Oxford town officials refuted a Lincoln County Commissioner’s negative accounts of Oxford’s 2009 experience with Oxxfest and Oxxfest promoters in interviews with The Lincoln County News July 29-30.
At a special meeting of the Lincoln County Commissioners July 29, and in a subsequent interview, Commissioner Sheridan Bond said Oxxfest promoter New England Concerts sought out a new location because Oxford didn’t want the concert to return.
According to Bond, who cited an anonymous source within the town, Oxford did not receive payment for services provided by the town. “Bookings tripled at the jail,” Bond said, and the event did not result in a positive economic impact on the community.
Bond’s information contradicted that of Wiscasset Raceway owner Doug White. At Thursday’s meeting, White said he spoke with one of Oxford’s selectmen about the town’s experience with Oxxfest. The selectman “told me it was a very good event,” White said.
“There’s a reason why they’re having it in Wiscasset and not in Oxford,” Bond said.
White said the reason was because contractors were at work on the concert grounds.
“I’m sorry, that’s not the reason,” Bond said.
There was some confusion in the meeting about whether Bond was speaking about Nateva, a separate, three-day festival July 2-4, 2010 featuring mostly jam bands, including headliner Furthur, featuring Phil Lesh and Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead, and indie rock acts like Grizzly Bear and She & Him.
Nateva concertgoers camped at the facility, whereas Oxxfest, in 2009 and 2010, was a one-day heavy metal concert. In Thursday’s meeting, Lieutenant John Allen of the Wiscasset Police Department told Bond, “If you had asked about Oxxfest in 2009, I think you would have got a different answer.”
Bond initially agreed with Allen, but later, in an interview, Bond said he thought Nateva was the name of a singer that performed at Oxxfest 2009 and said he was talking about Oxxfest 2009. “I don’t know anything about [Nateva],” he said.
In a July 29 interview, Floyd Thayer, Chairman of the Oxford Board of Selectmen, said he wasn’t aware of any problems resulting from Oxxfest 2009.
“We have an ordinance up here and they played by the rules,” Thayer said. “I don’t know if they had an arrest there.”
Thayer said he didn’t know why Oxxfest didn’t come back to Oxford, but suspected it was an issue with the venue. “As far as the actual town, I’m not aware of any problems at all,” he said.
Thayer wasn’t aware of problems at Nateva, either. “We had no issues with that,” he said.
On July 30, Oxford Police Chief Jon Tibbetts largely corroborated Thayer’s account of Oxxfest. “I think we only arrested one or two at the Oxxfest,” Tibbetts said. The arrests were for disorderly conduct, he said.
There were mosh pit injuries, including broken arms and noses, but a private security firm hired by New England Concerts “took care of almost all of that,” Tibbetts said.
Tibbetts said his office received payment from the Oxford County Fairgrounds, rather than directly through New England Concerts. “We didn’t have to deal with the promoter,” he said.
Tibbetts said Oxxfest 2009 only drew about 3500 fans, less than half the attendance for the Wiscasset show. “Ours was so small last year it’s really hard to judge from,” he said.
Nateva, Tibbetts said, may have caused confusion for Lincoln County officials. About 30 arrests, including 28 felony drug arrests, as well as disorderly conduct and criminal trespass arrests, took place during the three-day festival.
Despite the arrests, Tibbetts called the Nateva crowd “pretty peaceful people.”
Alex Gray, a New England Concerts employee, owner of Waterfront Concerts and promoter of Oxxfest, said the move took place because of a disagreement with Oxford County Fairgrounds over stage placement.
Gray began to search for a location with a “larger, more wide open, evenly graded area… [an] area with some slope to it.”
Gray has a longstanding relationship with Steve Smith, director of sales and marketing at the Wiscasset Raceway, dating back to Smith’s days as the station director of WTOS-105.1, the “Mountain of Rock, he said.
Smith’s presence and the gently sloping fields outside Wiscasset Raceway helped complete the transition.
In an interview after the commissioners’ regular meeting Aug. 3 – and after Oxxfest 2010, which took place Saturday, July 31 – Bond said, “What happened there, happened there. That’s their experience, not ours.”
“I was not against the event,” Bond said. “I think it was great.” The concert proved beneficial to local businesses, Bond said, an especially important boost in the poor economic atmosphere.
The caution exercised by the commissioners and other local officials ensured preparedness for the concert, Bond said. As of Thursday’s meeting, the county did not have a contract in place with the promoter, but the parties agreed to terms before the concert, Bond said.
“They signed [the contract] on our terminology, not theirs,” Bond said. “That was the bottom line, was making sure we were compensated… taxpayers shouldn’t be footing the bill. Times are hard. We’re trying to be extra careful where we spend our money.”
The process, Bond said, “made the county more aware so that when something like this happens we’ll be prepared for it.”
