But if he did come back he has another 2 options. Either come back and lay low as not to draw attention to himself and enjoy his weekend, or try and be the only guy to get arrested both years at Rothbury. I don’t know Carl and I don’t know if he is here this year. But I have a feeling that he is and I think he is keeping it cool.

I think it would be hard to name another city of at least 40,000 people that goes 4 days with only 1 arrest. So on the whole it is a relaxed weekend, but don’t think this is just a free for all. The Michigan State Police are present in their new fuel efficient cars (pictured below). We will have the official police reports as they become available.

Keller Williams 8:45p.m. – 10:15p.m.

I must start off by saying I am a huge Keller fan. But other than Ms. Barbara (pictured below) making an appearance, to me it was a very flat set with no definition or contrast. But that is what live music is all about. Some nights are good and some nights are off. But it is all personal preference anyway. For me it was an lackluster set.

After Keller I head back to camp get something to eat and wander thru the Sherwood Forest, Tripolee Domes, and Main Street until it is time for bed. It has been a good day one, with perfect weather and legs tired, I crash.

Friday July 3^rd, 2009 - Half Sharted Shorts and The Big Red Ball

The sun kicks me out of my tent about 9:00 a.m. I have a working agreement with the Carney’s that breakfast is at my place, dinner at theirs. Breakfast is my favorite part of the day. Getting up, cooking red potatoes, eggs, and sausage with a splash a Ray’s Polish Fire, it doesn’t start any better than this.

It starts off partly cloudy and reaching clear and 80 by the afternoon. The weather has broke, or so I think, time for the life jacket. I always bring an old orange military style life jacket with me. They are designed to flip you face up, if you end up passed out face down in the water.

After breakfast I clean up and head to the Carney’s. On my way there I see a pair of Men’s American Eagle Boxer Shorts (NOT pictured below), with a prominent shart stain in them, in front of the port-a-johns. Their placement had to be a conscious descision. Either upon or after entry. Unless they fell off without someone knowing, they had to have been placed there, and for good reason. I wonder how long they will lay there?

I have a meeting at noon, make it, and hit the farmer’s market on my way home. The dried cherries, grass fed beef, carrots, snow peas, dragon’s breath sausage, and Ope’s cookies are excellent.

I finally found the Billdozer. He is staying in camp Muskie by the Minnesota Golden Gophers flag. It was a bubbly atmosphere and we exchanged stories that taint to be repeated. But I can’t stay for long I have to get ready for the String Cheese Incident.

One Gram At A Time

Now "Gram" is not "Gram's" real name. His true identity is being withheld. But I meet a guy named Gram. He tells me he is from Vermont. So I ask him if he likes the band Phish since they are also from Vermont. He says "No, I don't like Jam Bands." So with this festival being heavily Jam Band influenced I ask him "so who are you excited to see this weekend?" He says "No one." Immediately thoughts of mental slavery come to mind. Just another case of someone who doesn't want to be where they are at, sitting next to someone that does.

Totally unenthused. As if he was kidnapped and forced here. To each there own.

He asks about the String Cheese Incident. "Are they any good?" I tell him yeah I have heard their stuff, never seen them, but if he was looking for some good pictures this might be it.

I hope he steps outside of his box and goes to Cheese.

The String Cheese Incident 8:45p.m. - 12:30a.m.

Now I have never seen the String Cheese Incident. But on the average String Cheese fans are more prone to costumes, hula-hoops, stilts, and blow up balls/animals than any other group of fans. It has always been said that the people following the Dead, Phish, String Cheese, etc., are like a traveling circus. A string cheese show has more of the Circus/Burning Man feel to it than any other.

I am posted up in front of the soundboard when my friend Kyle from St. Louis spots me. It turns out he is camped in camp Brookie. The music started and he turns to me and says "Excuse me while I travel back in time." Kyle also turned to me and said "they must be warning us about the rain." I told him No way, the weather forecast 2 days ago said it would be perfect all weekend. He turned to me and said it again. I still didn't believe him. They were playing the song "Rain."

Everything was going well. There are Acrobats hanging halfway down a piece of fabric that extends from the top of the stage all the way down. They must be 40 to 50 feet in the air. Meanwhile String Cheese plays on.

They also had small platforms throughout the crowd that people got up on and hula hooped with large blinking light hula-hoops. There were also fire dancers. The show attacked on all fronts.

A lot of blow up beach balls about 5 feet in diameter were being tossed around. One maybe 15 feet across threatens the taper section that I am near. And then from behind I hear the roar. As I look back I see the largest Big Red Ball that I have ever seen (pictured below).

It had to be at least 30 feet in diameter. It was like a UFO and very slow moving. Other balls could be swated away, back and forth. This ball, with 50 people hitting it as hard as they could, could barely be moved. It creeped wherever it went and forced you to engage it. It threatened the taper section as well. But then veered off stage right. An hour later when tragedy was supposedly averted the tapers looked back to see the big red ball off in the distance, about a half hour away. Sure enough a tap on the shoulder a half hour later was all it took to realize the big red ball was here and headed right for us. It smacks their mic's and slowly moves forward like a wave from behind that hits unexpectedly.

Once the show is over I'm done. Spent. Now it is just a short walk thru Sherwood Forest (pictured below @ sunrise) and a long stroll down Main Street to the tent.

Saturday July 4^th, 2009 - Sunglasses Shartcake

It’s 9:40, breakfast is still at my place, but a new devolpment has occurred. A pair of red women’s sunglasses have been placed on the half sharted shorts in front of the port-a-johns. The cherry has been placed.

Kyle was right. It rained. It’s partly cloudy and sprinkles are threatening to get worse. The forecast didn’t call for rain the entire weekend. If it just spits for a hour and clears I will be grateful.

I am grateful. The weather has cleared and the sun is once again beating down. Should I grab the life jacket? No I think I’ll be alright. Today was the perfect example of the Michigan experience. If you don't like the weather just wait 15 minutes.

I see Gram. Thinking that he got some amazing photos of String Cheese last night I ask him if he went. "No. I didn't go to Cheese last night." With the most unenthused look on his face I think to myself, "Man, did he miss OUT."

Zappa Plays Zappa 4:30p.m. - 6:00p.m.

This was a tight, meaty set. I couldn’t get over how much they sounded like Zappa and his band. My buddy Kimebag would be enthused.

The Dead 8:00p.m. - 12:00a.m.

Now coming into this I thought that The Dead would have to play American Beauty for their first set and Workingman’s Dead for their second set, with Jerry, to top the String Cheese Incident from the night before. However, they didn’t top them in my eye's, they came damn close. It doesn’t get any more American than Ms. Barbara putting lit sparklers in her mouth, 20 feet in the air, while The Dead play "The U.S. Blues", on the 4^th of July, to the massive fireworks display. All 40,000-1 had to be there.

Once again the legs are tired. Sherwood-Main-Pike-Tent.

Sunday July 5^th, 2009 - In The Kitchen

I have Breakfast once again, walk to the Carney’s, and low and behold, the men’s underwear is gone from in front of the bathrooms. One can only pray that a stick was used in the removal. Today is it. Time to say goodbye to the metal boot, the half-buried bus, and the reincarnation garden (pictured below).

Willie Nelson 6:00p.m. – 7:30p.m.

Not seeing Waylon Jennings perform live is one of my regrets in life. So to see Willie live for the first time was a lifetime achievement. Now Carney asked me "what do you think Willie will open up with?" I thought to myself, that if I were Willie Nelson, I would open up with 'Whiskey River". You know, really punch the crowd in the face right from the get go. Sure enough he did. He also played "Mama don't let your babies grow up to be cowboys", "On the road again", "Always on my mind", "Me and Paul", and on, and on, and on. He didn't disappoint.

Incident at the Broken Spoke 6:30p.m. – 8:30p.m.

Now “Randy” is not “Randy’s” name. His real name is being protected. But anyone at the Broken Spoke (pictured below) between 6:30p.m. – 8:30p.m. would have seen Randy pouring Southern Comfort right into peoples mouths from a fresh ½ gallon. Not everybody would drink from the bottle. Whenever someone didn’t drink Randy would drink for them. If someone did drink Randy would drink with them. One can be certain that after a couple of hours of this type of math that Randy was delivering drinks like Frankenstein, arms out, legs stiff, eye's up, chin down, one at a time. Even one at a time was too much. He needed to take a slow smoke break bar right. He got back behind the bar but I don’t know if he served anymore drinks.

Ani DiFranco 7:15p.m. – 8:30p.m.

She gets a reputation for being a man hater but that wouldn’t really be accurate. She is happily married with a 2 year old daughter. And let's not forget that more than a couple of those angry love songs are directed at other women. There are probably specific men she hates for specific reasons, but she hasn’t written the gender off as a whole yet.

She played a tight set and it wouldn’t take one long after seeing her to see how much Keller Williams has borrowed from her.

Umphrey's McGee: 11:00p.m. - Close

After Ani we head to the Carney’s for dinner. We regroup and head down Main Street one last time. We hit the Ranch area for the Umphrey’s McGee 11:00 p.m. set. This is the last show of the weekend, people are starting to head out, and we are just perched on the back berm. When out of the corner, from in front of the sounboard, stands, Ms. Barbara. We head down and as we do My favorite Umphrey’s Mcgee song starts, “In the kitchen”. We meet up with Ms. Barbara. Fish and Sethro Tull are there. She put a bunch of glowsticks in her hair and arose 20 feet in the air only to shake them out. And then shook profusely. Cherry on top.

Ranch-Main-Pike-Tent. Tent-Car-31-96-131-Blue-Home.

The End.

Tuesday's Gone

June 16^th, 2009 - Move Over Sundance?

While Cannes’ lock as the International film festival of choice seems secure, The Sundance Film Festival is quickly loosing ground to the Traverse City Film Festival as America’s Top Film Festival. With the concerns over crime, parking, lodging, and lack of cutting edge material, more and more people are choosing the Traverse City Film Festival as their vacation of choice.

It’s location, location, material. The Grand Traverse Bay boasts more world class resort’s, spa’s, beaches, forest’s, and golf courses than Park City, Utah. Last year, there were over 80,000 admissions to nearly 100 screenings, a number of them U.S. or world premieres. A special emphasis is given to foreign films, American independents, documentaries, and films which have been overlooked but deserve the attention of a public starved to see a good movie.

Will there be heads on a stick? One can only wait and see, but one thing is for sure, it will be worth the trip. July 28 - August 2nd, movie lineup will be available in mid-July.

June 9^th, 2009 - Giant Stilt Girl Hula-Hoop

The 2009 Rothbury Festival is 23 days away and you can already feel the wave that will crest on July 5^th building. Friends from St. Louis, Hawaii, California, and Colorodo will be calling while girls on giant stilts with giant hula hoops walk by, thru the trees, talking to real monkey’s, as men with heads on sticks pass. A 21^st century circus on 20^th century land, It is what Bonaroo aimed to be before MTV bought it, and more.

Rothbury will be The Dead’s only summer performance and The String Cheese Incident’s only 2009 performance. Along with Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, The Black Crowes, Sound Tribe Sector Nine, G. Love and Special Sauce, Umphrey’s McGee, Yonder Mountain String Band, The Disco Biscuits, Les Claypool, Keller Williams, Ani DiFranco, Matisyahu, Railroad Earth, Toots and The Maytals, Zappa Plays Zappa, Peter Rowan & Tony Rice, Eoto, The Macpodz, Steppin In It, The Ragbirds, and Four Finger Five, It is shaping up to be the traveling man’s festival.

Above and beyond all else this is a national String Cheese Incident Family reunion. They disbanded a couple of years back and have not played together since. I can not think of a better place, short of Hawaii with free fan teleportation, than the remote shores of Michigan.

Get your tickets, 4^th of July Weekend, Rothbury, MI, USA, If you can’t afford a ticket you can volunteer some of your time to get in, don’t miss it.

June 2^nd, 2009 - A White Dog Named Blue

Now Blue was a White Labrador Retriever from Kentucky and he had 4 other twin brothers. Being and old style southern gentleman from the first quarter of the 21^st century, he was the softee of the bunch. But they were all travelers. He's a licker not a fighter, and he was an Astronaut before that. He had seen the world from a distant gaze and wondered why he had ever left. He now spends his time eating Michigan grasses and insects while washing them down with Michigan waters.

Maybe it was more about the landing than the take off. He made it to the moon just fine. He weightlessly chased tennis balls and laid in the shade of the moon. But when it was time to leave the thrusters were shot, no way back home. An immediate and oxygen robbing sense of panic overtook him. But then he remembered that he was in the land of dreams. He imagined a native space craft came and towed his craft to the earth’s atmosphere and so it be. And upon re-entry he realized he was no longer in the land of dreams, but the land of the physical. He didn’t have to dream, he could make it come true thru action.

So then he hits the water as if being tumbled by Pipeline in December. His craft intact and rescue complete, he wanted to reach land, and never leave. He had already done all the leaving that a lifetime would require. So he headed towards Michigan, as Michigan headed south, seeking the land that was wrapped in protective waters.

Anyone looking for the Astronaut would be hard pressed to find him. To the people that know him he is just A White Dog Named Blue.