Not Really Local – but this Dogs in a pile …

[partyboygeezy]

To be honest – Syracuse, NY is not really local to Philly unless you count rich preppie school kids doing the Cuse U thing in droves, but it’s festival season- so … anything within 4.5 hours I’m counting as local.

Feel free to give me a follow on instagram @partyboygeezy for my four minute run down of the Burning Day Light Festival thrown by Dogs in a Pile. Info, line ups and tickets are available at http://www.burningdaylightfestival.com

The line up is incredible – Fri (tom) night – full set of Tapers Choice, then TWO sets of Dogs in a Pile (ending around 12:30). Then a late late night with Annie in the Water / Brian Murray.

The festivities are at the Wescott Theater. The crazy thing about this fest is it was originally scheduled about 45 minutes away at “Wonderland Forrest.” For the non-jam heads out there – wonderland Forrest is a boutique festie grounds. They’ve had some epic events there which would make me think that either (1) their booking agent is a legend or (2) they are fast and loose and don’t charge too much money to rent it out and don’t give 2 shits about what happens on the grounds. Interestingly however the parking situation (at least on their Google maps review) is a mess. You have to schlep and incredibly far distance. Which means the operation cares enough about the grounds not to destroy it, but not enough about their guests to make it convenient. Despite some moderate negativity on the comment board – they’ve hosted – in the past yr and a half – A 4th of July Disco Biscuits fest (“Bisco Land”); the “last” (until or if / when the hiatus ends) Tumbledown (Twiddle); a String Cheese camp fest (feat. Dogs); and what was supposed to be – this weekend – the first Dogs in a Pile Festival. Now to be fair – Dogs is calling this is their first fest only bc there are other bands – and I’m not talking local bands I’m talking some major national touring acts with a following. The Dogs Boys have done their own camp outs before – including the past couple of years at the Great Divide close to the Delaware Water Gap. The Great Divide is an incredible camp site run by Uncle Carmine. However Uncle Carmine is not going to let a bunch of wooks destroy his family friendly campsite. He runs a tight ship. He’s worked hard and this is his life’s passion – so I could see why Burning Daylight wasn’t necessarily ideal for the Great Divide and also why the Dogs have somewhat outgrown the Great Divide. For whatever reason – the inaugural Dogs’ fest was slated for Wonderland. For reasons unclear (potentially financial by the venue ahem – tax problems – lack of proper permitting, lack of proper electrical infrastructure, lack of legal occupancy, whatever) Wonderland has cancelled all music for the summer. I can only speculate about why Wonderland pulled the plug. I don’t get the sense the Dogs had any input on the decision. But you read some of the comments about Wonderland on their Google reviews and it seems like they were going a little fast and loose. Which then begs the question – why is it so hard to operate a festival camp grounds? One would think that portos and water and a field with electrical should not be that hard – like just make nice with the local fire dept and police. Give a nice donation. I’ll tell you what though – insurance companies probably don’t want to touch a festie ground with a (insert phallus metaphor here).

This cancelation definitely had Curveball vibes. But kudos to the Dogs management – like serious fucking kudos for finding a replacement close by in the form of the Westcott theater in downtown Cuse. If anything the Wescott is a better venue bc Syracuse is a late night party town (I know from my fellow dirt bag prep school kids), there aren’t the same type of noise ordinances to deal with, and it’s gonna rain all weekend and be cold as a penguin’s toe nail. Sure it sucks to have to find lodging – but it’s not like Wonderland wasn’t charging to camp. Plus Cuse students are now back in the Philly NYC and DC burbs, so hotels shouldn’t be that bad.

The rest of the line up is below – copies and and pasted from the “buy tickets” page on the fest’s website. It may not be the same as outside but it’s not like you were gonna see stars out. It would have been highs in the 50s lows in the 40s. Late night DJ brownie sets in an art deco theater, a jazzed up crowd relieved that the party rolls on, in a town like the Cuse with some good restaurants (Dinosaur Bar B Que), sounds pretty f’ing bad ass to me.

Rest of the Line up (after Tapers and Dogs on Friday night starting at 8):

Saturday, May 24th

DOORS 4:00pm

5:00pm – 6:00pm Kendall Street Company

6:30pm – 7:45pm Pink Talking Fish

8:15pm – 9:30pm Dogs In A Pile

9:45pm 11:00pm Dogs In A Pile

11:30pm DJ Brownie & Friends

 

Sunday, May 25th

DOORS: 2:00pm

3:30pm – 4:15pm Secret Set

4:30pm – 5:15pm Sneezy

5:45pm – 6:45pm Mikaela Davis

7:15pm – 8:30 pm Dogs In A Pile

8:45pm – 10:00pm Dogs In a Pile

10:30pm Natalie Brooke

 

• This topic was modified 1 month, 3 weeks ago by partyboygeezy.

Which then begs the question – why is it so hard to operate a festival camp grounds? One would think that portos and water and a field with electrical should not be that hard – like just make nice with the local fire dept and police. Give a nice donation. I’ll tell you what though – insurance companies probably don’t want to touch a festie ground with a (insert phallus metaphor here).

This Wonderland Forest stuff is juicy, thanks for sharing. I hadn’t heard about the place but it sucks to have to pull the plug on all these shows, especially the Dogs fest. They are sick, I saw them at Peach a couple summers ago, pretty sure you were standing next to me.

The same thing happened with this place called the Woodlands in Charleston, and it was a permitting issue with the city. Too many people nearby were complaining about the traffic on the road leading there when they had big events. I think the noise was also a factor.

Unrelated, but i have this dream to one day own a festival ground in the middle of nowhere and host my own camping fest.

Chubes — the only conclusion i can reach is if you own a grounds somewhere in the middle of nowhere that has cool neighbors, you’ve worked out permitting and insurance and greased the proper palms – you’ll make a killing – given what I can only assume is sketchy operations of other competing grounds and the clear need for reliable venues for these exceptional artists

@partyboygeezy We’ll see if I can make it happen. I’m just gonna keep on building this place up as much as I can.

Did you make it to Syracuse for this?