Jul 18, 2008 - 04:06:03 CDT
This great United States of ours is a land filled with wide-open spaces, rich with great, big skies and harmonious nature. And, every summer, we seek to fill these empty spaces with outdoor toilets, T-shirt vendors and music. Glorious music.Filling our wide-open lands with music festivals is among my favorite of ways that we, as Americans, fill up our summers. Giant music festivals, like Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza and Coachella, take place in places far, far from here. Smaller, more intimate festivals, pop up all over Bismarck throughout the summer, like Rock the Lawn, Ribfest and Harmony Fest.
Those looking for a middle ground between these two might consider the 10,000 Lakes Festival. It kicks off Thursday and will run through July 26, taking place just outside of Detroit Lakes, Minn. That's about as close as any large music festival gets to our area, which is important in this "I can no longer afford to feed both myself and my basset hound, Boof, due to the price of gas"era. Also and this is the important part this festival includes some local flavor, namely Bismarck's own GypsyFoot, who this year will be playing the annual event for their fourth time.
Dave Weissman, public relations director for 10KLF, says that it is a pleasure to bring GypsyFoot back for another year. "The 10,000 Lakes Festival prides itself in its diversity and getting up-and-coming acts a chance to play for a national audience,"he said. "Ithink GypsyFoot is one of those bands that we've enjoyed very much seeing their growth and continued development musically."
Nolyn Falcon, guitarist for GypsyFoot, says that the band is equally excited to be coming back. "We've always given the festival shows a bit more importance," Falcon said, "mostly due to the fact that those shows can make really big waves through thousands of people within a short amount of time."
Playing in front of such large crowds attendance was estimated at about 15,000 last year can cause a fair share of butterflies in any performer's stomach.
"We've been a bit nervous about them in the past,"Falcon said. "But in all other ways, the shows are pretty much the same as any other show: Scramble to get on stage, frantic simultaneous soundchecks, freak out about how we were supposed to start 15 minutes ago, hurry up and calm down, rock out, etc."
Weissman said he believes that GypsyFoot have more than conquered their nerves in the past and managed to make some waves among festivalgoers. "Last year, they had a packed house at the Saloon, where they played an extremely spirited show. I am sure they will bring their best performance and blow everyone away."
Falcon says that the band plans to do exactly that. "We're playing an hourlong set, which we haven't figured out yet, let alone practiced. But I guess that's just how we roll. We like to throw out at least one curveball in the set for our hard-core fans, if possible, so we'll see."
GypsyFoot will hit the Saloon stage at 6 p.m. on July 25. The headliners of the festival, The Flaming Lips, will play that same night, at 10 p.m. on the main stage. The festival boasts a fantastic diversity of acts throughout all its four days, including Phil Lesh and Friends, Michael Franti and Spearhead, Leftover Salmon, George Clinton & Parliament Funkadelic, Medeski Scofield Martin & Wood and The Bad Plus.
Falcon says that GypsyFoot's spot at this year's festival was in doubt for some time, but the help of their fans helped to get them onto the bill. "Luckily, enough of our fans were in their ear about it, and they couldn't take it any more and invited us,"he said. "Thank you, by the way, to those that did e-mail 10K, requesting our return. We owe it all to you."
(Columnist Kelly Hagen hopes to see you at 10,000 Lakes Festival. Contact him at 250-8259 or kelly.hagen@bismarcktribune.com.)
Kastromy wrote on Jul 25, 2008 6:54 PM:
band wrote on Jul 22, 2008 5:16 PM:
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