These past two weeks saw two music festivals in Wallingford’s Meridian Park, the Wallingford Music Festival and The Goddess Festival. We thought it might be a good moment to ask the community for feedback on these, since both planners have talked about reprising the events next year.
The two events had different goals, with the WMF seeking a lower-key, homier feeling next to the Goddess Festival’s large, three-stage approach, but both drew relatively small crowds. Josh Sarro, the organizer of the WMF gave his review of the event:
I came into this with very little experience and only the vague idea that I wanted to see a music festival happen in Wallingford. I was very lucky to find a great group of friends who were willing and able to contribute to making it happen. I was worried right up to the day of the festival. Even a small event like this has a ton of moving parts. But when the time came everyone jumped into action. Volunteers started showing up around 6am and very quickly got the stage up. Sound came together soon after that. We had one volunteer sound man, Chad, and Jason Green of Everyday Jones who did an amazing job at very low rate. The only snag we hit was getting an awning up over the stage which put us behind a bit. But we quickly got back on schedule. The day was beautiful. All of the bands put on top notch performances. There were at least 20-30 people in the audience throughout the festival and as many as 50-60 at the peaks. We were happy to see so many families come down. We didn’t do any organized counting, but the folks I’ve talked to estimate approximately 100-150 people coming through over the course of the day. We had one noise complaint during the festival and I’ve heard of a couple others afterward. I hope that anyone who was overwhelmed by the sound will accept our apology and trust that we’ll be working hard to decrease our impact next year. Everyone I talked to at the festival had a great time and it was a beautiful experience for me personally. There are many people looking forward to doing this again next year, so we definitely want to keep the park’s neighbors on our side. We’re very thankful to all the volunteers, bands and the local community that made this happen. And of course to our sponsors, Fin Records, Video and Fitness Services by Ernie Sarro, Musikgarten and Not A Number.
While the WMF may have been happy with 150 or so people, the Goddess Festival sought more: its web site said they were expecting 5,000, and the three simultaneous stages of music plus a dozen or more vendors were certainly set up for the larger numbers. But when we were there early in the day, there didn’t appear to be more than a couple dozen attendees beyond those affiliated with the event, and similar levels were reported by others who attended later in the day: Chris wrote that at around 6 pm there were “only about 14 people in the audience”.
Neighbors had a variety of complaints about the sound, as well: BMacke left a comment on the blog “I’m right across the street on 50th, and the music and noise is WAY too loud” and Adam said “The competing sounds were intolerable for me and I had to leave right away, Hopefully the organizers can change this for next year!” Chris had a more topical complaint: “I must’ve expected something different; all 3 stages featured all-male hard rock bands when I arrived at 6pm. Not much Goddess energy.”
On the bright side, we heard that the Goddess Festival raised over $1,000 to be split between 13 Wallingford-based charities (the budget for the event was just over $20,000, which was raised prior to the event through donations).
So, neighborhood, what do you think? More music festivals? Different music festivals? Quieter music festivals? It’s your neighborhood, let us know.
(At press time, we hadn’t heard back from Tara Shuttleworth, the organizer for The Goddess Festival)
went to both with little kids in tow, had a great time thanks to the organizers. WMF was nicely sized for first time event, Goddess was way too ambitious in scale, 1 stage with a more solid lineup will be a better approach next year 🙂 Neighbors complaining about noise are worth ignoring
The maximum occupancy of the park is 100 people, so I find it hard to believe the city would allow a permit for an event hoping to attract 5000 people. I’d love to see a copy of their permit.
I skipped the first one, but spent the whole day with my doodle at the Goddess Festival…thought it was the most perfect event I’d ever attended in Wallingford. Was surprised at the low turnout! Loved it, hope it happens again!
I swung by the Goddess Festival in the mid afternoon. I give them an “A” for effort. An outdoor beer garden would’ve added at least me and a few friends to the attendance numbers. I’m sure that’s difficult in this somewhat puritanical town, but maybe next year…
Not complaints, just observations – I was unfortunately attempting to read in the park on the day of the WMF. It wasn’t very conducive to my attitude & the bands were… not my thing. There are enough other parks within walking distance that it wasn’t a big deal to leave.
I didn’t enter the park at all the day of the GF, but I could clearly hear the music (had a strong Lilith Fair vibe) from one of the stages as I walked along Burke mid-afternoon. It didn’t bother me, but I could see as how some homeowners might be frustrated to deal with level of noise all day.
For those who don’t mind the noise, I think they could enjoy it just as much in an appropriate venue such as Gas Works, Marymoor, or Magnuson Parks, some place where it doesn’t negatively impact the surrounding neighbors.
It would be encouraging to see all concerned parties work together in a respectful way to arrive at a solution that might satisfy nearly everyone.
I believe zoning laws prohibit events of this sort in small parks in residential neighborhoods. Is there any way you could post a copy of the permit?
I went to both festivals. I was at the first one for about an hour, and had a nice, mellow time on the lawn, but I didn’t *love* any of the bands. I went to the Goddess Festival at 8 pm, with my 11-year-old. We caught the very last band and really enjoyed the performance. I love having events like this in the neighborhood and hope both events return.
It always takes time to build up an audience, even though the GF had a lot of publicity. It was woo woo in an ok way for me in the afternoon, though I heard it was noisy at night. The Senior Center was not allowed to hold the beer garden outside; not sure what would have to change to allow that.
I brought my large garbage bags and a tool and picked up lots of garbage the next morning.
Goddess Festival: We stopped in twice on various neighborhood errands and there was hardly anyone there. I saw the posters around the ‘hood and read about it in the local blogs and was there twice during the event and STILL dont know what the point was supposed to be. That could be a bit of the problem right there. And, I hate to be so negative, but the vibe at the event was not at all good. My elementary-age kids usually love stuff like this (folklife, bumbershoot) but after 10 minutes my daughters said “uh, dad, can we go now?” Might have been the four teenage boys in that scary-clown face paint, or the surprisingly large number of people smoking cigarettes (hmmm…maybe that was me that was freaked out by that). Anyway, we left strait-away, all of us relieved to be out of there.
I don’t mean to sound too negative by complaining about the noise…I just don’t think this quiet neighborhood park is the right venue for an event like this.
I live directly across the street from the Good Shepherd Center. We hear all the music that occurs in the park and in the Chapel Space (because the windows are open). It is not too loud, it is not objectionable. We also hear the airplanes in the landing paths of Lake Union and Seatac and the Blue Angels and LOVE IT! People who are so grumpy about noise should wear ear plugs. Regarding the Goddess Festival: I think it was sort of weird and not a Wallingford type of event at all. Several people commented negatively about the dress code described as “Tribal Warrior”. Someone said that alcohol is not allowed in the park, hence the Beer Garden indoors. But that can’t be right because I’ve been to many events in Seattle Parks where they have Beer Gardens.
My friend and i went to the Goddess festival about 2 pm. The first thing we were hit with was a blast of noise from the band on the south end of the open area of the park. Hard metallic, grating noise from a band with a one member audience. Walking to the booths, we walked in silence since we could not hear each other without shouting. Once we got into the booth area, the noise from the band was muffled somewhat so we had to talk louder than we would have liked, but at least not yell at each other and the vendors. Isn’t a Goddess Festival a celebration of some of the attributes of the female sale of a person? Talk, interaction, communication? The noise from the band precludes that. Why would a band have to be so loud? What purpose does it serve to blast? Music should be heard in the area of the audience, not for the neighbors to hear, not for people who want to talk, interact to be drowned out. Otherwise the vendors were interesting, products different from other celebrations I have been to. Next year get bands/music that a Goddess audience would be interested in listening to: quieter, softer, more intimate music; have more booths if possible, more food and activities, and we would have stayed longer.
$20,000 was raised to put together the Goddess event and only $1000 was raised AT the event for 13 charities? Why does it seem that it would have been much more beneficial to those charities had all that fundraising been done directly for them?