Way back in 1993, a friend convinced Barnett English to bring his mobile café, Java Gogo, up to High Sierra Music Festival.
July 26-29 | Cisco Grove
“I had the time of life,” says the Guitarfish Music Festival organizer. “I met 500 new friends and saw so much great music I left feeling re-grounded and energized.”
Since then he’s set up shop at more than 750 music festivals throughout the country. For English, festivals became a lifestyle and, eventually, a full-time job.
In the fall of 2002, he went to sell coffee at a small didgeridoo gathering in Joshua Tree and immediately fell in love with the area. After suggesting to the campground owners there that they organize a real music festival at their site, they replied, “If you think it’s such a great idea, then why don’t you do it yourself?”
“So I moved to the desert and in April 2003 the inaugural Joshua Tree Music Festival took place,” he says. “Since then, we’ve produced 28 festivals there, holding them twice a year in the spring and fall.”
Fast forward to 2011, when Tahoe-based concert promoters Brent Dana and Fred Mahler came up with an idea for a new community-based festival in Cisco Grove.
”I’ve known Brent for years from High Sierra,” says English. “So we’d always been crossing paths and he was like, ‘We could really use some help.’ So we kept the conversation going and realized we really could help out since we’ve already got a team in place from Joshua Tree.”
Last year was the first time Dana and English organized Guitarfish together. About 100 people from Joshua Tree people drove north to escape the 110 degree F weather, hang out, help out, do yoga and listen to music along the banks of the South Fork of the Yuba River.
“It’s just like a summer camp,” says English.
Joshua Tree and Guitarfish are both intimate music festivals that offer a relaxed, kid-friendly atmosphere.
“Our festival families have grown organically by folks bringing more friends with them each year,” says English. “The result of this slow, natural growth is that the community-centric, loving, togetherness feeling is real.”
Guitarfish is held at the beautiful Cisco Grove Campground tucked in a shady grove of 350 wooded acres at more than 1 mile high with world-class mountain biking and hiking trails all around.
“It’s truly idyllic,” says English. “Combine that with potent live music and you’ve got a festival that is truly unique.”
It’s the perfect place for music lovers to unplug from their hectic daily routines and reconnect with themselves and a pop-up community of around 2,000 humans.
“We are wired for connection, but it has to be real,” says English. “The joyous relationships made when you are a part of something bigger combined with the power of music in an outdoor setting make for a shared experience that feeds the soul.”
English refers to this feeling as “collective effervescence.”
“People leave the festival replenished, rather than depleted,” he says. “You can have more meaningful conversations with friends and friendly strangers in one weekend than you may have in months when you’re busy with work, family and life.”
Artfully curated festivals such as Joshua Tree and Guitarfish are known for the diverse blend of musical genres and artists both local and remote, who not only perform but also become friends with the audience.
“I liken festival organizing to making a live mix tape with Portalets and food,” says English. “You want to take people on a journey and we put a lot of thought into that. I could go see you play at a nightclub and it would be a great experience and I would probably chat with you. But at a festival, I’ll have breakfast with you. You walk away with an experience that would take you a year to gather in your normal routine. You can really ride those positive feelings and interactions out for months and months.”
In the end, it’s the closeness, companionship and energy of the people that make small festivals like this one so special.
“The best part of my job is when I walk around and see the sheer joy that every single person is getting from what we’ve created,” says the organizer. “You can’t really put a dollar figure on that. It means being a part of something that’s way bigger than all of us. I consider myself lucky.” | guitarfishfestival.com
