Culture
Hocking Hills Music Festival Offers New, Intimate Experience For Live Music Fans
By: Emily Votaw
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Both the Nelsonville Music Festival and the Duck Creek Log Jam had to cancel their 2020 and 2021 events due to COVID-19, but thanks to a collaboration between the festivals’ organizers, fans can look forward to a brand new event organizers hope will combine the best facets of both festivals: the Hocking Hills Music Festival.
“Stuart’s Opera House always believes that we’re stronger when we work together with other organizations, and I think I can say that Kyle Wilson and his wife Mackenzie, who organize the Duck Creek Log Jam, feel the same,” said Tim Peacock, Artistic Director of Stuart’s Opera House and the Nelsonville Music Festival. “Over the last six or so months of working in collaboration, it’s been nothing but great. I think the whole process sparks new ideas for both of us – we can bounce ideas off each other, which isn’t an opportunity either of us gets very often.”
Scheduled for Friday, October 8 through Saturday, October 9 on a sprawling, 75-acre venue in Rockbridge, OH just off of Route 33, it’s already looking like the limited capacity festival will sell out. In less than 24 hours after tickets for the festival went on sale June 19 at 10 a.m. all RV passes were sold out, and by 10 a.m. June 20, 47 percent of all two-day passes were sold.
“We are intentionally keeping the festival on the smaller side, and that is something that was definitely influenced by the pandemic, especially when Kyle and I started talking – but also, as music lovers, small events are just the kinds of events we like,” said Peacock. “We’re not trying to create the next giant music festival. We believe the Nelsonville Music Festival audience and the Duck Creek Log Jam audience both enjoy smaller settings. We’ve just been trying to create the kind of music festival that we, as organizers, would want to go to.”
The lineup for the festival is still forthcoming, and Peacock said that announcements about performers can be expected throughout the summer. The only confirmed act as of the publication of this feature is Saturday headliner Lukas Nelson and the Promise of the Real – and yes, Lukas Nelson is the son of Willie Nelson, one of the 2009 Nelsonville Music Festival headliners.