Crozet Music Festival – October 2 – 4 2009

If you’re interested in the Crozet Music Festival (and you really should be) take a few minutes and watch (or read the transcripts) the two videos below – (my apologies for the brief shakiness of the videos).

Disclosure: I’m on the Board of Directors for the Crozet Music Festival.

Jim: Here we are at Green House Coffee in Crozet, Virginia. I’m here with Biff Rossberg, founder of Crozet Music Festival. I just wanted to do a quick, five minute interview with Biff. I had a question about Crozet Music Festival. I’m going to run through my list. Just give us a quick, 30 second summary of what the Crozet Music Festival is.

Biff: The Festival is a three day event. We have 51 bands coming. We have all kinds of festivity type things going. Friday is rock n roll day. Saturday is family day. We’ve got a bunch of stuff for the kids and then Sunday is more of a laid back day. We’re calling it mellow Sunday.

Jim: Mellow Sunday. Who’s coming to that?

Biff: Oh, we’ve got the Grateful Dead cover band, Alligator, The Mondo Mafia. I wish I had my list right in front of me, darn it.

Jim: That’s quite all right. Quite all right. It will be up on the blog as well. (ed note: Here is the list of bands)

Biff: It’s up on the website.

Jim: What’s the website?

Biff: www.crozetmusicfestival.com, www.crozetmusicfestival.net, www.crozetmusicfestival.org any of the three.

Jim: Now where is this located?

Biff: Misty Mountain Camp ground is where we’re having it again. It’s on route 250, just west of the 64/250 interchange.

Jim: How far from downtown Crozet?

Biff: Oh, a mile and a half or two miles.

Jim: Not bad. Now who is benefiting from this?

Biff: We’re fund raising for the Western Albemarle Rescue Squad. After all the expenses are paid, they’ll get over 50% of the profits from the festival.

Jim: Wow. That’s wonderful. Why should anyone from Crozet, Charlottesville, surrounding areas come?

Biff: Well don’t come if you don’t like music because that’s about all that’s going to be going on, well not all that’s going on. We’ve got a lot of vendors, lots of things for sale. For the kids on Saturday we have a face painter, juggler, a rock wall, pony rides, we have a bounce around house, we have a game room and we have a play ground. So there’s plenty to do if you want to have a good time and a good day. We’ve lowered the ticket prices this year, so hopefully it will be something that’s affordable for everybody.

Jim: You mentioned when we talked the other day something about vineyards?

Biff: Vineyards. We have eight wineries coming, so we’re going to have our own mini wine festival in the middle of the music festival. So you’ve got a music festival, a vendor festival, and we’ve got some breweries coming too. We didn’t forget the breweries. Blue Mountain is coming, the Devil’s Backbone and Starr Hill will all be there.

Jim: Anything else you want to say?

Biff: I just hope to see you there.

Jim: Good. Thanks Biff.

Jim: This is Jim Duncan, Real Crozet VA again. I’m here with John Updike on the board of the Crozet Music Festival. John, just tell us a little bit about who is involved in setting this thing up.

John: Well Bill Rossberg and I have been working on it, this will be our third year. Our mission for the festival is to show local musicians that they’re still appreciated. With all the national acts that are coming to the Charlottesville area, there’s kind of a focus on that, but we want to have a venue for the local musicians to gather and play in one spot. We’ve found the Crozet Music Festival to be a good venue for that and Misty Mountain Campground is hosting the event for the second year. We like the venue a lot because it offers camping around the site. Also our mission is to be family oriented. We’re not a festival of reckless abandon. We want to encourage family’s/adults to bring their children and feel safe in the environment out there. So far I think we’ve accomplished that goal. We’ve got just about 50 bands for three days and two stages, so we’re excited about that. We feel like people are getting to know the festival with each year that we have it.

Jim: I think there are 51 bands. How does that compare to last year?

John: I think we only had it for two days last year, so I think we were talking maybe 30 bands last year, but each year we’ve grown by a day. The first year was one day, the second year was two days, and this year will be three.

Jim: Where do you expect the people to come from? Mainly Charlottesville and central Virginia or do you think there will be more statewide?

John: Well that was the expectation the first two years and it proved to be true. I think we’re getting more of a regional presence now. I’ve heard of a group from Lynchburg coming up that will be staying at the campground. I think we’re trying to branch out to Harrisonburg and Stanton and Richmond. Some of the bands are from some of those areas, so that tends to draw people from a larger area, so we’re expecting the demographics to grow this year and with that growth we expect more awareness of the festival.

Jim: Now we were talking earlier about there is a lot of people who are going to be peddling their wares if you will, there will be family activities, a wine festival, and bands. Is there anything else we can mention to attract people in for the weekend?

John: Well, there’s some great food vendors. Alex Montiel has been our food director and he’ll be bringing his own outfit in and there will be some others. Anything from Mexican cuisine to the hamburgers and hot dogs and some things in between. We’re having the Devil’s Backbone Brewery, Blue Mountain, and Starr Hill and JWC bringing beer. I think we’re having six or eight wineries from around the region and of course there will be soft drinks for the young ones and there will be a children’s area, a playground, and Adrian Young of Backyard Revolutions is going to bring an activities tent to entertain the kids. So we feel like we’ve got a well-rounded festival and plenty to do for everybody and of course the music speaks for itself. The bands themselves have a lot of local followers and we’re hoping that will bring some people in and I’ve heard that there is a high school reunion going on that weekend and they’re making the Crozet Music Festival part of their activities. So more people are finding out about it and I think that will make our numbers grow.

Jim: And what’s the website again?

John: www.crozetmusicfestival.com It’s got all the information including the schedule including the bands.

Jim: Can you buy tickets there too?

John: You can buy tickets there and Mincers and Belair Market are selling them as well.

Jim: So a good time to be had by all?

John: It should be and we’re excited to be having the third annual Crozet Music Festival and we invite everyone to come out.

Jim: Thanks John.