“A long, long time ago…I can still remember
How that music used to make me smile
And I knew if I had my chance
That I could make those people dance
And, maybe, they’d be happy for a while
But February made me shiver
With every paper I’d deliver
Bad news on the doorstep;
I couldn’t take one more step
I can’t remember if I cried
When I read about his widowed bride
But something touched me deep inside
The day the music died”

Don McLean
American Pie

John Scarffe, Nederland.  The music of NedFest in Nederland has died. The Board of Directors of the Peak to Peak Music Education Association and the NedFest Organizing Committee released a letter on February 2, 2019, announcing that the NedFest music festival, one of Nederland’s biggest events, has been canceled for the summer of 2019.

“It is with great sadness that we must announce that NedFest is canceled for this summer,” according to the letter. Rob Savoye, NedFest board member, founder and local firefighter with Timberline Fire Protection District and the Nederland Fire Department, told The Mountain-Ear that the board is within one or two weeks of needing to get sponsors and bands for the 2019 NedFest.

The festival’s sponsors have been very good, but when proposed plans for the new Barker Meadows Park showed up in The Mountain-Ear, they freaked. Since 2006, NedFest has taken over Guercio Ballfield next to Barker Reservoir, where a new park is planned. The board has a time limit if they want to get bands, Savoye said.

“It scared away the people who helped fund it, and we couldn’t try to pull it together. Nobody ever talked to us,” Savoye said.

The board is hesitant to think that construction on the new park won’t interfere with the festival, so it’s not a venue that is viable for us, he said. According to the letter: “It was an exceptionally difficult decision to make, but we felt that land use decisions made by the Nederland Board of Trustees and town administration have rendered the ball field unusable.”

The Nederland Board of Trustees reached an agreement with Eldora Mountain Resort for parking at Guercio Ballfields to use Guercio Field for no more than 129 vehicles on October 17, 2017 in order to gain revenue that would enable it to achieve its long-term goals.

Eldora Mountain Resort General Manager Brent Tregaskis requested use of the field at $500 per day. The Nederland Middle/Senior High School lot has been used solely for employee parking.

Tregaskis took the proposal to the October Parks, Recreation and Open Space Advisory Board (PROSAB) meeting. Board members had some concerns about turning the field into a parking lot and wanted the agreement limited to two years.

PROSAB directed the town attorney to negotiate an agreement, and town staff recommended moving forward and had $35,500 earmarked for the park development. In their letter, the NedFest Organizing Committee stated that allowing the softball field to be an Eldora employee parking lot has completely destroyed it.

“What was a nice grassy lot to throw your blanket down on and play with the kids, (last year we had 136 children under 12 at the festival), is now a barren, rock hard gravel and dust parking lot,” states the letter. Last summer, even if the slightest breeze blew, the instruments on stage, the food and the arts and crafts in the vendor booths were covered in a thick brown film.

Now there is a greenhouse going up where the backstage tent goes and a garden that would take up some close-in audience viewing area and where many of the festival’s sponsors have their booths, according to the letter.

Restrooms are being built where the stage goes, and a bike track where the food and beer vendors and a big chunk of the audience go, according to the letter.

“We know that some of this won’t be done by next August but some of it will. Other things, like the restrooms, will be half done and just in the way, and then there is the issue of the barren parking lot of a field,” according to the letter. The NedFest organizers are not against the park redevelopment.

Many years ago, when the early plans were proposed for the park, they were excited by the prospect of making the festival more like the bigger festivals, having a second stage down by the water and the whole footprint inside the fence way larger, according to the letter.

The configuration of the new park will not work with the needs of NedFest. Their needs include a 40 x 32 foot stage, a requirement in the contracts of most national touring acts, space for 1,500 people in front of it and flat level ground for 40 or so vendor and sponsor booths. “The space planned for the stage down by the water was designed as a small stage with room for 400 spectators, going all the way to the water, so it is not big enough,” according to the letter.

Most of the festival’s overhead costs are fairly fixed and aren’t that different if they have 800 or 2,000, or even two days instead of three, which is why they have three. “Before we pay a single penny to a musician, our daily cost is about $23,000, so we need to have a big enough audience and known artists that people will pay $60 to see in order to cover our costs,” according to the letter.

“Contrary to popular opinion, NedFest doesn’t make any money, and no one gets paid except the musicians and production crew. The losses are covered by sponsors and board members and credit cards,” according to the letter.
“It’s a big party we throw for the town because we have so much fun doing it. It’s a community bonding thing every year, almost like an annual family reunion where you see people that you haven’t seen since last year’s festival,” states the letter.

The NedFest organizers wrote that they won’t move out of town and start over. They understand that a couple thousand people will be very disappointed, but tickets will be refunded soon.

The letter also pointed out that when Jim Guercio, owner of the Caribou Ranch Studios and producer of dozens of albums you are familiar with, gave the land for the ball field to the town, the only requirement was that it be named the Jeff Guercio Memorial Ball field after his late brother. “Since this new park has been named Barker Meadows, we submit that the music pavilion, if ever built, should be named the Jeff Guercio Memorial Pavilion, or at least the Guercio Pavilion. Jeff was a musician and athlete. He lived here and even played music at the Pioneer Inn,” according to the letter.
“Don’t despair. The music will never die in Nederland! Thanks to everyone in the NedFest family for all of your support and love! Rob, Deb, Swifty, Marc, Danielle, Kris.”

Savoye said that last year was the 20th year of the festival. Is it better to end on a high note or low note? The twentieth year was really great.

The first NedFest was at Chipeta Park in Nederland, Savoye said, and they had to squeeze the festival into the shelter in the rain. Michigan Mike was the first founder, and the first year at the Ballfield was in 2006. The NedFest Board was forced to make a decision.

They have a staff with 15 years of experience, and a financial screw up would blow up in their faces, Savoye said. They all have lives and families up here.

Savoye suggested creating a new live festival in Nederland that would be better to adapt as things change. “We’re set in the way we always set up, and someone else should take the mantel.”

For 20 years, he did this for free year around. “It’s a fun and it’s a party,” Savoye said, recalling seeing girls Hulu hooping on the grass, “but I guess we’re done.”

A lot of staff would volunteer to help with a new music event for the town, Savoye said. If the board loses money, they will have no money to donate to the children’s music association, so they will think of other fund-raising activities.

Nedheads members posted the letter on social media, and Mayor Kristopher Larsen and Trustee Dallas Masters responded, as did many members of the public. Larsen wrote:

“I’m as disappointed as everyone to hear this morning about the NedFest Board’s decision to cancel this year’s festival. We, the Board of Trustees, hadn’t heard of any issues or concerns with the festival prior to the announcement (apart from future concerns regarding the location of the pump track, which is still contingent on funding and planning).”

Mayor Larsen told The Mountain-Ear that he woke up Saturday morning and hadn’t heard any rumors until the NedFest Board posted the letter on Facebook and accused the town of lots of things. The board and town staff are having lots of conversations with the NedFest Board, and they have small things they can work around.

The town agreed to rent the field to Eldora for parking in part to raise money for the renovation and expansion of facilities based on the 2013 Barker Meadows park plan. A key part of the agreement is that EMR will be responsible for any necessary rehabilitation that may be needed at the end of the seasonal use to get the field back to its prior, or better, conditions, Larsen wrote.

EMR will be responsible for seeding the area with native grasses by May 15, 2018, and by May 15, 2019, following the peak season, Larsen wrote. This is an obvious way to fix the ball fields based on the town’s contract with the resort.

The greenhouse project came out of the Sustainability Advisory Board’s work over the past several years at their meetings and presentations to the Board of Trustees, Larsen wrote. “That its location requires modification to how NedFest sets things up is also new to me, as those concerns weren’t raised during any meetings over the last year of planning.

“I feel very confident that there is no reason why NedFest can’t continue to thrive and be a part of Nederland’s summer. I hope the NedFest Board chooses to work with the Town to make it happen,” Larsen wrote.

Larsen doesn’t understand why they jumped into cancellation. The agreement with the greenhouse is a very small footprint and takes up a very small fraction of that space. The town always works something out with the larger Frozen Dead Guy Days Festival in March.

“It’s their choice, but we’re not giving up hope,” Larsen said, maybe even keeping some kind of music festival in Nederland. Savoye said that it’s only February but a lot of work would remain to be done.

The NedFest Board is not fighting the long-term benefits of the park, but that idea this week caught the board off guard. “The board believes a different organization would help with transition,” Savoye said, “but we’re done and want to shift into new ideas.”

A lot of staff members would help and have contacts for the bands and vendors and would give those to the new organizers. “We can’t trust we will have the venue space we needed,” Savoye said.

Live music doesn’t need to die in Nederland, and the town can work with PROSAB for a new event. The board encourages those who are concerned to channel their passion to get a group together.

“I hope my pissed off friends get it together,” Savoye said. “I would love to go to a festival and drink beer and not worry about who is jumping over the fences.” Savoye said.

Town staff has indicated NedFest board members were included in multiple emails asking for participation.

Members of the public will be expressing their opinions at the regular Board of Trustees meeting at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, February 5, 2019, in the multi-purpose room at the Nederland Community Center.