hell yes! "Wakarusa Music and Camping Festival is proud and excited to announce that our 6th annual event will take place June 4 – 7 at Mulberry Mountain in Ozark, Arkansas!" i was ready to go to kansas, but now its just like an hour from my house. obviously since i live in arkansas im pumped, but what do u guys think?
this is great news....im from Lawrence, and although it sucks for our town...i thinks its a positive thing for the festival...no more Kansas gayness...and we still get to have our fest (it IS ours lol) somewhat closeby in a equally if not more impressive venue....from what ive heard, it sounds like mulberry mountain has nothing but positive energy radiating throughout the entire ecosystem... and tickets are only 79 bucks for december...hopefully the lineup will be just as good as previous wakarusas....that has really been the best and shining thing about the fest...the music is A+ every year...
yea i saw this on jambase, good news for waka, the owner/promoter has been having fights and arguments with the venue owner for years, i'm glad theyve moved on. I think 2006 there was 100's of arrests and cops everywhere and had 250,000 dollars worth of equipment to use on the people. maybe i'll go this year if the lineup is as good as it usually is, but i'm from maryland, i imagine thats a long ride. plus phish is touring this summer.
oh my.. Mulberry's Havestfest line up looked fuckin amazing.. me and a friend almost went.. maybe i'll make it down that way next summer
I'm still confused by the state of Kansas being refered to as a 'venue owner' and how the owner/promoter could be having arguements with the state...the state park is bound by the same rules & regulations as all Kansas state parks and truthfully, the state employees who handle Clinton Lake and the contracts between Wakarusa & the Park have given the Waka folks plenty priviledges that were not given to the folks who put on earlier festivals, like the Jayhawk Fest and Omega Fest.
Well what happened, was the "state officials" were trying to increase the fee/music festival license wakarusa annually pays to have the fest...and other local fests like "Country Stampede" are significantly lower. So wakarusa was getting screwed basically for being a "hippie, jam fest"....Basically, Kansas is gay...Wakarusa said that with the increased fees, they wouldnt have been able to bring in top quality musicians like they have in the past, which would lead to lower ticket sales, and lower revenues, etc...they were making it harder and harder for Wakarusa to exist...after 2004, they realized what they were dealing with. 2005 wasnt that bad, 2006 was real bad in terms of law enforcement. 2007 i thought was one of the better years, and 2008 was just a disaster. But kansas being kansas said "we cannot allow this in our state"...And the wakarusa director (mosiman) has been trying to move it for a number of reasons....i just hope its not a bluegrass fest like Harvest (no offense)....i prefer to have a diverse lineup like waka usually has...
The Country Stampede is held in Mahattan & Turtle Creek doesn't get as much regular usage as Clinton. It may be that Clinton wanted a bigger piece of the pie since Waka is so well known...I mean the amount they charged for Omega Fest was low, but it was also put on by a local bro & not by a promotion company. Jayhawk Fests were also charged low fees, and were put on by some college kids as benefit shows. Both fests were considered hippie jam fests. All I know is that my family camped at Clinton every summer for many in a big blue hippie painted school bus & we were treated with a lot more respect than we've been treated at other places. Lawrence has always been a fairly hippie-friendly place and as far as the state of Kansas, I could tell you quite a few stories that show the state to be pretty cool. I guess I'd be more impressed if the Waka owner/promoter was moving the show because of the police harrassment...and the harrassment is more federal than state even if the state guys are doing the dirty work; extra money from homeland security & all that, just like with Bonaroo
