WEDNESDAY, JUNE 23, 2004
FESTIVALS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
V
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7
Campers enjoy variety of music
By Marc Ingber
mingber@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
The Wakarusa Music and Camping Festival, which was held from last Thursday to Sunday, brought more than 70 bands from all over the country to Clinton Lake State Park to play for a crowd of more than 10,000 people.
Festivalgoers were able to catch a variety of jam-band music, whether it was the island vibe roots rock of O.A.R. (a.k.a. Of A Revolution), the blues-rock of the North Mississippi Allstars or the acoustic guitar finger-picking of Keller Williams.
Ronnie Craig, main stage manager, said the event was a great success with few problems and no medical emergencies.
name acts such as Bob Dylan and Wilco the Wakarusa festival was a lot cleaner.
Sigmund said she came to Wakarusa to see Robert Randolph and the Family Band, Leftover Salmon, Keller Williams and Donna the Buffalo. She said she hoped the Wakarusa Festival would get bigger names in the coming years.
Festival-goers rock out to local favorite Pomeroy at the Wakarusa Music and Camping Festival Saturday evening. Pomeroy performed on the Sun Up stage, one of three venues at the festival.
"We love the crowd," he said. "It's a great bunch of people."
Besides the music, the festival also offered plenty of merchandise booths that sold clothing, hacky sacks, drums, CDs, jewelry and more. As far as the food, there were traditional festival items such as fries and roasted corn.
Kristen Sigmund, St. Louis junior, said the Wakarusa festival had benefits over bigger festivals such as the Bonnaroo Music Festival in Manchester, Tenn., which she attended the week before. She said although Bonnaroo had more big
Z. G. Straus/Kansan
But there were also options for those looking to try something new. Vendors sold fried Oreos and walking tacos, a bag of Doritos sliced open on the side with meat, cheese, lettuce, salsa and sour cream added.
The musical action took place on three separate stages that were within walking distance of each other. The weather held up for most of the bands' performances, but a thunderstorm at about 4 a.m. on Friday caused damage to some of the merchandise tents.
Rebecca Haberer, Austin, Texas, who
runs Aura Imports, a clothing store, said she ran out of her sleeping tent halfdressed at four in the morning to hold onto her merchandise tent so it wouldn't blow away.
"It was really rough," she said. "I wish I could have done more for other people."
Autumn Warner, South Fork, Colo., who runs Autumn Teneyl Designs, another clothing store, had to drive all the way to Kansas City to get a new tent after the storm destroyed her first one, leaving a lot of the clothing in the mud.
Although Haberer's tent was able to escape relatively unharmed, other tents were not so lucky.
The weather wasn't the only thing Warner was unhappy with. She said the festival had poor organization as far as the merchandising went, and the attendance was not what the promoters told her it would be.
SEE WAKARUSA ON PAGE 8