Maine news, sports, weather from Portland Press Herald / Maine Sunday Telegram, Portland, Maine

June 27, 2010

Jamtown, U.S.A.

Some 50 bands and 15,000 or so of their best friends will make the trek up Route 26 to Oxford for the three-day musicfest called Nateva.

By Bob Keyes bkeyes@mainetoday.com
Staff Writer

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"I think some of the best festivals are the tucked-away ones," Cinninger said. "We did a festival at Yosemite over Halloween one year. There was a certain reclusiveness to a huge rock show in the middle of nowhere. There is something about nature and technology fusing. The farther you get away from the city, the cooler the festival."

If all goes well, the Nateva festival -- named for the children, Nate and Eva, of Massachusetts-based promoter Frank Chandler -- will become an annual event. Its very existence is the product of opportunity, Chandler said.

For two years over the Fourth of July weekend, festival bands and fans trekked to tiny Rothbury, Mich., for the Rothbury Festival. It was staged successfully in 2008 and 2009, but was scrubbed this year. Seizing the opening, Chandler assembled an investment team and began pulling the festival circuit north to Maine.

"Instead of people from the Northeast going out to Michigan to hear music over the Fourth, now they can stay here," Chandler said.

Rothbury's cancellation not only meant that bands and fans had a weekend free to travel to Maine, it also enabled Chandler to hire a festival team with experience. One by one, he hired Rothbury veterans to handle each segment of festival logistics -- ticketing, camping, production, etc. Instead of working in Michigan, this year they're working Maine, he said.

Relative to Bonnaroo, which draws 80,000 fans to 500 acres in Manchester, Tenn., Nateva is small. Chandler is using about 100 acres of land associated with the Oxford Fairgrounds, as well as another 75 or so attached to or within a few miles of the fairgrounds. He is using the remote land for camping and parking, and is providing shuttle buses to and from the concert site.

While the festival officially begins Friday afternoon, there's a pre-festival kickoff on Thursday night. The Portland-based band Gypsy Tailwind has the honor of being the first band to play at Nateva, with a set scheduled at 7 p.m. Thursday on a secondary stage.

The big action begins on Friday. Music starts late morning and runs through midnight on twin main stages, which will be set up side-by-side. The goal is to alternate sets on each stage, to minimize downtime between acts. Each day will have about 12 hours of music with minimal breaks on the two stages.

In addition to the two main stages, Nateva also will run two others stages -- the Port City Music Hall stage and the Barn Stage, both under cover and away from the main concert site. The Port City Music Hall stage will feature bands before and after the mainstage acts. The Barn stage will have late-night bands only.

Chandler, the promoter, is not trying to create Bonnaroo North. He wants something different, smaller and unique, where fans of jam bands can mingle with folks who prefer their music with a harder edge.

"Our goal is to be a well-rounded festival. We started promoting this as a jam-band festival, but then we added a bunch of indie-rock bands. We want people who are drawn to the festival because they like the music, and hopefully we also can introduce them to bands they've never heard of before."

 

Staff Writer Bob Keyes can be contacted at 791-6457 or at: bkeyes@pressherald.com

 

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