By Dominik Lobkowicz
Members of Knox-based Nukulele play a set. (D. Lobkowicz photo) |
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Jake Irish sings and plays at Locavore for Bangor-based Between Dead Stations. (D. Lobkowicz photo) |
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The Locavore Food, Music & Arts Festival held in Waldoboro July 19 showed a roughly 25 percent increase in ticket sales over the inaugural event in 2013, according to organizer Melissa Smith.
Ticket sales were estimated at 125 for 2014, up from about 100 last year, Smith said, despite competition from several other events and festivals around the Midcoast.
The bulk of the crowd came in the late afternoon and stayed through the evening to hear the headlining band, Ghost of Paul Revere, Smith said.
Smith was very pleased with the event and in many ways. Locavore was the result of months of planning and preparation that began last winter, and culminated in a “gorgeous” day, she said.
Starting out sunny and bright, some clouds rolled in during the afternoon and wind picked up in the evening.
“It was perfect; it was just what we needed,” Smith said. “It was just a fun, laid back, happy day.”
Most of the festival’s attendees had probably never heard the eight bands play before and many asked Smith questions such as where they came from and how she found them, she said.
“When you hear that over and over again for multiple bands through the day, you sort of know you did right,” Smith said.
Smith had heard one performer, Trisha Mason, play a couple of times previously, and knew The Ale House String Band locally; the rest she found through the music website ReverbNation and word of mouth.
Sound for the festival had a more professional feel than last year, Smith said, and was handled by Chris Lannon and Brackett Clark from the Woolwich band Work Trucks, who also played the festival.
At the end of the evening, Ghost of Paul Revere played two sets and that is when the crowd started to dance, Smith said.
“It was really great to see a field full of people dancing to really good music. That’s when I realized that the day was a success,” Smith said.
The festival spanned about 10 hours, and Jeff Hurd, one of the owners of Cider Hill Farm, said it will like be condensed to a roughly six-hour show in the afternoon and evening next year.
With the local vendors at the festival, Smith said she had not yet touched base with many of them but singled out Chris Gray, of Riff Wood Picks in Union, as one of the most interactive with the bands.
Gray was able to secure two contracts through the bands: making wooden picks as wedding favors for Mike Irish, of Between Dead Stations; and promotional picks for The Ale House String Band.
“I think the interaction with Riff Wood Picks and the bands was really cool; I hope he comes back next year,” Smith said.
For more information about Locavore, visit the festival website at http://locavorefestival.com or find it on Facebook.
