Get ready to Wak

By By DeJuan Atway

Wednesday, June 7, 2006

Dave McCaffrey jams on his bass guitar while Erica Fletcher hangs out at Clinton Lake State Park, site of the Wakarusa Music and Camping Festival, Wednesday afternoon. The two, who are both from Calgary, Alberta, Canada, were waiting for the camping spaces to open up after their 26-hour drive from Canada. "This is the first time we've been to Kansas," McCaffrey said. "And this is a nice little place you've got here."

Live on stage number one, put your hands together for the Flaming Lips, and on stage number two, give it up for the Dirty Dozen Brass Band. On stage number three, hailing from Macon, Ga., lets hear it for Gov’t Mule. Finally, rocking and rolling on stage number four, put your hands together for Robert Randolph & the Family Band.

This is just a small sample of what will be taking place this weekend just outside of Lawrence as thousands of visitors and musicians involved with the Wakarusa music and camping festival will over-run Clinton Lake State Park.

The third annual festival is a four-day music festival that will start on Thursday and continue through Sunday. The event will have more than 150 bands performing on seven stages and is expecting more than 15,000 people to soak up the sun, music and atmosphere.

The festival has sold tickets to someone in every state in the country and to people in five countries, Brett Mosiman, co-director of the festival, said.

Eighteen of the bands performing won battle of the bands competitions held throughout the Midwest and earned a spot in the festival. One of those bands was Springfield, Mo., reggae band Jah Roots. They will perform at the festival and lead vocalist Ras Josh said the band has eagerly awaited the festival for some time.

Josh said the band had never performed in an event as large as the festival, but that they were looking forward to the entire experience associated with it.

The festival has scheduled several outdoor activities. Visitors can play golf, take a hike, hang out on the beach, wind surf or take up mountain biking. Yoga classes will even be offered in the mornings.

The campground has a 24-hour general store provided by Hy-Vee and more than 40 vendors on location.

“The campground has everything you need for food and comfort, you don’t have to leave the campsite for anything,” Mosiman said.

Mosiman said the organizers of the Wakarusa music festival want the festival to be accessible to a wide array of people.

“This is a grassroots music festival put on for music fans by music fans,” Mosiman said. “That’s why it’s less than a dollar a concert. You might pay $9 for a beer at Sandstone, but you’ll pay less than half for that out here.”

Four-day passes and single-day passes are still available online at www.wakarusa.com, the Bottleneck, 737 New Hampshire and at CD Tradepost at 2540 S. Iowa and 4000 W. Sixth St. The four day passes are $139 and single day passes are $49 for Friday and Sunday and $59 for Saturday. Single day passes aren’t offered for Thursday.

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