Every festival season sees a rush of debut festivals seeking to win our hearts and our festival dollars. The MFW Freshman Festival Report occasionally checks in on the newest members of the scene.
Eaux Claires Festival (July 17-18, 2014)
Eux Claire, Wisconsin
Justin Iver of Bon Iver fame is planning a two day festival is his hometown of Eux Claires, Wisconsin. It’s going to be curated by Iver and the National’s Aaron Dessner. Tickets are already on sale and it will be held at the home of Country Jam. Other than that, there’s not too many details.
MFW Success Prediction (5 out of 10): Artist fronted festivals have been a mixed bag over the years. For every successful moe.down and DelFest, there’s an Orion Festival or DMB Caravan.
Delaware Country Junction (August 14-16, 2014)
Harrington, Delaware
With the runaway success of the Firefly Festival, it was only a matter of time before other major players got into the game. Live Nation will produce the Delaware Country Junction Festival which will feature camping.
MFW Success Prediction (6 out of 10): Live Nation is throwing out some serious money trying to grab the underserviced Mid-Atlantic country festival fans. DCJ is their second new country music festival after FarmBorough planned for New York City.
The Big Barrel Music Festival (June
The organizers behind the aforementioned Firefly aren’t taking to newcomers lightly. The Big Barrel Music Festival came out of the gates with guns blazing. Their team includes the folks behind Stagecoach so they’ve got the chops to produce a country music festival.
MFW Success Prediction (7 out of 10): Goldenvoice has the Midas touch when it comes to festivals — two weekends of Coachella followed by a weekend of Stagecoach and they’re bringing that forumla to Delaware. They’ve already declared war on Delaware Country Junction by undercutting ticket prices to $99 versus DCJ’s $100.