Mountain Jam (festival)

Mountain Jam
Banner for Mountain Jam X, 2014
Genre	Jam band, Rock, Jazz, Blues, Reggae
Dates	Weekend after Memorial Day annually
Location(s)	Hunter Mountain, New York
Years active	2004–present
Founded by	WDST/Radio Woodstock / Warren Haynes / Gary Chetkof / Paul Schiavo
Website
http://www.mountainjam.com/

Mountain Jam was originally a single day event and is now a 4-day music festival music festival in upstate New York, held at Hunter Mountain ski resort the weekend after Memorial Day.

History

Mountain Jam was originally conceived to celebrate the 25th anniversary of WDST/Radio Woodstock. With over 3,300 people and 4 bands, reviews and critiques of the event were overwhelmingly positive.^[1] The founders, including Warren Haynes, Gary Chetkof, and other members of Radio Woodstock, began to look forward and decided to make the event annual.^[2] Over time, more bands, artists, and amenities have been added to Mountain Jam's lineup, including a diverse lineup of small artists, and larger bands including Michael Franti and Spearhead, Widespread Panic, The Black Keys, The Allman Brothers Band, and more. Gov't Mule, whom Warren Haynes is a founder of, has performed at every Mountain Jam thus far.

Currently, Mountain Jam has three stages to allow for continuous music throughout the day: the East Stage, the largest of the three, overlooks the main terrain park of the resort. Because of the quantity of performances on a given day, the wiring and electronics are set up so that the time spent transitioning from one performance to the next is as minimal as possible. Next to the East Stage is the West Stage, positioned closer to the chair lift, and is meant for smaller performers or musicians. Inside the Base Lodge is the third stage, meant for late night acts and for musicians who require indoor amenities.

Event goers have the option to drive up to the event for one of the days, camp in tents in the Hunter One section of the resort or in RVs further up the mountain, stay in various hotels that serve the town year-round, or rent in the Kaatskill Mountain Club hotel or in the Liftside Condominiums, both of which are within walking distance of the event.

The weather has played a large factor in event attendance. Some years have had non-stop rain for almost the entire duration of Mountain Jam,^[3] while others have had sunny and temperate weather.^[4]

Security has been an issue at previous Mountain Jams; members of the private security company hired by event managers had been accused of "overzealous" security searches, and local law enforcement officials were blamed for busting event-goers for smoking weed and extorting others through ATMs to pay fines.^[5] In a public statement, Gary Chetkof wrote that Mountain Jam would be replacing the company with a new organization that would enforce policies while maintaining the privacy of attendees.

I am as upset as you are about the overzealous security searches that have taken place in previous years and I realize that we have let you down. I can assure you that we are bringing in the right security team this year; one that will focus on keeping the peace and protecting the safety of our attendees while respecting your personal space and privacy. That is of the utmost importance to me and I am going to personally monitor the gates along with some of my key staff, to ensure that our new "peace keeping" team acts appropriately.

— Gary Chetkof, A Note From Gary About Security and Police

2014

• Mountain Jam 2014 took place June 5 to June 9, 2014. This year marked the tenth anniversary of Mountain Jam.

2013

• Mountain Jam took place June 6 to June 9, 2013

Line up included amongst others:

• Phil Lesh & Friends
• Widespread Panic
• Gov't Mule
• Primus
• The Avett Brothers
• The Lumineers
• Dispatch
• Michael Franti & Spearhead
• Big Gigantic
• Gary Clark Jr.
• Jackie Greene
• White Denim
• Rubblebucket
• The London Souls
• The Lone Bellow
• Futurebirds
• David Wax Museum

2012

• Mountain Jam took place May 31 to June 3, 2012

Line up included amongst others:

• Gov't Mule
• Steve Winwood
• Michael Franti & Spearhead
• Tedeschi Trucks Band
• The Roots
• Mariachi El Bronx
• Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real

Included also was a brief set in tribute to Levon Helm Featuring Gov't Mule, and the Levon Helm Band, and many other special guests.

2011

• Mountain Jam 2011 took place June 2 to June 5, 2011.

Line up included amongst others:

• Gov’t Mule
• My Morning Jacket
• Warren Haynes Band
• Michael Franti & Spearhead
• The Avett Brothers
• Umphrey's McGee w/ John Oates
• Grace Potter & the Nocturnals
• Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros
• Béla Fleck & The Original Flecktones
• Mavis Staples
• Electric Hot Tuna
• Lotus
• North Mississippi Allstars
• Soulive
• The New Deal
• 7 Walkers
• Portugal. The Man
• Preservation Hall Jazz Band
• Tim Reynolds & TR3
• Dawes
• The London Souls
• Zach Deputy
• Ryan Montbleau Band
• Charlie Hunter
• Chris Barron
• Toubab Krewe
• Nicole Atkins
• Carbon Leaf
• Civil Twilight
• The Heavy Pets
• Orgone
• Kung Fu
• The Alternate Routes
• Dangermuffin
• Ari Hest
• Pieta Brown
• TAB the Band
• Morning Teleportation
• Bronze Radio Return
• Nathan Moore
• Bobby Long
• The Big Takeover
• Stephen Lynch

2010

Mountain Jam 2010 took place June 4 to June 6, 2010.^[6][7]

Line up included amongst others:

• Gov't Mule
• Levon Helm & Friends- 70th Birthday Celebration w/ very special guests
• Michael Franti & Spearhead
• Derek Trucks & Susan Tedeschi Band
• The Avett Brothers
• Les Claypool
• Yonder Mountain String Band
• Drive-By Truckers
• Matisyahu
• Toots and the Maytals
• Dark Star Orchestra
• Grace Potter and the Nocturnals
• Dr. Dog
• Dave Mason
• Jay Farrar (of Son Volt)
• Lettuce
• ALO
• The Whigs
• The New Mastersounds
• Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue
• Justin Townes Earle
• Jerry Joseph & Wally Ingram
• The Bridge
• Zach Deputy
• The Brew
• Simone Felice
• Gandalf Murphy & SCD
• Van Ghost
• The London Souls
• These United States
• Elmwood

2009

Mountain Jam 2009 took place May 29 to May 30, 2009.^[8][9]

Line up included amongst others:

2008

Mountain Jam 2008 took place May 30 to June 1, 2008.^[10]

Line up included amongst others:

2007

Mountain Jam 2007 took place June 1–3, 2007.^[11] Mountain Jam 2007 was the largest music festival in the Northeast/New England.

Line up included amongst others:

2006

The 2006 Mountain Jam took place June 3 and 4, 2006.^[12] The New York Times described it as a "little Bonnaroo".^[13]

Line up included amongst others:

2005

The original Mountain Jam celebrated the 25th anniversary of WDST, Woodstock's radio station. It was a single day event on June 4, 2005.

Line up included amongst others:

• Gov't Mule
• Medeski, Martin & Wood
• Robert Randolph & The Family Band
• Xavier Rudd

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Mountain Jam.

• List of jam band music festivals
• List of reggae festivals
• List of rock festivals

References

External links

• http://www.mountainjam.com/
• http://www.radiowoodstock.com/