Wakarusa Music & Camping Festival Starts Thursday in Franklin County
By: KARK 4 News
Updated: May 29, 2012
The Wakarusa Music & Camping Festival starts Thursday at Mulberry Mountain* near Ozark (Franklin County).
This is the fourth year for the four-day festival that wraps up on Sunday.
Wakarusa promises a stellar show of top-notch acts amid the backdrop of the Ozark Mountains.
"We have about 150 artists playing almost 200 sets of music on five stages over four days," Brett Mosiman, event organizer, explained. "We throw pre and post parties in Fayetteville at George's on Wednesdays and Mondays." The artists are primarily national and international artists with about 20 or so regional acts.
The 2012 lineup includes: Pretty Lights, The Avett Brothers, Primus, Umphrey's McGee, Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros, Slightly Stoopid, Girl Talk, Fitz & the Tantrums, Matisyahu, G. Love & Special Sauce, Ghostland Observatory, Big Gigantic, Balkan Beat Box, Beats Antique, The Del McCoury Band, Railroad Earth, Nobody Beats the Drum, EOTO, Quixotic, Tea Leaf Green, Perpetual Groove, Green Velvet, The Big Wu, The Devil Makes Three, Split Lip Rayfield, Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, 12th Planet, LA Riots, VibeSquaD, Gramatik, Futurebirds, New Monsoon, Gaelic Storm, Hot Buttered Rum, Mountain Sprout, The Infamous Stringdusters, Hearts of Darkness, Love and Light, and others.
Click here for the complete band schedule.
"We have five stages and we try to counter program quite a bit," Mosiman explained. "If you get tired of reggae you can go listen to some electronic dance music." The musical genres at Wakarusa run the gamut - alternative country, techno, bluegrass, singer/songwriter, rock, dubstep... In fact, Mosiman explains it by saying what the festival doesn't have. "About all we don't have is heavy rap and metal."
Wakarusa also offers other recreational activities like Frisbee golf, floating the Mulberry River, and fishing. On-site you'll also find morning activities such as yoga, a Ferris wheel and new this year, an extremely large water slide.
Wakarusa Music and Camping Festival moved from Kansas to the rolling hills of northwest Arkansas in 2009. Attendance that first year was about 10,000. "The second year we just about doubled that," said Brett Mosiman, event organizer. "Since then we've been slowly creeping up. This year I think attendance will be about 22,000 people, about like last year."
Mosiman said Wakarusa attracts a very wide cross section of people, although the majority of them are younger and college kids. He added that the annual Yonder Mountain String Band's Harvest Music Festival, held at Mulberry Mountain in the fall, is attended more by young families and older folks. This year the festival will be October 11-13.
"I think the main thing is they are all there to have a great time, to get away from technology, to unwind, to listen to great music," Mosiman said. "I always say it should be on everybody's bucket list. In today's times of technology, get unplugged and dance in the moonlight."
Click here for more information on Wakarusa.
*Mulberry Mountain is located on the Pig Trail Scenic Byway, which is Ark. 23 from the south boundary of the Ozark National Forest to its intersection with Ark. 16 at Brashears. The rugged and forested Boston Mountains region of the Ozark Mountains provides the setting for this route, portions of which run through a tunnel of foliage during spring, summer and fall. The byway crosses the Mulberry River and the 165-mile Ozark Highlands Trail.
This is the fourth year for the four-day festival that wraps up on Sunday.
Wakarusa promises a stellar show of top-notch acts amid the backdrop of the Ozark Mountains.
"We have about 150 artists playing almost 200 sets of music on five stages over four days," Brett Mosiman, event organizer, explained. "We throw pre and post parties in Fayetteville at George's on Wednesdays and Mondays." The artists are primarily national and international artists with about 20 or so regional acts.
The 2012 lineup includes: Pretty Lights, The Avett Brothers, Primus, Umphrey's McGee, Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros, Slightly Stoopid, Girl Talk, Fitz & the Tantrums, Matisyahu, G. Love & Special Sauce, Ghostland Observatory, Big Gigantic, Balkan Beat Box, Beats Antique, The Del McCoury Band, Railroad Earth, Nobody Beats the Drum, EOTO, Quixotic, Tea Leaf Green, Perpetual Groove, Green Velvet, The Big Wu, The Devil Makes Three, Split Lip Rayfield, Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, 12th Planet, LA Riots, VibeSquaD, Gramatik, Futurebirds, New Monsoon, Gaelic Storm, Hot Buttered Rum, Mountain Sprout, The Infamous Stringdusters, Hearts of Darkness, Love and Light, and others.
Click here for the complete band schedule.
"We have five stages and we try to counter program quite a bit," Mosiman explained. "If you get tired of reggae you can go listen to some electronic dance music." The musical genres at Wakarusa run the gamut - alternative country, techno, bluegrass, singer/songwriter, rock, dubstep... In fact, Mosiman explains it by saying what the festival doesn't have. "About all we don't have is heavy rap and metal."
Wakarusa also offers other recreational activities like Frisbee golf, floating the Mulberry River, and fishing. On-site you'll also find morning activities such as yoga, a Ferris wheel and new this year, an extremely large water slide.
Wakarusa Music and Camping Festival moved from Kansas to the rolling hills of northwest Arkansas in 2009. Attendance that first year was about 10,000. "The second year we just about doubled that," said Brett Mosiman, event organizer. "Since then we've been slowly creeping up. This year I think attendance will be about 22,000 people, about like last year."
Mosiman said Wakarusa attracts a very wide cross section of people, although the majority of them are younger and college kids. He added that the annual Yonder Mountain String Band's Harvest Music Festival, held at Mulberry Mountain in the fall, is attended more by young families and older folks. This year the festival will be October 11-13.
"I think the main thing is they are all there to have a great time, to get away from technology, to unwind, to listen to great music," Mosiman said. "I always say it should be on everybody's bucket list. In today's times of technology, get unplugged and dance in the moonlight."
Click here for more information on Wakarusa.
*Mulberry Mountain is located on the Pig Trail Scenic Byway, which is Ark. 23 from the south boundary of the Ozark National Forest to its intersection with Ark. 16 at Brashears. The rugged and forested Boston Mountains region of the Ozark Mountains provides the setting for this route, portions of which run through a tunnel of foliage during spring, summer and fall. The byway crosses the Mulberry River and the 165-mile Ozark Highlands Trail.
