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NedFest moving on up - NedFest |
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Written by Glenn BurnSilver
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Wednesday, 23 August 2006 |
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Page 1 of 3
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Lisa Houlgrave w/ David Herrenbruck
Dr. John, the legendary New Orleans musician, is the Sunday headliner at NedFest in Nederland.
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Nedfest, aka the Nederland Music and Arts Festival, has come a long way since the early days when the festival represented little more than a good reason to party for the local population.
But as the festival’s reputation spread, bigger national acts began to fill the bill.
Now in its eighth year, festival founder Michigan Mike Torpie has decided to push his festival to the max, extending the hours, adding a third day of music and events, organizing camping and securing a big name act to close out each day.
“Dr. John’s freakin’ awesome,” Torpie said with unbridled enthusiasm of his Sunday headliner. “Once I had three nights and camping secured, I decided to beef this thing up and get a really big name for a change. I (had) to take it a step further.”
Dr. John is just one to the many top-tier artists making the journey to the hills this summer. Also topping the bill are the Sam Bush Band (Saturday) and Melvin Seals with the Jerry Garcia Band (Friday). In all, more than 40 national and local acts representing everything from Afrobeat to acid jazz, acoustic folk to avant rock, jambands to kiddie bands (Blisk is a local power-trio with a combined age of 33) will grace the Nedfest stages.
That’s a far cry from Torpie’s earliest days as a promoter, hosting backyard beer parties at his home with anybody he could find to perform.
“Basically, it was backyard parties up Caribou Road with bands and kegs,” he recalls with a laugh. “Nedfest kind of grew from those backyard parties to a bigger event. I decided to take it to a more professional level.”
 Yet, the early days of Nedfest weren’t so different, only the location was. Instead of Torpie’s home, the venue was a town park. In essence, Nedfest debuted as a big town party with a focus on local talent.
“Essentially that’s how it started for a large part, bringing in local bands from the mountain towns around Boulder,” he said of the 1996 inaugural event. “There is a pretty good scene around here. It’s always been important. There is so much great talent around here that you can do that. The energy was really creative and it felt like we were doing something new.”
Now bands come from around the country to perform at Nedfest.
Torpie hopes the risk of expanding the festival will reap just rewards.
“It is a labor of love for sure, and I have (lost money in the past), but you kind of cross your fingers and hope it works,” he said. “Three days is a pretty big deal.”
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