Reggae: Past, Present and Future

Reggae: The Last Year at French's Camp?

by BOB DORAN (April 14, 2005)

[aerial view of Reggae on the River]Reggae on the River may no longer have a home at French's Camp after this year due to a breakdown in contract negotiations between event organizers and the family that owns the land.

For more than 20 years, Humboldt County's largest music festival has drawn thousands of fans from around the world to a particular bend in the Eel River just south of Richardson's Grove State Park. Event organizers confirm that this year's 22nd annual festival could be the last to be held at French's Camp.

While the potential location change will not impact this year's Reggae on the River, scheduled for Aug. 5-7, French's Camp owner Pat Arthur said, "It has a future this year only. The lease will be up Sept. 1."

The plan after that? "Well, I plan to be quieter," said Arthur, who turned 77 last year. "I know there are going to be a lot of disappointments," she added, "but I've been disappointed too, my family has been. We can take just so much."

According to Pat's son, Mark Arthur, "My mom is getting older and she doesn't want to deal with the hassles. She's tired of her friends asking, `Why are you doing this to us?' She's tired of her neighbors complaining about the garbage in their yards and complaining that security has kind of fallen apart the last couple of years."

Taunya Stapp, who recently took over as executive director of the Mateel Community Center, which coproduces the festival, conceded that, "There are logistic problems at French's Camp. For one, it impacts the town of Piercy. [Traffic] gets backed up and people can't get to work. It's only three days a year -- and there's a tremendous amount of economic good created by the event -- but we still are aware of the problems."

After the Mateel's seven-year contract for the use of French's Camp ran out at the end of 2004, the Arthurs proposed a revised three-year contract. "I guess the Mateel and People Productions didn't want to sign that," said Mark Arthur. "My mom was asking for a little bit more money; I think $3,000 more [per year, but] the money really isn't the issue."

Neither side would discuss contract specifics.

Mark Arthur denied rumors that he has been negotiating with other promoters interested in using the property for concerts. While the terms of the old lease allowed for just one concert a year, he noted that, "That was one of the things I wanted to change in the new contract. We as a family want to develop the west side of the river and that wasn't permitted. Personally I would like to see more events [at French's Camp]. Maybe not just one big event; there could be four weekends, maybe a little hip-hop one weekend, a little old school another, who knows what else."

Both Stapp and Carol Bruno, head of the concert promotion group, People Productions, seemed unfazed by the prospect of moving the mammoth festival to a new location. Is Reggae on the River a site-specific event? "Absolutely not," said Stapp. "The event itself is mythic. You carry that myth wherever you go. If we have to move it, I see it as an opportunity."

Where else could you put 15,000 dancing campers for a long weekend in August? "Basically I have 20 options I am developing at this point and 50 percent of them are overwhelmingly exciting. This is an opportunity. We're prepared for this," said Stapp.

Future plans for the festival were on the agenda for a Mateel Community Center directors meeting scheduled Tuesday night after the Journal went to press.

Said Stapp, "We have the potential, depending on what the board decides, to make this event something that doesn't impact the people around it, to find a way to mitigate the problems from the get-go and choose [a new] location with that in mind."

While further negotiations with the Mateel are at an impasse, Pat Arthur did not completely rule out allowing Reggae to return to French's Camp. "At this point I'm not certain," she said. "If it goes well this year there's always that possibility If they behave themselves, it may happen [again]."

Reemphasizing the fact that she is not considering leasing the land to other music promoters, Arthur launched a final dig at Reggae organizers. "If I were to do anything, I would sell it -- and not to the Mateel and not to People Productions, not at all," she said.


Reggae Moves Upriver by BOB DORAN (August 4, 2005)

This weekend as thousands of music fans descend on Piercy for the 22nd annual Reggae on the River, the festival's organizers, the Mateel Community Center and People Productions, are eager to assure them that Reggae on the River will be back next year -- new and improved -- at a slightly different location on the same river.

"A lot of people think this is the last Reggae on the River. It definitely is not," said Carol Bruno of People Productions in a call from her Redway office. The doubts arose earlier this year after there was a breakdown in negotiations with Pat Arthur, owner of French's Camp, the site of Reggae since Bruno and friends put on the first concert in 1984. (See "Reggae: The last year at French's Camp?" April 14)

[Aerial photo by Kim Sallaway, courtesy of People Productions]

When Arthur balked at an extended contract for use of the property, only agreeing to a one-year lease, festival organizers began a search for a new site. It turned out they didn't have to look too far. Last week People Productions announced that they have signed a 10-year agreement for use of the Dimmick Ranch, upriver from French's Camp, as Reggae's future home.

"It's a beautiful site," said Bruno. "You go to the South Beach swimming hole and look across the river, that's where it is. It fronts on the river all the way around. It felt like the best choice. It's right next door; it's in an area we know."

The changes in the concert's future came amid changes at People Productions. Bruno's former partner Paul "P.B." Bassis left the company last year to form Infinite Entertainment. "Infinite as in anything's possible," explained Bassis, who represented Tom Dimmick in lease negotiations.

"The beauty of it is, this is the same place, right around the bend in the river from where Reggae has always been," said Bassis, touting the benefits of the move. "It's pretty isolated with mountains on one side, the highway on the other. There are almost no residences anywhere near it. It's really an ideal location."

Bassis also noted that site access will be easier, since the ranch is on the west side of the river. The French's Camp location requires annual installation of a bridge across the Eel River, a process that was delayed this year due to late spring rains.

The first move in the long-term plan is already in place. This year Reggae added new wooded camping sites and parking in an area known as Cook's Valley on property owned by Keith Bowman next to the Dimmick Ranch. The additional space, with room for 2,500 campers and 1,000 autos, will bring in new revenue (fees for Cook's Valley are $100 per car, $300 per RV). It also allowed concert organizers to sell more tickets this year.

While attendance is between 11,000 and 12,000, only 9,000 tickets were sold this year, up from 8,500 last year. (The volunteer nature of event operations accounts for the number of comp admissions.)

"Parking is the limiting factor," said Bassis, noting that negotiations for future use of French's Camp for parking and camping are near conclusion. "It's everyone's hope that we can continue to work with the Arthur family to be able to incorporate their property and blend these properties together," he added.

If all goes as planned, the result will be a concert complex with three times as much room as French's Camp and the potential for greater attendance. And, Bassis confirmed, the new lease does not rule out additional concerts on the new site, although at this point, "there are no definite plans," for other concerts or specifics on how next year's Reggae will utilize the new site.

Bruno was just as indefinite about plans for the future. "We haven't worked out all the details yet. First we have to finish producing this year's festival, then we'll start working on the next one."