Hillberry 2 Fills in After Phases of The Moon Festival Canceled

Courtesy of Jamie Seed Photography
Patrick Calaway of Foley’s Van, from Fayetteville, jams along with the band during last month’s Hillberry music festival.

It’s been a rough year for Mulberry Mountain music festival fans.

While Wakarusa was able to do it big and bring in a big crowd for its huge lineup this year, Wakarusa will be the only major festival held by Pipeline Productions at Mulberry Mountain this year.

Thunder on the Mountain, the country music festival, was canceled by Pipeline about two weeks before the event. The news inspired local musician Lance Carpenter to organize Music on the Mulberry at Byrd’s Adventure Center near Ozark, Ark. within two weeks as a substitute festival.

In early 2015, it was announced that the beloved, folksy-bluegrass-styled Yonder Mountain Harvest Music Festival would fuse with the Danville, Ill. jam band festival Phases of the Moon in October at Mulberry Mountain. The lineup featured a blending of genres between bluegrass, rock n’ roll jam bands, folk and a few EDM DJ sets.

Earlier this month, Phases of the Moon was cancelled due to “a significant number of unforeseen obstacles,” including the closure of Highway 23 that many southbound festival goers take to get there, according to a press release. The news bummed out a lot of people who one, were already bummed that there wouldn’t be a Harvest Fest, and two, those who were sad to see Phases of the Moon leave Danville and later see it canceled.

Enter Jon Walker, owner of Deadhead Productions, who organizes the Hillberry, Highberry and Byrdfest music festivals in Arkansas.

Courtesy Photo
Hillberry 2: The Harvest Moon Music Festival will be held at The Farm in Eureka Springs, Ark. The venue sits on 150 acres and backs up to Mark Twain national forest.

Within hours of the bad news about Phases of the Moon hitting the web, Walker had created a Facebook event page for Hillberry 2: Harvest Moon Festival. By the end of the day, there were already more than a thousand people on Facebook who said they planned on going.

“I really didn’t even think about it,” he said. “It just happened. I knew Harvest Fest was a special festival for people around here. It seemed like a natural fit to do something like that. I just felt like I had to do it.”

The idea was to do a smaller, more intimate fest that would keep the vibes of Harvest Fest going and snatch up as many artists as possible who had just had their schedules cleared by Pipeline for the weekend of Oct. 16.

On Monday, Sept. 14, Walker announced the full lineup for the festival, which featured 13 acts from the Phases of the Moon lineup. The headliners include Leftover Salmon, Lettuce, Wookiefoot, The Motet, Andy Frasco & the U.N. and locals Tyrannosaurus Chicken, Handmade Moments and a possible Don’t Stop Please reunion show.

“I’m stoked for the opportunity,” said Anna Horton, one half of Handmade Moments and former Don’t Stop Pleaser. “I think it’s going to be more of a down home type of festival than Phases of the Moon, because Jon’s a real person you can talk to, and Pipeline’s kind of this crazy machine company. As an artist, it’s really nice to be able to talk with the people putting on the festival and have some open communication.”

The venue is on Walker’s land near Eureka Springs, which is referred to as The Farm. The single main stage sits on 150 acres of land with views of the Mark Twain national forest and the rolling hills of the Ozarks all around. Walker plans on keeping the attendance low, to no more than a few thousand people.

“I think we should have more festivals like Hillberry in Eureka,” Horton said, who is a Eureka Springs native. “It’s the perfect vibe for a festival and it’s great for the economy of the town for people picking up festival supplies. Also, it gives everyone a chance to check out Eureka Springs and meet all the old school people who live there.”

Courtesy of Jamie Seed Photography
Rachel Ammons (right) and Bob Lewis (left) of Tyrannosaurus Chicken play their trance delta blues at last month’s Hillberry music festival. T-Rex Chicken will play again at Hillberry 2: The Harvest Moon Festival.

While negotiating with several of the Phases of the Moon bands was intense at first, Walker said they were all willing to play the smaller festival at a lower cost than what they typically would. Similar to Hillberry, the Harvest Moon Festival will only feature one main stage for music. With such limited time slots, this made deciding on the artists difficult.

“There was a lot of opportunity to pick a lot of the acts that had been routed here,” Walker said. “A lot of these acts were coming at me because they wanted to play in this area. So that was pretty cool.”

The festival starts at 4 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 16 and runs until 1:30 a.m. each night except for 11:30 p.m. on Sunday. Music starts at 11:45 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday. There’s also going to be a late night campfire party where a few jam sessions may occur.

Tickets to the festival can be bought online at www.hillberryfestival.com. Three day festival passes are $105, two day passes are $80 and Sunday only passes are $50. Camping is included in the ticket price and children 12 and under are free.

Deadhead Productions

Walker has been producing festivals in Arkansas for about 8 years. During the first two years, they were more like big parties with all of his friends on his land. Each year the parties got bigger and bigger until he moved them to Byrd’s Adventure Center to host the first Highberry. Now, Walker organizes three festivals a year on average.

This year included the jam band-focused Highberry, funky Phunkberry, the bluegrass style Hillberry and now unexpectedly, Hillberry 2: The Harvest Moon Festival.

“People get so excited about going to these music festivals,” Walker said. “That’s what keeps me motivated, there’s such strong support and strong ticket sales as well. I love all the energy. I feel obligated to pull this off and make it a cool event and this gives everybody an alternative (to Phases of the Moon).”