Speaker 1: 0:31

in our earliest days of really becoming a touring band. One of the great small festivals that we played was the very first year, I believe, that Four Peaks happened up in Bend, oregon. We were invited to play by Stacy and by our friends in the band Poor Man's Whiskey, who at that time were also involved with Stacy, I believe, in the band Poor Man's Whiskey, who at that time were also involved with Stacy, I believe, and that experience that year was really beautiful. It was kind of the quintessential grassroots first-year festival in all the good ways, and what's typical, though, in a lot of those first-year festivals is that they are typically really not well-organized and just kind of like getting all the kinks out. But in this case, those guys really had it all figured out, because even in that first year, stacey and the team there had been really thoughtful in the way they put it together so that the fans would have a great experience, but also so that the artists would have a great experience. So they really took care of us and they really had great sound and great staging and a great artist roster great artist roster and I just remember being really, really happy and kind of really filled with a lot of gratitude.

Speaker 1: 2:03

After we got to play that first year. It was really wild to flash forward then, you know, all the way to 2021 and and play again that year and really see how the festival had grown in its kind of overall size and stature and yet had really retained that grassroots feel, that specialness that comes with a smaller festival. Specialness that comes with a smaller festival that's more intimate and and that has like a a kind of a chemistry between the organizers and between each of the bands and like kind of a communal feeling with with the fans as well, and so really four peaks had grown but really had not, you know, lost any of that, that character which is, frankly, it's really in my experience, it's pretty rare. You don't often get to have it both ways and I give Stacey a ton of credit for that. I think she's really just so good at building out a great experience for the fans but also really relating to the musicians and understanding kind of what makes a good lineup and kind of what makes the musicians tick, you know, kind of how to get the best out of everybody.

Speaker 1: 3:25

My name is Bo Carper and I am one of the founding members of a band called New Monsoon. We started out in the Bay Area 25 years ago. So, yeah, my message to Stacey, you know if she's listening, stacey, if you're listening, I count myself as one of those really lucky musicians to have been involved in the festival from the earliest days and then all the way through to the year that I'm describing Really want to thank you, stacey, for you know all that you've done for the music community in Oregon and beyond and you know also thank you for doing it with such great enthusiasm and energy, because I am just one of you know a thousand musicians that will tell you that. You know Stacey cough is like one of my favorite people in the music business and, uh, you know her smiling face and her kind of joyful attitude about stuff uh, you know, kind of is inspiring.

Speaker 2: 4:29

I remember when I was a bat Times were hard and things were bad. There's a silver lining behind every cloud. Just four people, that's all we were Trying to make a living out of Blackland dirt. We'd get together in a family circle singing loud.

Speaker 3: 4:52

It's been said that music plays a unique role in the human experience. Music is often described as a universal language transcending linguistic and cultural boundaries, and for decades studies have shown the emotional, cognitive, social and physiological benefits of musical engagement, with the creation of music being one of the oldest forms of creativity and self-expression. It's also been said that only one thing is better than music live music. On episode 54 of Ben Magazine's the Circling Podcast, I have the privilege of sitting down with my friend Stacy Koff, one of the original founding members of the Four Peaks Music Festival. Four Peaks is Central Oregon's longest-running and only multi-day music and family camping festival, held annually over the summer solstice weekend in Bend, oregon. Stacey shares her personal history with live music, the impact music festivals have had on her life and her vision for keeping Four Peaks intimate and family-friendly, while continuing to attract top talent from across the country. With a passion for creating community around music, stacey and her team of over 200 volunteers plan and execute one of the most authentic and enjoyable music festivals in Central Oregon. Yo, stacey, thanks for your time, old neighbor, here's to this year's Four Peaks Festival and many more to come.

Speaker 3: 6:21

The Circling Podcast can be found on Patreon. Visit our page and learn how a percentage of your financial support will support local nonprofits and the continued growth of local community podcasting. Become a member and learn about this unique opportunity at patreoncom forward slash the circling podcast. Lastly, remember to stay tuned after the show credits to hear from Stacey as she contributes to our blank canvas community art project that explores the magic found in art embedded with me.

Speaker 2: 7:03

I found this online and I wanted to play it for you.

Speaker 4: 7:10

Oh my God. Back around to the beginning.

Speaker 3: 7:12

Totally, I was. You know. I was just researching this and finding old YouTube clips. This is from 10 years ago.

Speaker 2: 7:18

Oh yeah.

Speaker 3: 7:20

And I just felt like it was a fun way to start our conversation.

Speaker 4: 7:23

That's a long time ago. It is a long time ago, 10 years ago. Alo. They started off in 07 and then played 14, yep 10 years ago and now, fast forward, they're playing again.

Speaker 3: 7:36

That's cool.

Speaker 4: 7:36

I love it. They're still going at it big time New album and everything.

Speaker 3: 7:40

Yeah, I spent a fair amount of time looking at a bunch of your different artists that you've formed relationships with over the years and kind of just you know quickly, just kind of following their career trajectory and what they've been doing and it's all really amazing fun stuff. Man, I'm sure you've developed a lot of friendships over the years.

Speaker 4: 7:57

Definitely it's really cool. Well, it's funny you played that because, along with ALO, you know, new Monsoon was at the first one and the mini one in 21. So it was like the first and the last and they were the first ones to come in 2007 and crash at my house. I had a little larger house back then and a couple extra bedrooms and, sure enough, I started putting bands up and so that kind of fueled a lot of the fire and so a lot of these bands that have gotten bigger have stayed with me and you know it's like breakfast in the morning instrument hanging out at night, late night, and then they're on their way to the next show and it's just yeah, it's created relationships that have just never failed to keep going, which is really cool yeah that, because it's taking it a step beyond just showing up for a festival.

Speaker 3: 8:50

I mean you're creating a friendship there right having people into your house and eating together and just doing life. I mean that's a really fun way to develop a relationship. That also you guys get to work professionally together, you know, yeah, it's really cool.

Speaker 4: 9:04

And then seeing a lot of these bands, you know, fast forward to whatever year and they keep playing other festivals and I'll go to festivals and I'll see them just blossom or maybe on a big stage or headlining or just in other areas across, like you said, doing life and it's really fun to watch. And sitting back behind the scenes right, I'm not a musician myself, necessarily, so it's not like I'm planning to sit in and watching and just silently going. Oh yeah, that guy like he's selling out arenas and he crashed on my couch not that long ago.

Speaker 3: 9:42

Yeah, and there's something almost more fun about not having the skill set that the person that you're close with is such a master of. It gives you a different level of appreciation because it's so foreign to you yeah totally. That's how I feel with musicians. I can relate. I love music. I can't play anything, right, you know I don't love it to the extent you do. It's junkie status, well yeah.

Speaker 4: 10:08

And I mean, yeah, I tried, I try, I should say present day the mandolin which I tried my hand at. I got a beautiful mandolin made for me, uh gosh, over a decade ago and I thought now I guess I have to learn. And then fast forward to the same year actually 2014, I think, maybe it was 15.

Speaker 4: 10:27

Um, jeff austin played on my stage and just to watch him play mandolin, knowing that I would never be able to touch that, and then green sky bluegrass, paul hoffman, one of my idols too, like, and also a good friend, it's like, oh my gosh, these guys are the best, the cream of the crop almost in you know, in modern day. And well, the late Jeff Austin, I should say sadly, but you know, and just to watch that and know that, wow. I've dabbled in that and that's incredible. I I've dabbled in that and that's incredible.

Speaker 3: 10:55

I'll never be able to do that. Yeah, it gives you appreciation of the level of skill man. I mean, that's expertise. I met you in 2001. I wanted to bring this up for people to listen because it's just like what are the? I mean, I remember when you moved in across the street on St Helen's Place. That was a fun street.

Speaker 4: 11:15

Yeah, it was a really fun street. St Helen's Place, that was a fun street. Yeah, it was a really fun street.

Speaker 3: 11:18

It's not that far from here.

Speaker 2: 11:19

Really it's not, it's right around the corner.

Speaker 4: 11:21

In fact, walking over to this building today, I went oh gosh, this was my daily walk for 10 years.

Speaker 3: 11:26

So that's the house you were in when you started having musicians come and stay.

Speaker 4: 11:31

No, actually, so I left that house in. Probably no, actually, so I left that house in probably no actually yes, yeah, yes yeah. For about a year and then moved. Yeah, I think yeah, we left that house in probably six or seven eight. Yeah, somewhere around there and, yeah, just right, what a great street that was. You're right.

Speaker 3: 11:55

Yeah, I always thought St Helen's Place would be a good name for a band.

Speaker 4: 11:58

Uh-huh, that is a good name for a band, yeah.

Speaker 3: 12:01

I was also thinking about, you know, because I associate times in my life with different genres of music. Anymore I'm starting to realize there's I'm associating with different kind of pivot points in technology that affect how I interact with the world, and music being one of them. So back in the early 2001,. That house, that time I think of kind of that first transition into iTunes and music going digital and your library of tapes and CDs going like uploading them all and being able to share them on an iPod.

Speaker 3: 12:42

Oh yes, and I wanted to bring that up with you because you're such a fan of music and you've developed a passion-driven career around music. I just wanted to ask you what is the music industry like right now? You have all these different friends and connections that work in music and you start looking at kind of the old traditional ways that musicians made a living primarily through album sales, and there were still like, but now it's so much, it seems so much more kind of digital download based and streaming royalties and oh yeah you know like, just like festivals are changing the whole, a lot of different ways of music or in the music industry seem to be shifted and I just was fill me in on what you know.

Speaker 4: 13:34

Oh gosh, it's kind of a it's almost like a three or four part question and it's really loaded. And I will actually go back to 2001, two, three, in that house on St Helens, sitting there hours and hours and hours and hours uploading my CDs into my laptop just to have a music library to then put on my radio shows. And at the time, you know, kpov hadn't started yet. And in 2005, when KPOV, our community radio station, started, that's how we did it. Right, I had all. Finally, I had compiled this music library digitally from all my CDs and then played on this bluegrass show.

Speaker 4: 14:06

So, yes, I mean that was a huge intro to be like oh wait, a minute, things are rapidly shifting right now and changing and then we've probably all gone through the the bs of losing our music library at some point because of technology. So, who knows, like you, you know you break a tape and then you skip, or you scratch a cd and then, now, fast forward, you lose digital stuff because of whatever your computer. Um, you know, the music industry, it's, it's so different, like I could think about it. And when you hear the mute, the word music industry, it's so different I could it's, it's kind of all over the place right now I think it's.

Speaker 4: 15:00

it's really all over the place from lately the last couple weeks, seeing a bunch of festivals that are folding to knowing musicians who make maybe one to two cents on some download that somebody's doing to my husband, who's in a local, you know, blackstrap, bluegrass here, a local band that gets royalties from, let's say, spotify, and it amounts to nothing.

Speaker 4: 15:24

I mean, they barely cover this cost of making a CD to all the musicians that I hire, that I wish Four Peaks could pay them what they're worth, because I'd be paying thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars to the local band and the national headliner, right, I mean, I think you know talent is talent.

Speaker 4: 15:45

I think talent is all over the board too. Talent is anything from the local musician who just picked up like, let's say, myself, on the mandolin which is not talent, but just to have a love for that to the Billy Strings of the world who just four years ago were playing for 900 people at Four Peaks in a tent, to now you can't even barely get a ticket to his arena shows, and he's headlining the Farewell Festival here. So it's just, it's so sporadic and all over the board it's hard to quantify, right? So, um, I think that there's a very select few that in our world, in our genres, here and sitting in the middle of oregon, is so different than when you talk about the music industry, for the beyonce's, the taylor, swift's and everything else that's going on in la that are very produced and they've got huge backing behind them and huge marketing conglomerate, and I can go on and on and on.

Speaker 4: 16:41

I mean the difference between, like, the jam band scene, which I'm heavily in, obviously, and the fishes of the world and the deads and then you watch Goose, a band like that, come up on the scene and then the other bands behind that, and what's really the driving force? Obviously force. Obviously there's talent, but it's so much marketing and it's so much. You know, it's marketing, it's merchandise, it's how you associate and it's the social media. Obviously that's a huge component too, which I won't go into with that, but it's just that that's huge. And how do you decipher that?

Speaker 3: 17:11

yeah, yeah. It seems to me as though and I've observed this in other areas, like athletics, for example it's harder now to financially get rewarded for what you used to do in the day. I mean, I use snowboarding way too often, but it's an example I know of, but it's an example I know of Pro snowboarders now don't make nearly what they used to. They're just the economics have shifted. I think you could probably say the same with like pro mountain bikers or pro surfers or everything is just.

Speaker 3: 17:46

The model has shifted to the point where the people that tend to rise to the top have a different level or driven from a different place than that used to be, because you used to be able to have success easier and get financially rewarded for it right and now that's not the case. You have to like, oftentimes, supplement your passion, but I I'm of the opinion that if you can play the long game, and hang in there, that passion over time will pay dividends true, yeah, definitely not always but I think it requires a different approach from the very beginning.

Speaker 3: 18:19

when you're starting off with some of these like I wonder where this is going to take me, you know? Like maybe it's less about the short term, and that's why I'm a believer that Four Peaks has enough road in the rearview mirror and has differentiated itself so uniquely that you can't reproduce that with that history.

Speaker 1: 18:39

So the question is how do?

Speaker 3: 18:40

you get people to buy in to support what that is, because it's so special.

Speaker 4: 18:45

Correct. Thanks, and I still think there's an organic nature to it.

Speaker 4: 18:48

Well, there very much, is it has to be, and so it's hard to quantify. I use my daughter as an example. Now, with all the music that this generation knows, you can skip, you can get anything at your fingertips. You're not listening to an album, cover to cover, you're not putting it on a record player. Maybe you are because these kids are also into vinyl now and maybe it is going to come back around like you're saying the long game, like let's go that route, but right with the stimulus.

Speaker 4: 19:15

And then what's really real?

Speaker 4: 19:16

You know, somebody sees a four peaks advertisement, let's say on on social media, and they're going well, I have no idea what this is or how to trust it If you've never been there or you haven't heard word of mouth, and so it's, it's, it's all over the place in that realm. And then, like you said, you're rewarded monetarily for your efforts. And there used to be, I think and I could kind of be off base here but it used to be like, okay, you do this and you're paid accordingly, but now what does that even mean? You know, because you could be paid accordingly to the Instagram or social media influencer type thing that you're doing. If there's influencers behind it or a certain marketing machine behind it, you don't know if you're going to go experience that thing and like it, because somebody tells you you know, so it's, there's too many ways it's less transparent correct yeah, I think it comes down to there's too many options for the reality to get viewed through so many different lenses by the time it gets to possibly a new ticket buyer.

Speaker 3: 20:53

That they don't Right, it's just.

Speaker 4: 20:55

Right, why should I spend $300 on this? Well, I could give you a million reasons why, and the fact that it's still almost the most affordable thing in town for what you're getting. Yeah, as far as festival goes.

Speaker 3: 21:08

Well, you have to experience it. That's the bottom line.

Speaker 4: 21:12

It's an experience.

Speaker 3: 21:16

Where did your love of music come from? I mean, you grew up in Southern California, right? Yep, I did Calabasas High.

Speaker 4: 21:21

I did. That is correct In the Valley. Well, it actually goes. It does go way back. I think a couple ways this happened or that I migrated to it. My first concert ever was my parents taking me to the Hollywood Bowl to see Neil Diamond. Was my parents taking me to the Hollywood Bowl to see Neil Diamond? So I have no idea if that was integral or did anything, but I got to think that there was a little bit of force behind that, because the Hollywood Bowl I mean that place is magical regardless. And then Neil Diamond and I wasn't that far from him.

Speaker 5: 22:04

I don't think.

Speaker 4: 22:05

So that was pretty funny and I don't think that all that music or that type of music is what necessarily shaped me. But I think in fifth or sixth grade I'll never forget driving to elementary school in a carpool and the guy driving the car was a little older than me and he would put on the classic rock station and I would hear Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin and Allman Brothers and Grateful Dead and I went OK, wait, this feels like my music, and to me that music and you fast forward to even now with, like I said earlier, the jam band scene that music just felt real. It felt unproduced, so-called. I mean it was produced, of course it's played on the airwaves in the 80s, but it just felt like something I could really grab onto. And so then I started obviously buying the tapes. And when I was 13, I remember going out I got gift cards, tons of gift well gift certificates back in the day to warehouse Records in LA and I went in and I think I bought every Beatles tape that was available at that time and I started listening to the Beatles. I mean, I know I'm all over the place right with Beatles and classic rock, but it's just that whole genre just got to me.

Speaker 4: 23:21

And then I went to a camp as a kid and it was kind of well. It was run by hippies and so inevitably the guitar music that all the counselors played and we would play every day and sing along to was Joni Mitchell and all that type of music. And fast forward again, when I moved to Telluride in 1997, the Telluride Bluegrass Festival sealed the deal. That festival, I experienced that for the first time in 97 and I went, oh okay, I fell in love with bluegrass. The jams, the mandolin, the musicians, the vibe, the scene, the like-mindedness of the people at these kinds of events and festivals is just like no other. I mean, it was, it felt like people that actually care about each other, care about the world, care about music, the environment. Um, yeah, just having so much fun being part of a community and the music as focused and as at the forefront that it was about.

Speaker 4: 24:21

Of course, because it's a music festival, it sometimes felt secondary, and then fast forward that into right around the same time, or a couple years earlier actually, I got to see Phish for the first time, and so those of everybody out there that knows me and that listens to the radio and listens to me every week or ever. They're a huge, huge part of my life and they have shaped so much of what I've experienced, the people I've met, the trips I've taken, the experiences I've had with festivals and with music and has probably led me to mine and my husband's relationship now. So I can't say enough about that entire scene. I mean and it's to each his own, whether you choose the jam band scene, any other music festival, coachella's, I mean all of those. There's just something special about it and there's been some definite pivotal moments that have brought me there. But when I saw Fish for the first time it was actually at a festival, so it was Horde Festival back in 92.

Speaker 3: 25:19

Am I dating myself right? I remember Horde Festival, yeah.

Speaker 4: 25:23

So yeah, 92. And then I saw them 95 at Red Rocks and I thought, oh gosh, okay, well, it's over, I'm cashing in, and so I never thought I would actually do something like that as a career with my life and be in that industry. But when I went to school I thought I was going to be more in the kind of film industry or communications, and not the music side or hospitality. What did you study? Mass communications.

Speaker 3: 25:53

Oh really.

Speaker 2: 25:53

At University of.

Speaker 4: 25:54

Denver.

Speaker 3: 25:54

Yep, yeah.

Speaker 4: 25:57

So I studied communications there and they're known for hotel restaurant management, and so I feel like I'm sort of not using that degree. But I am using the degree because I'm in the hospitality, the marketing, the music, the film, all of it, all together, really.

Speaker 3: 26:15

Yeah, I would argue. Without a doubt, you're using that degree in a way that would be much preferable than managing a motel.

Speaker 4: 26:22

Right, although there's a monthly paycheck with managing a hotel, that's true, you make a valid.

Speaker 3: 26:29

everything has a trade-off.

Speaker 4: 26:31

No, I wouldn't trade it and this is great. And so I think it shows, by me putting on this festival for almost 17 years, that shows, because it's what I love to see at the festival are those connections? Is that fun? The like-mindedness, the sustainability? You know everybody's pretty like-minded and they're bringing their silly pints, or this year we have a beautiful new souvenir cup coming.

Speaker 3: 26:55

But um, just down to those little details, yeah um, yeah, I'm hearing you have an experience with that, neil diamond.

Speaker 3: 27:02

Show that only you can have in the hollywood bowl with oh man I mean live music in general, is something that levels up and I would argue to say that the level of a like a spiritual experience when you have that the energy, right, I mean. So what I'm hearing you say is you've you experienced that and then you found the aspects of that that are were even more in parallel with who you are, and that's not a, that's something fun to recreate and share with others is kind of how I view, kind of the story arc of your life.

Speaker 1: 27:34

You know and you're doing a good job at it, and you're consistent, you know.

Speaker 3: 27:42

I mean I talked with a few people that you put me in touch with prior to this. We're only going to hear from Greg Morris at one point, with that you put me in touch with or that just know of you, and Four Peaks have commented on the consistency of continuing to do it all these years later and like there's been, you know, I would imagine like with any passion project, there's moments where the passion is not as emotionally high. You know and you have to dig deep.

Speaker 4: 28:41

Yes.

Speaker 3: 28:42

There's a good book for that. It's called the War of Art. It's a play on the art of war.

Speaker 2: 28:51

Oh.

Speaker 3: 28:51

And it just talks about you know Stephen Pressfield. I think is the guy's name. Awesome, but it's a good book.

Speaker 2: 28:58

Yeah, so Okay.

Speaker 3: 29:00

And then you yeah, so tell your ride to bend in 01 what what was it? Because that's one small town to a little bit larger one right, I mean what

Speaker 4: 29:11

were you doing in telluride um, well, I ended up I did volunteer for a lot of the festivals there, but I was, uh well, ski industry I guess at the, the point you know you just do what you can there to to afford your lifestyle. So, um, I actually did work at the newspapers doing graphic design. So it totally different industry, but not quite it was like so. So I would do the graphic design and lay out the papers and and kind of look at all the content and try to make it so certain things were highlighted or you know, just whatever photos were coming in and and I, when it came time to do the music stuff, or Telluride, bluegrass or any of the millions of festivals that happened there, I wanted them to be so much more prominent than anything else. It was like that's what I was interested in and that was my passion, of course. So if there was an article on something just as pertinent and important, like mind tailings in Telluride, I was like, oh, that doesn't matter as much as the festival is coming up.

Speaker 4: 30:10

So I did work for the papers and then I bought soft goods for a ski shop for a few years in a row and I skied a lot.

Speaker 3: 30:20

I had a buying job for a ski shop for a while.

Speaker 4: 30:22

Oh, you did.

Speaker 1: 30:22

Yeah it's fun. I did that all through high school.

Speaker 3: 30:24

Oh, really Interesting it was fun to kind of have your finger on the pulse of industry trends. Correct yeah, and trying, you know, I still, to this day, like appreciate the thought process of like what are we observing on the mountain this year? Right, and I wonder what that's gonna look yeah the colorways and after you've lived in the mountain lifestyle for 20 plus years, you know I mean you and I grew up in it yeah so you know it's. You start seeing patterns repeat themselves right and yeah there's some yeah, yeah, they.

Speaker 4: 30:59

for me, some of the the hospitality goes back to again. It was like I'd be working in the shop and then people would come in and I would love trying to pair them with whatever, because I bought it and I knew the quality, I knew about it and it's just, you know, it's getting people into something that they enjoy.

Speaker 3: 31:16

It could be, yeah, article, clothing or and it's fun when you feel like you have the insight to help them with what they don't even know, that they don't know, right yeah.

Speaker 4: 31:25

Yeah. So, ben, I mean, back then I just thought, well, I don't want to live in a big place, I still want to go to a small town, and my fiance at the time was from Washington. This was kind of a, an in-between place that still had the mountains, the rivers, the, the kind of like-minded people and the small town feel. And we moved, like you said, right onto St Helens. So right in town, didn't need a car, could walk everywhere and just have that feeling. And now of course that's out the window.

Speaker 2: 32:00

But yeah, it's changed a little bit.

Speaker 4: 32:04

So still a great place and I still, you know, obviously having more of a population helps a lot of the industries and of course we have our growing pains as well and problems, and it doesn't feel like a small town anymore. But then things like this, like we're talking about earlier, having the music industry or podcasting or the community radio station, I mean there's things that still bring us back to feeling like a small community.

Speaker 3: 32:26

A hundred percent. Did you just approach KPOV back in 05 or what? How? What was the story behind that relationship?

Speaker 4: 32:32

Yeah, I actually went to the first meeting ever at the library. I'll never forget it. There was like 20 or 30 people sitting around and there was I can't remember if it was Mike Riley, I believe it was Mike. If you're listening, mike Riley and a few others were posing this scenario Like, hey, we really want to start a community radio station. There's not one here. It's going to take a village. And I thought, oh gosh, I could sink my teeth into this and be a part of the grassroots kind of uprooting or incarnation of the station.

Speaker 4: 33:07

So I couldn't do too much from a technical side. But all of a sudden I thought, ok, I'll be one of the first people with a show, and there were already some proposals for shows that already had bluegrass. So I ended up just joining them and Juniper Roots that's still on the radio had a proposal for a show and I said I want to be one of those DJs. And so I learned the board and the station and when they kicked it off in the building that they're still in very low power. I mean, I had a show and I tried to help as much as I could and the airwaves played High Heel Low Spark of High Heel Boys on a Loop for like a week, just to get the airwaves up and running of like the two watts we had broadcasting from Aubrey Butte, and that was it. And slowly but surely we started and then became Full Power and I came in there with Juniper Roots and I started my own show called Live Alive and it's still going. We're in year 20.

Speaker 4: 34:10

So we'll have a big 20th party next June in 25. So, from low power to full power to streaming. There was another show for a while Eclectic Eardrops which, funny enough, greg Morris helped me on, so we were dueling DJs. That didn't last very long, but Live Alive is still around.

Speaker 3: 34:45

Yeah, I don't think that many people are probably aware of the cool story behind KPOV, which is 88.9. Right, I mean it's it's, if I understand correct.

Speaker 4: 34:49

It's all listener supported and mostly like 99.9 volunteer ran correct.

Speaker 3: 34:51

There's three staff members, yeah, but there's I was reading through the the list of people that regularly contribute and it's phenomenal. Yeah, I mean, there's 50 plus hosts that have, at one point or another, come in with content that they curate or develop or talk show or local kind of versions of this community, you know, and you guys have some podcasts that you link to.

Speaker 4: 35:15

So it's cool, yeah, and exactly, and I mean really anybody's invited to go through the course and have a show and broadcast, whether it's talk or music. To me, community radio is another thing. It's just another arm of this area that could really be the staple of the town and the voice of the town All the time, every day, all day. I mean people are tuning in for the first time, right, and then we've got our longtime listeners and it's really fun to be a part of.

Speaker 4: 35:49

And I'm on the board too now, and so I was on the board years ago and then here I am again, so I just can't stay away and I love having a show every week, thursdays 2 to 4. I'm just live alive.

Speaker 4: 36:01

Yeah, so all live previously recorded music. So that's what's fun too. And it ties in with the early platforms of music, like you're saying iTunes and CDs. Like I could bring a thumb drive to the station, I could go off the CDs that I uploaded 10 years ago and then I constantly get new music from you know, let's say, live fish. I mean, I've been playing the last couple of weeks.

Speaker 3: 36:21

You know music from the sphere. They just did. I mean, did you go to that? Oh, I did. How was it Talk about that? Oh goodness, tell people what we're talking about.

Speaker 4: 36:27

We're talking the same thing right, the Las Vegas.

Speaker 3: 36:30

Oh, yes, yeah.

Speaker 4: 36:31

The round room as fish fans call it.

Speaker 4: 36:33

Okay, I don't, it's. It's almost impossible to put into words what my eyes and ears witnessed a few weeks back. Yes, so Phish did Four Nights at the Sphere on the heels of U2. Of course they did a huge residency where they play the same show every night, same, mostly the same playlist, same visuals. But Phish goes in for four nights and, in Phish fashion, blows everybody's mind and I'm sure most people out there have now heard from the few celebrities that have been there and Drew Carey and some of the hilarious stuff that came out of that. But really, for me it was still four nights of fish.

Speaker 4: 37:13

I was on the floor, dance my butt off and what I loved seeing was, first of all, all of the same fans that are always at the shows and then people from across the entire United States that I know through what we talked about earlier. The last 25, almost 30, yeah, 30 years of this community show up in one place and be so blown away, not only by the sound system, the quality of sound in that place, the way the band is playing, but the vibes and the positivity from everybody in there. There was not one negative comment about as far as I know correct me if I'm wrong, but just from anybody that was there and the community feel still of it. But then you put yourself in the space of that place. That's so state of the art and it's ridiculous. The visuals, I mean I know from the 300 level. There's four levels in there. There's the floor Well, five if you include the floor the 100s, 200s, 300s, 400s.

Speaker 4: 38:46

So if you're in the 400s, you're way up top, you're very high up there, it's steep 400s. You're way up top, you're very high up there, it's steep. But all of the, as far as I know, all of the talk about vertigo and falling and just all of the negative things that people thought going in could happen I haven't heard one story about that so people could see it all from there. But you're up really high. So the band are, you know, little ants down below, and then the 300s I guess is like the sweet spot, right, if you want all the visuals and you want the real full effect of that 360-degree screen, pretty much.

Speaker 4: 39:19

I mean it's like a quarter of a pie. If you take a whole pie, it's a quarter of the pie. That is the seating. So all around you is this. It's really indescribable, but yes, from 30 years of seeing this band. Not only is the band playing better than ever, but the Sphere experience is something that we're all so blessed to have been a part of, and whether you were in the building for one day or four nights one night or four nights it was that special and we all feel so, so, so grateful to be a part of it.

Speaker 3: 39:54

Was that place designed primarily with music in mind? Do you know?

Speaker 4: 40:00

Yes, well, selfishly, I want to say it was designed primarily for fish in mind. I mean, honestly, you walk through the foyers, the halls, with the not even halls. This is like a spaceship in the area where you're walking through everything with the concessions, the merch, the getting to your seats, the escalators that zigzag across. There's the art installments that are hanging from the place. Are those red fish donuts? Now, if you're a fish fan, you know what I'm talking about. Fish donuts, Now, if you're a fish fan, you know what I'm talking about.

Speaker 4: 40:34

So I mean, I'm probably crazy and this is so delusional, but maybe not, because I think Trey Anastasio himself, the lead singer, schemed this up with the owner from Madison Square Garden and it's a Madison Square Garden plate, right, it's the same people that did that. They've been drumming this thing up for years and years and years sitting over hockey, hockey games, and I swear they're integral in this. So, yes, I think it was designed for music with that sound system. But also they've got the movies and the underwater experience and you know, you two played there and now dead and company is going to play there and I'm sure it's not going to obviously stop there. I mean there's rumors of all sorts of bands I won't name that are going to play there, and so, yes, I mean, the musical experience in that place is bar none.

Speaker 4: 41:13

And then I've been. I like to say I've been to most venues of that caliber, you know, madison square garden, to the outside venues, to huge stadiums. I mean I've been to a lot of a lot of them. And then you know, the club, the Hollywood clubs that are seedy and divy in the punk rock scene of LA in the 80s, you know I think I've covered the gamut.

Speaker 3: 41:38

The whiskey, oh yeah, whiskey, a go-go yeah.

Speaker 4: 41:41

Risky Roxy Viper Room, palladium Troubadour I mean.

Speaker 3: 41:45

There's a lot of history there. Yes, sunset Boulevard.

Speaker 4: 41:48

Yeah, and that's where the Warehouse Records was.

Speaker 3: 41:50

Yeah, I believe it that I stood in line for for concert tickets back then. I was in New Orleans a few weeks, like actually a month and a half ago I'd never been there. My wife had a work conference and I tagged along, but I would have no Jazz Fest. No, no Jazz Fest. But I did go to a fair amount of jazz bars on the French, not French quarter but French street, frenchman, frenchman street.

Speaker 3: 42:19

Yeah, it was incredible because I could peel away during the day and just kind of go do my own thing. And there was this one music record store that I think it's called peach the peach and it's in new Orleans, but I hadn't been in a you know record store nowadays. I mean gone ranch records, right, I think it's called. Peach the Peach, and it's in New Orleans, but I hadn't been in a record store nowadays, I mean gone to.

Speaker 3: 42:34

Ranch Records right, I mean there was a time where we could walk from our house downtown and buy albums right Ranch Records.

Speaker 4: 42:41

they were there forever Right, which is now Smith Rock Records, but yeah.

Speaker 3: 42:45

They're different location though, right, they're not.

Speaker 5: 42:49

Yeah, they are.

Speaker 4: 42:50

Yes.

Speaker 3: 42:51

In any event, it felt good to be in a record store Right, absolutely.

Speaker 4: 42:54

There's that smell of incense and T-shirts and posters the black light poster, the black concert shirts yeah, I miss it. I miss it. Right, there's part of, I think, the newer generation, right, I don't even know what to call them right now.

Speaker 3: 43:10

They're into it, so maybe it'll have a resurgence, I think it is there's something about the tactile experience of buying stuff, whether it's an album, vinyl, a tape. I mean, I was talking to a friend of mine that is in the soft goods space in this outdoor industry and there's a shift or he was at least telling me that there's a shift of people willing to pay a little bit more than they necessarily could online because they're they want that experience again and going in. And actually now the question is and somehow encouraging those people not to go into your store and try on your stuff and then order it online?

Speaker 4: 43:51

Right, right there's that that's a mentality thing.

Speaker 3: 43:54

It is a mentality thing For sure, I mean you know whether you think you're saving money.

Speaker 4: 43:58

We won't go into the resources and commerce and all that. Totally yeah that's true, I mean.

Speaker 3: 44:04

But there is more of a desire. Kind of the novelty of ease is starting to wane, I think, from just all e-commerce Right, and that's one of the beauties of Four Peaks too.

Speaker 4: 44:26

You get together at a festival and you have all that tactile, like you're saying, and the stuff and the merch, and the soft goods and the posters, and the shopping and the vendors and then all the bands that bring their merch. And that's how another way you touched on a long time ago with the music industry and how the money's made and all the album sales. Well, that's another great way to support them is when you go to these festivals and the bands have all their merch.

Speaker 4: 44:39

There there's some really cool merch and they're really clever and they're doing a lot of it and they're doing it well and that's another great way to support them. And especially at festivals where you know some of the smaller bands, they're making pennies to come and play an hour to two hour set and it's great to support them with merch.

Speaker 3: 44:58

Yeah, merch is key. I want to get some merch for this podcast eventually so summer solstice. This year June 20th through 23rd.

Speaker 4: 45:10

Got it.

Speaker 3: 45:10

It's Ben's only multi-day music and camping festival. That's right. How many years has this been at Stevenson? The Stevenson Ranch, stevenson Ranch Ranch it's a working cattle ranch, it is.

Speaker 4: 45:25

But there's no cattle anymore. Okay, so it's a working ranch still, and it's a private residence, it's a big beautiful and large lovely. Okay, no more. It's beautiful out there right now. The grass. They're reseeding the whole thing. There's grass, it's grassy, camping, big, large open fields, mountain views. We've been there since 2017. So you can't really say seven years, because we've taken some hiatus because, of.

Speaker 3: 46:03

COVID. But yeah, 17 was year one. You would have been there without COVID, correct, so we'll just call it seven years.

Speaker 4: 46:12

Yeah, so seven years, because it started, you know, in Tumalo.

Speaker 2: 46:15

Yeah.

Speaker 4: 46:15

And we quickly outgrew that property. No, this property. It's amazing, it's great, and I'm so, just I'm so grateful for the for the Stevenson family and there are. There's plenty of room to grow. There's plenty of room to grow. There's plenty of room to dance and frolic and throw things and have kids run around and play frisbee and hula hoop and all that fun stuff and the, yeah, so it's about 200 acres total and the venue itself, so the actual festival is still very intimate. So if you're a parent and you have a kid and you're hanging out in kidlandia, you will be able to hear and see all the music and go, get yourself a meal or a beer or a seltzer or whatever you want and see your kids and it's safe and it's yeah. I mean, my daughter grew up going. She was born the year we plotted this and she was about a year at the first one. So bring your kids.

Speaker 3: 47:14

Definitely bring your kids. I want to talk more about Kidlandia, because that's just one of the many ways that you differentiate from really definitely any other festival in our community.

Speaker 4: 47:26

Right.

Speaker 3: 47:27

But probably arguably in the region.

Speaker 4: 47:30

Yeah, and I thank you. I think I can safely say that I mean, I've been to a lot of festivals and with my kiddo that there were many family-friendly festivals and they're great. You know you had string summit, um, uh, high Sierras down in California there's stuff at the gorge it's. I won't go into how many festivals are around, but and many claim family friendly and they are and they're great. And there's a couple around here that are, however, kidlandia and it's hilarious. I say that name like no problem, it just rolls off my tongue but it must sound so funny to a lot of people out there. Obviously, when Portlandia was was kicking, we came up with Kidlandia in like 2016 or 17 maybe, and it has stuck. And this year there is a whole I mean the poster for Kidlandia looks just as chock full as the bands. Right, more, more, right.

Speaker 4: 48:22

There's probably more right. There's activities all day long, got some amazing people coming to do their or provide their, their wares, their talents, um, musical instruments, mug making, still walking, prayer, flag making, arts and crafts, braiding, I mean, you name it and it's going to just be the most fun part of four peaks for so many people. And, uh, the kids are. Yeah, they're safe there. It's right outside. It's going to take up a whole corner of the venue and the camping's right outside the venue and it's going to just go all day into the evening. And the nice thing this year is the kids can stay in the venue past 10 pm. So that's never been the case before. Now, granted, half of them will be asleep by 10, or parents hope they will, but yeah, they're welcome to stay in the venue. So if you have even a 16 year old or 17 year old, they can hang out and watch all the music and even silent disco this year. So our silent disco is going to run from midnight to 2 am and it's silent, so it's very quiet.

Speaker 3: 49:28

Yeah, I want to talk about that in a little bit, the silent disco. But Kidlandia, yeah, well, kidlandia. From 2 to 3 pm on Friday and Saturday there's a storytelling workshop that looks pretty darn fun, yeah, and then from 8 to 9 on Friday looks like maybe that's where you can put your storytelling to the test. Ooh, yeah, because there's another. Another like maybe talent show.

Speaker 2: 49:51

I don't know.

Speaker 3: 49:58

Parade talent show. It's cool to engage, you know I mean. Going back to the sustainability of festivals tends, in my opinion, hinges so much on the quality of experience that you're providing you know. So I think, with all of what you're doing, I would just encourage you that you're gonna keep getting those people that come back because of the experience. That's my hope, that's well, and that's it.

Speaker 4: 50:20

When families get wind of this, that a family has been before, it's like, oh yeah, no, that's what we're gonna do for the weekend because it's gonna be more fun, more valuable and more affordable than most things you can do for a whole weekend with a slew of kids, and kids 10 and under are free. So there's that. And then you touched on the sustainability factor. You know, I got approached and somebody wanted to provide snacks and juice boxes and things for kids and I went uh, we're not a snack daycare that's going to provide a ton of trash. So I'm mindful about that piece too.

Speaker 4: 50:54

Believe me, the kids aren't going to go hungry, right, but we don't need to bring on thousands of juice boxes and packages of mini Welch's fruit snacks to the festival, you know. So it's all those little details I'm really mindful of. But I almost thought the other day gosh, do we need to get a count of kids coming? Because there could be hundreds of kids running around at once, which is really fun to see, I mean, and they you know, kids themselves make their own fun just by being in a space together, and then you add all these activities and the amazing people behind it. Thank you, Dar and Laura yeah, so I've got amazing people running Kidlandia this year.

Speaker 3: 51:31

Well, you have an amazing group of volunteers. I mean this has got to take a bit, Like how many volunteers do you have? I'm guessing over 100?.

Speaker 4: 51:40

Oh, upwards of 200,. Yeah, that's incredible. Yes, it takes an army.

Speaker 3: 51:44

yes, so we talked about, we mentioned Greg earlier but I had a great conversation with him.

Speaker 5: 51:51

Oh good, one of the kind of main things I think to kind of highlight is you know, just the fact that you know this is of us are like are you sure you want to still do this Just because of the fact it's so much work? Putting on this festival is a crazy amount of work and it's, you know, this time of year it's only getting. You know her days are only getting longer up until you know June 20th. Her days are only getting longer up until you know June 20th. And you know, and it's not like, you know, it's not the kind of thing where it's going to make anyone, you know, oodles and oodles of money. That's just not how the festival world is, particularly right now. But you know, in in. You know it was never the kind of thing. You know, comparing the festival to like a huge festival, like Coachella or Bonnaroo, or even, you know, the Farewell Festival. And these guys have, you know, these crazy budgets, millions and millions of dollars of budgets, you know, and that's how they can get all the huge bands and everything. But you know, this is the kind of thing where you know Stacey does it because she loves it and she loves the music and she loves bringing these awesome bands to bend.

Speaker 5: 53:20

I mean, when four peaks first started, a lot of these bands never came to bend. You know, back in the early 2000s, do you remember like the only time we'd get like a good artist is when they're on their way to portland, you know, and we get them on like a wednesday or something at the grove, and you know you could say that a lot of that started shifting with the advent of uh, four peaks back then. You know, now it's like, you know, hayden holmes brings in everybody and their partner with live nation and that whole thing, but, um, you know, back then there, you know, a lot of these bands just did not come play and and people would never see them play, and you know. So the the main things that we kind of hit on these days, uh, when it comes to like marketing but it's totally true is, you know, one of the big things is, you know, discover your new favorite band, because that is a that's one of, if not my, favorite part about four peaks is, you know, the band that I didn't particularly know. Maybe I knew of them but I hadn't seen them, you know, perform in this kind of setting and you know, every year there'll be one or two bands and I'm like Holy crap, this is literally my new favorite band. And you know, every year there'll be one or two bands and I'm like Holy crap, this is literally my new favorite band. And you know, this is what I'm listening to a lot more now. Um, so it's those kinds of things, um, you know that are that are really important to Stacey and um, you know, kind of sharing that love for music and and trying to trying to bring everyone together.

Speaker 5: 54:51

You know, at a festival, and then you know, the other thing was obviously because we are all family people, you know, making this a family friendly event. You know something where you don't have to worry about like every five seconds oh my God, where's my kid? You know, it's no big deal. They're running around and playing in this open grassy field or they're at kidlandia or they're. You know it's it's or they're with. You know, friends of yours, you know who also have kids and they're hanging out at their campsite. You know, it's just not. It's just that kind of a family-friendly atmosphere that you can't really say about a lot of other festivals.

Speaker 5: 55:29

Uh, that this quality of musicians and bands and artists coming in, you know, and you can still. You know you're not squeezed in, you're not there's. You know there's plenty of room and there's. You know, as I get older I'm less likely to go to a sold out show, just because you know I don't necessarily want to be squeezed in next to, just because you know I don't necessarily want to be squeezed in next to um, you know, some dude I don't know, um, and that's kind of the.

Speaker 5: 55:57

That's kind of the goal of four peaks is to, you know, have this awesome music combined with obviously gorgeous setting of central Oregon and just kind of the safety and security and family friendly event kind of thing. And it's just and that just kind of the safety and security and family friendly event kind of thing. And it's just and that's kind of the special thing about four peaks. You know, and all these festivals that have come in of late, you know, like farewell festival, um, you just, and you know the live nation shows at hayden homes and stuff, you know they're just bigger and more corporate and you just don't have the same feel that that you do when you're attending Four Peaks and that's kind of the goal year in and year out. I think Stacey does a good job in kind of ensuring that that kind of feeling happens.

Speaker 4: 56:46

Well said.

Speaker 3: 56:47

Yeah, I listened to that and it didn't take me long. When Greg and I first talked about you know the level of intention that goes into this, oh yeah.

Speaker 2: 56:55

It's so cool man.

Speaker 4: 56:57

Thank you, I'm very detail oriented. Well, that's a good thing. Yeah, it's a very good thing, yeah.

Speaker 3: 57:02

Well, it's.

Speaker 4: 57:04

You tell my family that when I'm on my computer at 11 am, as long as you tell mine. Right no problem it takes one to know one.

Speaker 2: 57:10

That's right. You know what I'm saying. That's so true, yeah.

Speaker 3: 57:12

Right, but yeah, I mean Greg. I first met Greg through this podcast and with the magazine. But you know, he's been in this community a long time. He's a musician, he's a writer, he's very invested, he has his own kpov. You know, doesn't he? Or did he used to? Yeah, he used to, um, but you know, I mean, I think that'll allow people the idea of kind of this starts, just create more of a. You can get the sense of the experience you're having by hearing this from different people, sure you know?

Speaker 4: 57:45

yeah. So yes, yeah, and he's my parents. They're the next generation up and they were blown away by it. The first time they witnessed it, they went oh, we had no idea what you were planning Well.

Speaker 3: 57:57

I mean it's cool to kind of look back at the content over the years and see its evolution. I mean your branding's cool the emblem that takes into consideration the what do you call those the four? Peaks. What do you call those things? Not the tint, but the like the shade sales that used to happen. Oh, do you not do those anymore?

Speaker 4: 58:16

We're switching it up a little this year. Oh, you are being in June we don't need as much shade as we might need shade and weather Sometimes. Well, it's more just like the music industry with the inflation and the people that are doing them. It's less obtainable. First, of all, and this year I don't know if I guess I could say this I mean, we're having the. It's called a saddle span, so we're just having this massive structure, that's really cool over the lava rock stage.

Speaker 4: 58:46

So there's, two stages Cascade Mountain stage and lava rock stage. So there's two stages Cascade Mountain Stage and Lava Rock Stage, and this thing will go over the Lava Rock Stage and be like a huge area for the stage, for lounging, bar, shelter, shade, whatever you want it to be. So we don't really need those anymore. But, those were integral on the old site for sure.

Speaker 2: 59:03

Yeah okay.

Speaker 3: 59:10

They're like a luminette silver, cool things that fly for shade yeah.

Speaker 4: 59:13

What else is going to be different this year? Any?

Speaker 3: 59:15

new um besides what we touched on, let's see the kidlandia being expanded.

Speaker 4: 59:17

The big tent uh, it's not even a tent. Like I said, it's called the saddle it looks like an upside down.

Speaker 3: 59:22

Yeah, it looks like a saddle. I can imagine what you're.

Speaker 4: 59:24

It was at the cascade equinox festival um, so that, and yeah, two stages, lots of craft vendors this year, more food this year. Some of our staples that have been there every year, like you know El Sancho, pizza cart, southern accents come in this year, thank you, and many more. And yeah, the camping, the campground, will be a little more grassy this year, so, but no, it'll look a lot like 2021 just with an expanded area or two Um yes, and then the silent disco we're bringing back.

Speaker 4: 1:00:01

So a lot of this wasn't at 21, right? No Kidlandia, no silent disco. Um, so two acoustic type late night bands from 10 to midnight the silent disco, midnight to two the larger Kidlandia, and then Sunday's music. So we hadn't had music much on Sunday the past couple of years. So, yeah, we're having a fun. Fish is deadBens are playing on Sunday, and then we just added Wolfchild. They were in town opening for Gone Gone Beyond not long ago, so they're going to play and kick it off Friday morning after Thursday night is kind of our local night.

Speaker 3: 1:00:42

Tell people who don't know what Silent Disco is Right or what it is.

Speaker 4: 1:00:46

Sure.

Speaker 2: 1:00:46

Because it's brilliant. It's kind of what it sounds like, right?

Speaker 4: 1:00:54

Well, it's brilliant for my application, for sure, because we have a county ordinance right, so we try to make no noise after not only 10 pm, when we lower the decibels and don't have amplified music, but midnight everything has to shut down. So it's this great opportunity for everybody. That's like well, I'm at a festival, I'm camping, I'm not ready to go to bed when the campgrounds are pretty quiet, and then from midnight to two in the venue, under the saddle, the food and the bar and the vendors will all still be flowing and you can put on some headphones. There's three channels and you could dance the night away. But if you're not wearing headphones, you don't hear anything.

Speaker 4: 1:01:26

So it's from a person's point of's point of view that's maybe not silent, discoing and not dancing and they're not having headphones on. It's hysterical to watch. And once in a while you'll hear people just like woo or like hoot and holler, yeah, like what is going on. But I think by now so many people have probably done it, because I think they just had it at the mountain too, and then there was a. There's an event in town that would do it, I think last summer, every month or every week or something, and but it's. It's, yeah, it's basically three channels in a headphone. You can turn the channels if you want a certain type of dj music. So there'll be three djs on friday night, each one on a different channel, um, and the headphones turn color, you know, depending on what channel you're on. So you'll see. See some friends over.

Speaker 3: 1:02:09

So it's, there's a, there's a. It's not your, it's not like with your Apple AirPods.

Speaker 4: 1:02:13

No.

Speaker 3: 1:02:14

You have specific headphones, gotcha.

Speaker 4: 1:02:17

So, yes, so there'll be a bunch of headphones thanks to the mobile dance party. So the guys that actually call down Thunder is the band that's doing it Saturday night. So not only will there be two other DJs on Saturday night, call Down Thunder is doing a silent band set, so they will be on the main stage playing, but if you don't have headphones on, you won't hear them. So it's just, it's really cool. It adds a really cool and fun element for those who want to be up and want to dance and want to keep the night going, but if you don't, it's plenty quiet outside.

Speaker 3: 1:02:48

You can get some sleep.

Speaker 4: 1:02:49

Yeah exactly, and of course you know there's organic jams. That happen sometimes in the campgrounds, but it's not a rowdy party all night, bass in your ears kind of festival.

Speaker 3: 1:03:02

Yeah, because you got to get up the next morning and participate in yoga Exactly. You don't want to be so burnt out from the night before Yoga, yoga with Nicole at 9, 9.30 or 10.

Speaker 4: 1:03:12

Or 9, I can't remember exactly, but the daily lineup and the schedule is out now, or the daily lineup is out now for single-day tickets to be available. So if you're local and you've never been and you don't want to necessarily commit to the whole thing right away, you can come Thursday and just come check out three bands for 30 for the night. So, um, there's that. But the yeah, the silent disco is is really fun and we we definitely adhere to the noise ordinance and we always have. But this is probably. It started on the old site, so we've probably been doing this almost nine or ten years it's a brilliant.

Speaker 3: 1:03:47

I'd never heard of it, yeah, until this right, isn't that funny. A lot of people have discovered it at Four.

Speaker 4: 1:03:51

Peaks and the first couple of years on the first site in Tumalo. Web Formics did it and, yeah, everybody was foreign to it.

Speaker 2: 1:03:59

It was hilarious.

Speaker 4: 1:04:02

I mean, it was so funny. I just remember some people standing on the perimeter watching just dumbfounded like what are they doing? So it's really funny. And now I mean it's a lot of events have it, but yeah, it's, it's brilliant, it's great. One channel, one year was me my DJ. That's amazing. Yeah, nature.

Speaker 3: 1:04:23

What is like if you were. You know on Saturday what's your day. Look like you get up at.

Speaker 4: 1:04:33

If I go to sleep. Yeah, okay, right, you right, you know a couple hours sleep. I'm up at six or seven, uh, the radio's on and ready and uh, buttoning up anything from the night before, making sure the recycling and the trash is all taken care of. Making sure yoga's got a fresh grassy space to go um, making sure the first band's taken care of, um the everything's up and running. Our you know the hours are are able, we're able, to open the venue.

Speaker 3: 1:04:59

Um, just, I mean gosh all your leaders have what they need exactly, yeah, the the will call is all set up the gates are going to open with no, no problems, just hustling

Speaker 4: 1:05:10

oh yeah, oh yeah, all day, all night, and hope that there's no little behind-the-scenes snafus, which there hasn't been. Yeah, there haven't been many. I mean there's always stuff, right, that happens at festivals and there's always little there's mayhem and there's little things that happen. But from a front-facing standpoint, we've really never had any issues. And from the county ordinances to noise ordinances, you know, police, fire, security, there's just never been.

Speaker 4: 1:05:42

It's such a nice crowd, it's such a nice vibe that I mean, yeah, there's just, there's not much negative that's ever taken place that would hinder me ever getting this permit again or being in good standing with the county or all the offices that I am so grateful for, Right, the sheriff, fire, environmental, health, county health. I mean there's all these things that we have to to go through to get the permit every year and which most people don't know about. And there's there's not been any hiccups because of my patrons, my attention to detail, my staff myself and my ability or just my desire to really keep in good standing with the community and the county officials and, um, you know, I have a family myself, so I don't want it to be one of those crazy, out of control um, festivals that has, you know happens to have other things in an insurance policy that I never want to imagine for sure yeah, for sure.

Speaker 3: 1:06:45

How is it at this point in the game like um recruiting talent, like do you like it so, so you, you're done? Say so. I would imagine you probably start working on the next year, if not already. But like you know right you know like right after the fact, and then you're yeah, like what's it look like now to reach out and work with bands managers.

Speaker 4: 1:07:08

Yeah, yeah it's crazy's crazy. I mean, yeah, september, I pretty much start thinking about it, but now, with the Cascade Equinox that I'm a part of, there's so much folded into both, especially in talking about bands and booking.

Speaker 3: 1:07:21

Yeah, talk more about Cascade Equinox. Yeah, I would say, right after that.

Speaker 4: 1:07:25

Yeah, so late September, I'll start thinking about Four Peaks and booking no-transcript. Their capacity is so much more to be had at the fairgrounds, Very different than Farewell Festival. It happens September. Well, the Equinox. So we've got four peaks on the solstice and Cascade Equinox on the Equinox, and so it's just yeah, it's a lot different and there's music till 4 am at that one.

Speaker 3: 1:08:17

And there's a lot different. And there's music till 4am at that one and there's a lot more like almost kidlandia type stuff for adults.

Speaker 4: 1:08:21

It seems like workshops yoga, healing, garden workshops, just art, a lot of art. Yeah, so it's a little. It lends itself to have a little more self-expression with the community and surrounding communities of people that want to bring their wares, their artistic flair or live art and painting and things like that.

Speaker 2: 1:08:35

Yeah, it's a lot.

Speaker 4: 1:08:37

But the talent, and so for that one, I mean, obviously the budget's a lot bigger. We could look at a lot different acts where you have EDM, you have jam band, you have bluegrass and you have local. So it's span, it's. It runs a gamut where, for peaks, you know the talent piece, and this year is a perfect example.

Speaker 4: 1:08:58

Coming back after a few years hiatus and with the 21 one 2021 being mini, um, the headlining acts were probably more like a mid tier act, either this year or, let's say, at another festival. Right, so we had hot butter, rum, new monsoon and, um, many others, but those bands that have actually been at four peaks before were the headliners because of the capacity that we could have people at. And it turns out it it doesn't matter. You know, like those acts they put on such good shows. I mean, those two bands killed it. They were so good and everybody was so excited that the bands were still that good, yet they didn't have to A pay an arm and a leg. They didn't know what to expect and the budget was kept down so much that it wasn't like we had to charge five or $600 to come and see those bands headline, to charge five or $600 to come and see those bands headline so fast forward to this year.

Speaker 4: 1:09:52

I went after exactly who I wanted this year, cool yeah. And so I booked it all myself this year, and that's, that's unique, and I took a leap of faith. Yes, I've had booking agents. I've had a friend that was a part of poor man's whiskey, the house band, for all those years.

Speaker 4: 1:10:07

He helped me book it. We were a, and then I'd hired a booking agent 2020, and then that fell apart, as we all know and covet had hit.

Speaker 4: 1:10:15

So, um, and that was the year I was, I had grace potter and lettuce and jj gray mofro and keller williams and the dip, and I mean you go on and on, and that never happened.

Speaker 4: 1:10:26

Uh, but some of the bands still got their deposits. So this year I said no, I'm to do this myself and see how it pans out. Because, back to the original thing, that well, what you were talking about originally with this whole podcast is the passion of mine, the vibe of mine that I want to portray, and the labor of love that it is, and just my vision, and the labor of love that it is and just my vision. I thought I can do this. I'm going to book the bands I want, because I know the festival, I know myself, I know my patrons and I know who's up and coming, and so I spend hours and hours and days and weeks and months actually researching when agents. So I think what happens first is you have your eyes on certain bands that you want to headline and you have to deal with the headliners first, and then agents come out of the woodwork and send you hundreds of bands that you've never heard of, and this year I took the time myself to research the bands.

Speaker 4: 1:11:23

And you go on YouTube, you go on their website, you go on social media and then you go on Spotify or any of the other audio platforms and I really took a hard, long listen to a lot of these bands. It's how I discovered Southern Avenue and they are up for Grammys and Miko Marks, another Grammy nominee, and some of these bands that have been in the community before, like Diggin' Dirt and Pixie and the Partygrass Boys, and some of the bands that have played here that are great, not huge but big enough to where I go. Ok, they're going to be perfect, fit and fun. And then I saw I saw Neil Francis at Winter Wondergrass and High Sierra, two festivals I love. I love attending, I respect them, I love them, I love the promoters behind them and what they're doing, different than mine. But I saw Neil Francis and I went oh, he'd be perfect for Four Peaks, and so I went after him.

Speaker 4: 1:12:20

And Daniel Donato. I wanted Daniel Donato for the mini in 21. And I thought, nope, nobody will know who he is, nobody's going to come, nobody. I thought, is that really a good idea? Well, I got him and it took a while, but I was determined to have him and determined to have Neil, and they both worked out. And now Daniel, if I tried to book today, I probably couldn't do it.

Speaker 4: 1:12:44

He is selling out everything he touches.

Speaker 3: 1:12:46

Yeah, when I was I had never I'd heard of him right and. I saw him as one of your headliners and I started listening to his music and I thought it would be fun, when we wrap this up, for people to hear him a little bit on here you know, but yes, yeah, he's, it's insane, he's insane yeah his whole vibe cosmic country.

Speaker 4: 1:13:04

It's kind of exactly how it sounds absolutely Exactly how it sounds Absolutely. He's not country, he's not spacey, he's not EDM, he's not jam, he's not rock. He's all of it wrapped up into a young overzealous not overzealous, just like go-getter passionate self that, oh, I've had funny side notes.

Speaker 1: 1:13:22

You're describing him very well.

Speaker 4: 1:13:25

Right. I've had six different friends of mine from all over the country, from New York to Texas, to Los Angeles to Maine, take photos with him lately and send them to me like random randomly and I said this is weird. I mean six people that I know that have been to his shows that are blown away, that got photos of them, because he's still this normal, humble, wonderful human he's still this just normal, humble, wonderful human.

Speaker 4: 1:13:53

In fact, I saw him post High Sierra last June at the Felton Music Hall in Santa Cruz and afterwards you know he's out in the crowd. He's hanging out with his blue awesome guitar, who he has a huge story behind that and I went up to him and I was like I was like one of these kids in a candy store, a fan, where I bought a hat. I went this guy's going to be big and would love him to play four peaks and I bought a hat and I had him sign my hat and fast forward. He's playing four peaks and I just I couldn't be happier about it.

Speaker 3: 1:14:20

Have you talked to him about that story? No, I will when he gets here. That's cool.

Speaker 4: 1:14:22

Yeah, that's really cool, oh, but the best part about him and the story is in 2018, he messaged me on Instagram and I missed it because I'm not a huge Instagram person, social media.

Speaker 4: 1:14:33

Well, I'm on social media obviously because of what I do, but I don't check my messages on Instagram a ton. I'm more Facebook because, right, I'm old. So he sent a message in 18 when Molly Tuttle played Four Peaks. He sent a message to me and he said hi, my good friend Molly Tuttle is playing your festival this year. I really think you might like my music. Check it out. I missed it until, like I don't know, a year ago and I can't really message him back because I don't even know if it's him checking his social media.

Speaker 4: 1:15:05

But I can't wait to tell him that story when he gets here.

Speaker 3: 1:15:09

Yeah, this is cool.

Speaker 4: 1:15:11

I think we covered all of it. We covered a lot. But yeah, june 20 to 23rd I mean Kidlandia, silent Disco, the wares, the community, the people, the camping. I mean parking or camping is included. There's no fees on the tickets. Everything in the festival once you're in the gates is very affordable. Still, I'm not gouging people I mean again. It's this whole like labor of love idea.

Speaker 3: 1:15:37

I mean it's. It's less than a hundred dollars a day per person for like a. Really I mean you can't right, you can't beat that. No, and with yeah, with kids 10 and under, free, it's yeah, it's great and it's you, it's great, and it's six miles from where we're sitting right now you can ride your bike.

Speaker 4: 1:15:54

If you ride your bike, there's no vehicle fee. Camping and parking is free. If you ride a bike, you can Uber, you can walk Some of you I know it and it's just six miles from downtown Bend, so super easy, super affordable weekend to camp with your family and friends. We've had weddings take place I mean eloping engagements, connections. Somebody the other day told me they met their greatest group of friends in Bend at the first Four Peaks.

Speaker 4: 1:16:25

I believe that, yeah, it's just, it's really cool and that's that's the part I love about it the most when I get the chance to ever go out into the campgrounds and look around, just running around the campgrounds and seeing different groups of friends and people that I've known throughout the years in their pods, just like kicking it and loving it and hanging out, and it always grows Right. So then there's like five new people that year, or my friends just moved here from a and they're joining us, or you know it's and then watching the kids grow up. Um, so many of us had kids pretty much the first year of four peaks and just watching them grow up at this festival. To me that's one of the best parts about it is the way these kids blossom and their core values and their lifestyles that they grew up with and they turn out to be like, because part of it is because you know they, their parents, have taken them to these kinds of festivals.

Speaker 3: 1:17:16

Yeah, that's really cool. It's fun to think of what you've done over the last.

Speaker 1: 1:17:22

I mean, I know you started this.

Speaker 3: 1:17:24

We didn't really go into the story of how Four Peaks started, but you. You've stuck in there over the years and it's, it's cool. I read this quote this morning and it made me think, and I'll just read it because I liked it a lot. It's from this guy who's a performance psychologist and says more importantly than what you achieve is the way in which you achieve it and the person you become along the way as the consequence of the chase.

Speaker 4: 1:17:47

Ooh, send that to me, I like that I will.

Speaker 3: 1:17:49

That's great yeah consequence of the chase. Ooh, send that to me.

Speaker 4: 1:17:52

I like that. I will. That's great. Yeah, it's perfect. Yeah, so it's perfect. And it reminds me of a plaque. I was just talking about this with somebody else. A plaque I have on my wall from 2003 just says success. And it has. Like my dad gave this to me. Thank you, howie. It's like the 20 laws or rules of success and really nowhere in there. I mean obviously most of us monetarily, that's how we measure it Right, but it was everything but the the measure of success without just being monetary.

Speaker 2: 1:18:22

Yeah.

Speaker 4: 1:18:22

It resonated just like that. That's a great quote.

Speaker 3: 1:18:24

Yeah, yeah. Well, I think the and you and I are of the same generation and it makes more sense the older I get. Yes, right.

Speaker 4: 1:18:37

Right, oh, yeah, yeah, cherishing, life.

Speaker 3: 1:18:40

Well, it wouldn't have meant the same when I was 20. Right, but you start realizing the things in life that matter the person that you want to be. Yeah, it's cool. Well, maybe that'll be your word that you write on the board. All right, you got a song you want to. Yeah, is there one. I like Fox on the Run. Oh yeah, let's see if this works.

Speaker 4: 1:19:05

There's so many good ones Dance in the Desert.

Speaker 3: 1:19:10

Thanks for doing this. Thank you so much. Ones Dance in the desert. Thanks for doing this.

Speaker 4: 1:19:12

Thank you so much yeah.

Speaker 3: 1:19:14

This is fun. You're going to have a good festival season.

Speaker 4: 1:19:17

It's going to be a great year. It is, yeah, it's going to be a great year.

Speaker 3: 1:19:21

I look forward to hearing about it. Thank you.

Speaker 4: 1:19:23

Are you showing?

Speaker 3: 1:19:23

up. I don't want to talk about it. Okay, this is always the problem. Every year for the last decade, we go to the Oregon coast the same weekend. And I will. I will tell you that we are losing friends of ours, the Four Peaks over the years because they go to Four Peaks. So you know I'm going to try to go Thursday night though.

Speaker 2: 1:19:47

Thursday.

Speaker 3: 1:19:47

Friday.

Speaker 4: 1:19:48

It'd be great. Yeah, oh, perfect, yeah, yeah, so uh, yeah.

Speaker 3: 1:19:51

Get it in when I can.

Speaker 4: 1:19:52

That's right, and everything's at fourpeaksmusiccom. Yeah, all right. Yeah, thanks for your time. That's great. It's fun to reconnect with you.

Speaker 3: 1:20:03

I hope everybody will join us. Yeah, and like just personally, like this community is lucky to have you you know, you moved here and you got invested and, uh, you know that hasn't wavered over the years. So you know it's worth acknowledging at the very least.

Speaker 2: 1:20:19

Thank you, I can say the same about you.

Speaker 3: 1:20:21

Right on, good to see you.

Speaker 2: 1:20:25

You too, take care. Forgot you had inside you, thought your life was behind you. Time has come to go with the motion. Slowly, emotion flows like an ocean Within your heart. It's hard to play the part Just me, me and the dark. This could be the start Of something new.

Speaker 3: 1:20:57

Land in the desert. Forget the weather. Ain't nothing better than hey. Thanks for listening to Ben Magazine's the Circling Podcast. Hey, thanks for listening to Ben Magazine's the Circling Podcast. Make sure to visit benmagazinecom and learn about all the outdoor adventures in our area, as well as upcoming featured community events, local artist profiles, our dining guide and more. Remember, enter promo code PODCAST at checkout for your $5 annual subscription. Our theme song was written by Carl Perkins and performed by Aaron Kolbaker and Aaron Zerflu of the Aarons. We love mail, so please send us comments, questions or art to thecirclingpodcast at benmagazinecom.

Speaker 3: 1:21:45

Support the Circling Podcast by becoming a member on Patreon at patreoncom. Forward, slash the circling podcast and learn how your financial contribution will help support local nonprofits while also supporting local podcasting. Follow us on Instagram at the circling podcast to learn more about past, current and upcoming episodes. Please subscribe to the Circling Podcast on all major podcast platforms and leave us a review. It really does help. I'd like to say a special thank you to all of those who participated in the making of this episode, as it wouldn't be the same without your contribution, and I appreciate your trust. Learn more about all the ways you can experience the Four Peaks Music Festival at fourpeaksmusiccom, and don't forget to stay tuned after the show. Credits for Stacey's contribution to the circling podcast Community Art Project exploring subliminal story, art embedded with meaning. Lastly, if you know someone who you think would enjoy today's episode, please share it with them today. Hey, thanks for your time. Central Oregon, get outside. We'll see you out there. And remember the health of our community relies on us.