Mill Valley Herald
September 1, 2003
by Joshua Sabatini
The Marin Music Festival defies the odds and returns for the ninth consecutive year promising its greatest success ever, even though just a month ago its founder, Magic Steve, said it appeared the event wasn’t going to happen this time around.
When the festival’s annual streak seemed doomed, good news arrived. The bill says it all: headlining the Sept. 6 music festival is Bob Weir with his band Ratdog. Once Weir signed on, the event was set in stone. “What could be better, playing for the home folks on a late summer day,” said longtime Grateful Dead publicist Dennis McNally. “It was a real easy sell.”
Ratdog, fresh off its England tour, will play for more than two hours at the festival. The band goes on at 4:20 p.m. Other acts will begin playing at 11 a.m., an hour after the gates open.
Steve Ringel, a Fairfax resident and owner of Hogwash laundry, started the event in 1995. “The festival came as an idea I had from doing craft fairs and going to 100 Dead shows. There wasn’t anything going on like I knew there could be. So it was my idea born with the help of a lot of friends who just wanted to have a party.”
This year, Ringel found help in longtime friend Beth Ingalls, founder of Electrik Lady productions. Ingalls is also a councilmember in Truckee and a music columnist for a local alternative newspaper. Only a month ago did she learn the festival was a go. “It is like every year; momentum carries it forward,” she said. “Steve had been talking to various people and when Bob came through the momentum propelled it forward.”
For Ringel booking the artists that will draw a crowd is simply “an uphill battle.” He said the large media corporations pressure agents and musicians not to cater to small-time promoters. “Bob Weir was the first big star to break ranks,” Ringel said.
After the first festival, Ringel knew he had conceived something with a future. “The first year was amazing. It just all flowed so easily considering none of us knew what we were doing.”
Ringel added: “No one thought it would work and everyone laughed when we said we would do it.” “Steve is a believer and does a tremendous amount of work to make this happen,” said McNally.
The festival seemed destined to succeed.
The first Marin Music Festival took place just two weeks after Jerry Garcia passed away. David Grisman, who collaborated with Garcia on a number of occasions, agreed to play. Booker T. and the MGs played; two weeks later they would be the house band at the grand opening of the Rock ’n’ Roll Hall of Fame. And there was the Charlie Hunter Trio.
“It was a great show and the music festival was born,” said Ringel.
Then Ringel started referring to his labor of love as “the year-ahead show.” Artists were booked who were on the edge of striking it big. In 1996, Ben Harper, Galactic and String Cheese Incident were the main bands. “People were saying, ‘Ben who?’ ” recalled Ringel. “The next year they sold out the Shoreline Amphitheater and laughed when we said come back and play again.”
The festival’s will to survive lies in its essence. The event is not about profit. According to Ringel, the festival has yet to break even. “The best it has ever done in eight years is lose $5,000,” he said. “We have been fortunate to have benefactors. But it has never been able to pay for itself.” Tickets are a mere $20; children under 12 get in for free.
“Steve has a strong belief in keeping ticket prices low. It’s a real family event. He does it for the love of that. Some people ask why we are charging so little; he refuses to change on that one,” said Ingalls.
McNally said the festival honors the history of Marin, while bridging old-time minstrels with young ones on the rise. “Marin County has a strong music tradition, going back in particular to 1966, when certain bands fled San Francisco — the Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin and Big Brother and the Holding Company, and Quicksilver, those three in particular — and moved to Marin in various places,” said McNally.
One challenge for Ringel is striking a balance between the big names that will draw a large enough crowd to ensure the festival returns each year and maintaining the event’s spirit.
Ringel said, “The whole point of the festival was never who the band was. I don’t want people to come just for the Ratdog show, but for the festival, that is the star.
“The whole point was to create an event that would support and create community, to create a place where people could go with their families that is affordable.”
The event goes beyond the musical acts. There is vending. Booth fees, like ticket prices, have not increased since day one. There will be 50 different arts and crafts booths where local artisans will sell all types of wares from drums to candles. “Some people come every year just for the shopping,” Ringel said.
There is also a kid zone with arts and crafts, a clown, a magician, airbrushing and face painting. A portion of the proceeds will be going to the Seva Foundation, a nonprofit organization which fights blindness around the world. Weir sits on the organization’s board of directors.
This year, Ringel forecasts the festival’s biggest turnout. The venue’s capacity is 6,000. To break even, 3,000 tickets need to get sold. Previous years brought around 2,000.
“This year, it’s one of those things where nine or 10 years later you are an overnight success,” Ringel said. “All of a sudden I am hearing people talking about it all over the town. It has just taken that long.”
He added: “We have been working towards a lineup like this for years.”
The trend in music fans’ taste bodes well for this year’s festival. “The hippy stuff is doing real well,” said McNally, “at a time when overall the music industry is not doing well – the economy is a big part of that. The music industry is doing very badly, but the most visibly healthy part is the jam bands.”
For Ringel it has also become a day closest to his original vision. “For the first year in nine years it has grown into a true Marin music festival. This is all guys and gals who live in Marin. Everyone actually lives in Marin, loves Marin, supports Marin — it is a beautiful thing.”
RatDog includes Weir, drummer Jay Lane, bassist Robin Sylvester, rock pianist Jeff Chimenti, guitarist Mark Karan and saxaphonist Kenny Brooks. The band heads out in October for its fall tour across the country. Another act on the bill is Don’t Push the Clown, a newly formed band featuring Bobby Vega of Zero, Ray White of Frank Zappa, Terry Haggerty of Sons of Champlin and Prairie Prince of the Tubes and Starship. The group is “one the biggest new jam bands,” said Ringel. Also on the bill is Jemimah Puddleduck, which includes Mark Karan, John Molo of Phil Lesh & Friends, Bob Gross of Stir and J.T. Thomas of Bruce Hornsby. The emcee will be Father Guido Sarducci. Country Joe McDonald,who played in the first Marin Music Festival, David Gans and Cat McClaine will be special guests.
The festival takes place in an idyllic location: Lagoon Park at the Civic Center in San Rafael. “It is a real cool spot, all grass, oval-shaped, you see the mountains in the background, and there is a lagoon breeze around you,” said Ingalls, who attended the event last year and brought her son along.
More than a thousand Ninth Annual Marin Music Festival posters, depicting a psychedelic image of Albert Einstein, went up this month around Marin and Sonoma. The poster, as every year, is designed by Thos Chapman, a Fairfax resident.
“For Bob Weir it is like a homecoming,” said McNally. And for all, it’s a celebration of home among family and friends.