If it’s an August weekend in coastal Maine, chances are there’s a music festival near you.
Throughout the last decade, a handful of new music festivals have sprung up along the coast, bringing diverse bands and carnival atmospheres to coastal towns.
Some of the new festivals were created by accident, like the BelTek festival Aug. 1-3 in Belmont (west of Belfast). Organizer Erik Klausmeyer said BelTek started because of a late-night conversation with fellow electronic music lover Rick Kidson.
“I was talking about how cool it would be to throw a big party in a field,” Klausmeyer said.
Kidson happened to own a field, so the two organized a techno rave there six years ago. Seventy people showed up. Since then, the festival has gained momentum and buzz largely by word of mouth and YouTube videos. This year, volunteers are bracing for some 2,000 dancing festival-goers.
“Frankly, the response at this point is absolutely overwhelming,” Klausmeyer said.
This is the first year BelTek is being billed as an arts festival; the idea was thrust upon the event’s organizers last year, when vendors and artists simply showed up and asked to set up booths. That makes Klausmeyer and Kidson festival organizers, whether they’re prepared to be or not.
“Last week, we suddenly decided we needed to have a pile of first-aid kits,” Klausmeyer said.
Not that he’s complaining. He loves the chance to bring together electronic music enthusiasts in two all-night all-morning jams. The festival is free and unpaid DJs perform for the love of the music and stay for the fun afterwards.
“I think it brings out the best in people,” he said.
Festivals also deliver the best value for music lovers and musicians, said longtime coastal concert promoter Joel Raymond, who will host the first Shangri-La Music Festival in Blue Hill, also on Aug 1-3.
As the economy slows down, it’s harder for people to spend $40 a ticket just to see a single act, Raymond said. Instead, at a festival like Shangri-La, they can spend $40 and see three days of music.
“We give them a lot of bang for their buck,” said Raymond.
The music industry is trending more towards group concerts, he said. Musical acts are traveling together and looking for other creative ways to cut high travel costs. Many of Shangri-La’s performers will be coming straight from the nearby Newport Folk Festival to cut down on travel.
“We’re seeing the industry change,” Raymond said.
Festivals also help to expose people to new acts, and are capitalizing on the expanded demand for world music, Raymond said. He’s promoting his festival as multi-genre, in the style of the popular Coachella and Bonnaroo festivals in California and Tennessee. It’s a chance to see rock n’ roll bands share the stage with Cape Breton fiddlers, he said.
If Raymond or Klausmeyer need advice as their festivals grow, they might want to turn to veteran festival organizer Pati Crooker. This will be the 30th year of her Thomas Point Beach Bluegrass Festival in Brunswick Aug. 28-31; it will also be the last. Bluegrass music has been in her life for as long as she can remember, and the beach has been in her family since 1956.
“The very first festival I ever saw was right here in my own park,” she said.
Though she plans to shutter the festival and retire, Crooker said she loves and will miss it. She said longtime festival acts are like family to her, and she cites meeting and listening to legendary bluegrass pioneer Bill Monroe at her festival as the high-point of her promoting career.
“My feet went right off the ground and I floated,” she said.
Crooker sounds confident her retirement plans will stick, but the festival’s history says otherwise. In 1984, she took a year off, but some 600 campers showed up anyway, along with their musical instruments.
“They came and did their own festival,” she laughed. “It’s got a life of its own.”
When asked what advice she would give to new festival promoters, Crooker offered a simple recipe for success: bring great national acts and mix with local talent. Keep the festival clean and watch everyone have fun.
“Give the public the best you can afford,” she said. “And don’t settle for anything less.”