All Good Jams Hippie Procrastinators

The 12th annual All Good Music Festival—the region’s low-key jamfest—announced its “final” list of musical acts this week (a spokesman says a few more may sign on but no more “game changers” are in store, as we might say in campaign speak). The latest list—no game changers in it, either—adds to the who’s who of jam bands already committed: Phil Lesh & Friends, Phish bassist Mike Gordon, Widespread Panic, Gov’t Mule, Keller Williams, and the Dead cover band Dark Star Orchestra, among the bigger names. The smaller names include District bands Basshound and SOJA, as well as Baltimore’s the Bridge.

All Good says that none of the major bands will be in the region this summer any other time than at the festival, which takes place July 11, 12, and 13 in Mason Town, W.Va. So what are you waiting for?

You’re waiting, of course, because you’re a damn hippie and wait is what hippies do. And that’s why All Good’s pricing system unfairly discriminates against you. In an apparent attempt to change the fundamental nature of the festival’s core constituency, it has embraced the price tier system that Bonnaroo and other major fests rely on (though Bonnaroo’s at least $100 more and counting): Buy early and get your ticket cheap. Procrastinate and pay. An All Good spokesman guesses about a third of the roughly 18,000 folks who went last year bought their tickets at the gate at the highest possible rate.

Passes for the three days of “music, art, camping & loving” started at $109. They’ve gradually ticked up, and a plot of grass on the mountain will now run you $139. The sight of those lower prices with a line through them stirs conflicting reactions, at least in this hippie. The first: Screw it, if I can’t go for the cheapest rate, I’m not going. The second: Screw it, what’s 30 more bucks. Better get it now before it goes up again. The third: Hmm, I wonder if they have press passes.

Photo by Salim Virji

This entry was posted on Friday, April 25th, 2008 at 12:53 pm and is filed under Festivals, Jam Bands. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.