Issue date: 7/8/08 Section: News

People napping in hammocks set up in the trees of the Sherwood Forest in Rothbury, Mich. on Saturday, July 5. (Thomas Stevens/The Daily Eastern News)

The imposing forest of pine trees turned from violet to green to red to blue again and again.

Geometric forms resembling fractals were floating in mid-air, glowing like slowly revolving phosphorescent sea life.

Smells of flavored tobaccos and patchouli, among others, came and went in the dark. Music came from just beyond the trees; this area was dubbed the Sherwood Forest, the main conduit between stages at the Rothbury Music Festival.

Thousands of people from all walks of life traveled the length together each night as tens of thousands migrated from stage to stage to see the latest musical offering.

Hosted at the Double JJ Ranch, Waterpark & Golf Resort just outside of Rothbury, Mich. population 457, the artist lineup was extraordinarily diverse. More than 70 acts, ranging from Atmosphere to Zappa Plays Zappa graced five stages during the sunny four-day event. The Dave Matthews Band headlined the event.

There was also a Think Tank series "Finding Energy Independence," a symposium-like series of events headed by Stephen Schneider, a Stanford University professor and expert on climate change science.

Double JJ owner Bob Lipsitz was enthusiastic about the success of the festival and said that he is more than willing to host another festival next year. Madison House Productions, the publicity company for the event aims to double the attendance next year


"It was fantastic," said Lipsitz. "It's a great opportunity for everyone in the Midwest."

The festival was of national importance, by most accounts. Tickets were sold in all 50 states.

One of the main goals of the festival was to have zero-waste, or as close to it as possible.

To achieve this goal, organizers placed 2,000 50-gallon bins throughout the grounds in color-coded clusters of three, each respectively designated landfill, recycle and compost.

Volunteers were posted at each of the waste stations to help the Rothburians properly dispose of their trash.

Unlike most major music festivals where the grounds are littered with garbage during and after, Lipsitz said the grounds were "remarkably clean."

Nick Morales, a senior MIS major at Eastern, was among those in attendance at the festival and agreed that the Rothbury grounds were remarkably free of litter, unlike other major music festivals that he frequents.

He said that organizers were able to get everyone involved in the process of reducing waste through the volunteers posted at disposal sites and prizes for those who helped pick up trash.

"They were all about the green thing," Moralis said. Even though large portions of the crowd may not have been into sorting their trash at every trip to the garbage can the volunteers "made it really easy."

Even the artists were by the cleanliness of the festival.

Orlando Harrison, keyboard player for the Brixton, UK-based acidhouse/blues/alretnative Alabama 3, notable for their song 'Woke Up This Morning,' the theme song for The Sopranos, leered at the stage on Saturday afternoon that would be theirs that night and admitted, "no one knows who we are aside from that song. Anyway, it's really very nice here, isn't it?"

Unlike the crowd, many of the bands were only temporary visitors that showed up to play their sets only to immediately leave for other obligations.

Harrison explained that A3 had just arrived from Chicago by way of the Summerfest festival in Milwaukee, and had to leave after their show to make it to New York on Sunday afternoon.

Festival goers stayed in designating camping areas.

The 200 acres of campgrounds more closely resembled a giant grassy parking lot than traditional campgrounds. The vast majority of the attendees slept in tents, RVs or on-site lodging.

Dust kicked up from cars coated just about everything aside from the muddy areas, which were caused by run-off from the bathing areas.

Dozens of Michigan State Police cars that constantly meandered through the campgrounds, which became something of a maze after it was filled to capacity, handled major infractions. Officers in red shirts on horseback that were brought in from all over the country provided the rest of the security detail.

Arrests remained low, as police were targeting those selling large amounts of drugs and intervening disorderly conduct violations, there were 17 reported arrests by Sunday.

Attendance numbers have not been released but festival officials estimate the number at just shy of 40,000.

The small town of Rothbury, population a mere 457, lies in western Michigan among the blueberry and strawberry farms that dot the landscape. Rothbury is its own municipality located within the larger, more sizeable boundaries of New Era, Mich.

Rothbury, Mich. was formed in 1964 because of a law that banned sales of alcohol by the glass. Some of the thirstier New Era residents packed up and settled about five miles down the road in what is now Rothbury.

Mark Nelson, owner of the Rothbury Tavern, explained that his bar was the epicenter of Rothbury when the town was formed, that Rothbury was basically built around the tavern.

The by-the-glass law was repealed in the '70s but the town remains.

Across the street from the tavern is a gas station, next to that is a hardware store. These three businesses are huddled around the only intersection with a traffic light in town, a blinking stopsign. Morgan's Kountry Kitchen lies just down the road and expanded to handle the influx of visitors to Rothbury.

The small diner added two outdoor patios with tables and chairs under a tarp to accommodate extra business. The business never arrived.

When they didn't get the business they expected, the waitresses used the plastic tables to play Yatzee on Friday night.

The Rothbury Tavern didn't get much extra business either, aside from a few early birds who were "looking to sit down" before they could enter the festival grounds on Thursday.

The tavern even experienced less business than usual during the festival, which Nelson attributed to the vastly increased police presence.

"The regulars just haven't been around," said Nelson, "They're kind of hiding until this is all over."

The locals were mostly excited about the festival coming to town, though some were a bit reticent at the prospect of an additional 50,000, the cap put on the festival by the fire marshal, coming to town.

Jerry Newmyer, an employee at the Ace hardware store in Rothbury, said that business picked up before the festival, mostly from the stagehands that needed tools to construct whatever needed constructing, but grew slower once the festival began.

"The locals are not against Rothbury (music festival)," Newmyer said with a wry grin as he kept an eye out for customers. "The success of it, the magnitude of it; it's really something."

A local radio station had recently given away weekend passes, and Newmyer was one of the recipients. He said the idea of the festival reminded him of Woodstock, which he wasn't able to attend.

"I wish I could have gone, but I was in Vietnam at the time," Newmyer said.

He looked forward to seeing John Mayer and the Dave Matthews Band to "see what all the fuss is about."

To make nice with those that live adjacent to the Double JJ ranch and resort, festival organizers gave weekend passes to neighboring locals.

Most of the complaints that came from these locals had to do with the noise being louder than anticipated and festival goers using their yards as shortcuts to the venues, which were a half hour walk from the far side of the campgrounds.

State police visited them regularly to make sure everything was going smoothly and organizers kept tabs with decibel readers.

Every attendee's visit to Rothbury may have short, just three days at the most, but there is a buzz about the festival that has begun to spread thanks to people like Morales who are part of a burgeoning street team.

As a street-team member, he passes out handbills for the festival, talks with as many people as possible about the festival and wears a Rothbury t-shirt to spark conversation.

"I'm definitely about to spread the word again," said Morales.


Thomas Stevens can be reached at 581-7942 or at tmstevens@eiu.edu.

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