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Kids play on the grounds of FloydFest.

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Music fans return for FloydFest

Special to the Press
By Doug Thompson

The skies threatened but the heavy rains went north, south, east and west of FloydFest 6 this year, giving the music, arts, crafts and fun festival four days of mostly pleasant weather.
Even if the rain had come it probably would not have dampened the enthusiasm of festival goers, some who have attended each summer for the past half dozen years.
“This is our sixth year,” said Marian Grambling of suburban Chicago. She and her partner camped out among the trees that separate the main festival grounds from the parking and RV area. On Saturday morning, they stood in line for a much-needed shower and talked about their festival adventures.
“We take in about four festivals a summer. We came to the first FloydFest and have been back every year,” she said.
Will they be back next year?
“That depends,” she said. “Lots of new festivals springing up and we like to try new things.”
John and Ashley Simmons attended their first FloydFest this year. They’re not sure if they will come back next year.
“We were hoping for bigger names for the musical acts,” Ashley said. “It was a lot of fun but it’s a lot of money to spend for second-tier acts.”
If there was a consistent complaint throughout the four days it was the lack of “name” musical acts.
The “names” included Sam Bush, who played to a small but enthusiastic audience Thursday night, perennial crowd favorite Donna & the Buffalo and Railroad Earth closing the festival late Sunday afternoon.
Festival organizers booked more than 80 bands, most of them local and regional acts.
With or without “names,” some attendees felt the crowd on Saturday night was one of the largest they had seen at FloydFest. At one point the crowd stretched unbroken from the Dreaming Creek Main Stage at one end of the grounds to the Hill Holler Stage at the other.
“It was just a solid mass of people from one end to the other,” said Frank Walker of Café del Sol in Floyd.
Festival organizers Kris Hodges and Erika Johnson hoped for 12,000 people over the long weekend and although final numbers are not yet in the event reported large crowds on Friday and Saturday nights. Pre-event sales were up 20 percent over last year, they said.
Hodges and Johnson say FloydFest brings more than $1 million to the area economy. Area businesses report increased traffic during FloydFest weekend although some said their business dropped off from last year when organizers estimated 10,000 people attended the event.
“Our business was good but it was down from last year,” said Rob Neukirch, owner of Oddfellas Cantina. “There just wasn’t as much ‘buzz’ about FloydFest this year.”
Onsite vendors reported a drop off in sales from previous years. Some felt this year’s crowd was younger than in previous years and less inclined to buy the arts and crafts featured by many vendors.  The younger crowd was also rowdier at times and police broke up a number of fights.
But a record number of vendors packed the festival grounds this year, offering not only arts and crafts but real estate, Internet service, camping equipment and lots of food.
Food services included sushi and alligator burritos as well as standard hamburgers, barbeque and funnel cakes.
The explosion in food vendors caused problems for others when the power needs of one food service operator kept blowing out circuit breakers, leaving a whole row of booths and tents without power.
The glitches, however, did not stop the event or temper the enthusiasm of attendees who took advantage of what have become staples of the summer festival: music, food, attractions for the kids and the ever-present but still popular hula hoops.
“I’ve never done this before,” said Selena Rogers of New Jersey as she tried to master the hula hoop. “It’s wild.”
Some festivals attendees said FloydFest has settled into a comfortable “sameness” that may need updating.
“It’s kind of repetitious,” said Arlene Watkins of Falls Church, VA. “They need to evolve and not have the same things every year.  I saw Donna and the Buffalo last year and the year before. My kids didn’t even try out the climbing tower this year because they did it last year.”
Not everyone, however, had been to FloydFest before so they did not feel any sense of déjà vu.
“I love it,” said Susan Spencer of Kansas City. “I’ll be back next year.”