I Remember Wakarusa

 

Hi, today we’re gonna talk about something that my dad and I remember going to in 2006.

The Wakarusa Festival!

It was a four-day music festival held annually in early June 2004 to 2015. Named for the Wakarusa River, the festival was first held here at Clinton State Park in Lawrence, Kansas. Then it was moved to its new location just outside Fort Smith and Fayetteville, Arkansas. The festival is known for an eclectic mix of music and has featured artists like Grammy award winners The Black Keys, The Flaming Lips, Wilco, and Bela Fleck and the Flecktones. They had really cool activities besides music including disc golf, yoga, hiking, and swimming. Others have food vendors for getting some snacks, sodas, sno-cones, pizza, etc. The festival grew dramatically from only 5,000 attendees at the initial 2004 Wakarusa to a record 20,000 in 2011. After moving from Clinton Lake State Park in Lawrence, KS to Mulberry Mountain in Ozark, AR, the festival has continued to make a name for itself and grows larger with each coming festival season.

The Wakarusa Festival had everything including many other bands and musicians who performed on stage. One time, I saw Buckethead perform on stage. He was incredibly experimental with his electric guitar when it comes to live music.

He was really awesome, and I gotta tell you right now. In case you didn’t know just yet, he’s an American guitarist, a songwriter, and a multi-instrumentalist. He was once a member of Guns ‘N Roses from 2000 to 2004 until he came out as a solo artist.

He has released over 700 albums and has performed on over 50 albums by other artists. Buckethead has written and performed music for major motion pictures, including Saw II, Ghosts from Mars, Beverly Hills Ninja, Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, Last Action Hero, Falling, and contributed lead guitar to the track "Firebird" featured on the soundtrack of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie.

Buckethead performs wearing a KFC bucket on his head, sometimes emblazoned with an orange bumper sticker reading FUNERAL in block letters. This is accompanied by an expressionless plain white mask inspired by the 1988 slasher film Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers. He also does nunchaku and robot dancing during his stage performances too.

And he was credited by Guitar World as "ushering in a new era of virtuosity" while ranking the release of his 1992 debut album Bucketheadland the 45th greatest moment in electric guitar history. Did you also know that the magazine has also listed him among the "25 all-time weirdest guitarists" and the "50 fastest guitarists of all time"? Now you know! In other words, I think that Buckethead is really cool for a musician because he’s like really experimental with his music.

On that year when Stephanie and I were going to the Wakarusa festival, we looked around and hung out there to spend some time together and see some music on stage. It was fun, especially when I got my custom made mix CD from KJHK. It was really nice of them to let me create a CD from them. I just hope that I can do that again someday. I know I will…soon. Thanks Stephanie!

Now here’s a little something that my dad and I remember seeing in concert ever since I first got the album ‘At War With The Mystics’.

The Flaming Lips!

(Duh!)

It was the first time that I saw The Flaming Lips in concert. My dad and I got together and we got to see them in concert for the very first time. I’ll never forget that time the lead singer was crowd surfing inside the giant bubble. Cool, huh! That was when I first bought myself a Son Volt album that I can listen to. That album was ‘The Search’.

That album was really awesome from back in the day. That song I listened to was ‘The Picture’. And by that time I first listened to that song, it had those pretty cool vibes of indie music in a happy tone. The trumpets were pretty good too.

It was a great time for me to go to Wakarusa festival to see my dad there. Why? Because he volunteered there. That’s why! I just wish that the Wakarusa Festival would come back to our town. It’s like the Lawrence Kansas version of the 1960s and Woodstock combined together, and it was groovy and colorful in any other way. Thanks dad for taking me to that music festival in Wakarusa. The way I look at Wakarusa festival, I think of it that reminds me of Woodstock. Oh, the hippie life. I will always remember this for the rest of my life.

Now let’s cut to the chase. Listen you guys, I really need your brainstorming right now. Brett Mosiman, I hope that you’re listening and reading this right now. Right now this idea is very important, so listen carefully.

Okay, now we all remember the Wakarusa festival at Clinton State Park in Kansas and Mulberry Mountain in Arkansas from 2004 to 2015. Right? So we’re ready to come up with another jam band music festival with more music, family-friendly activities, food vendors, sponsors, extras, and much more. The next jam band music festival is named “Harmonic Oasis”. And yes, there will still be camping too.

This is what the logo for this next music festival looks like.

Now it’ll be just like Wakarusa Festival but it’ll be bigger and better than before. And they’ll be plenty of eclectic mixes of music including bands and artists. Plus, they’ll be plenty of new activities to participate in this next festival. The activities will include the bounce house with a slide and a pool, slip-n-slides, plenty of outdoor games, challenges, and a whole lot more. Also they’ll be plenty of outdoor shopping and food vendors too. Even the best part of this next music festival will be new CD releases of new albums.

(Let’s hope they can do more of this.)

I even remember when I got free CD samplers of new music and new artists to discover once. It was really nice of them to give me free stuff.

Oh and speaking of which, the festival will also have freebies and free stuff too.

If you're wondering how you wanna campout here at Clinton State Park and Bloomington East in Lawrence Kansas, then you’ve come to the right place in this blog. Everyone can campout here at the music festival. Bring your friends over and invite them too.

And another activity I almost forgot to tell you about is boat riding and water skiing. Feel free to learn more about that one too. It’ll also be included.

Another thing that would be really cool is full screenings of movies and shows for free. That would be like a free movie night here. (I’ll think about that one.)

And on special times, you can might find character mascots from cartoons and maybe custom mascot characters like the ones I created also.

Also in this next music festival, there’s also gonna be special outdoor entertainment for all ages including me. It’ll have puppetry, storytelling, clowns, breakdancing, painting, new stuff to try, and pogo stick fun.

Plus, they’ll have one where people who come to Harmonic Oasis can create and customize their own music mixes on CD.

Anyway, the next music festival will be located here at Bloomington East and at Clinton State Park. And the dates will be early to mid-June also.

And the dates will be early to mid-June also. Okay, now it you guys wanna make this next idea of Harmonic Oasis Music and Camping Festival to happen here and in the future, feel free to contact Brett Mosiman and the other guys Timothy L. Smith, John Brooks, and Nathan Prenger on social media and e-mail them about it too in case they’ll know. I can’t wait to see what the next new music festival like Harmonic Oasis will look like in the future of Lawrence.

Look for Brett Mosiman’s page on Facebook and chat with him about it also. that’s my reminder that I’m giving to you folks.

And trust me, it’s gonna be really fun to have every summer season.

Say hi to the good folks out there for me and I’ll see you on the other side.

Check back later for more awesome stories on the next Lawrence Kansas Monthly Blog. Catch you later!

This blog is dedicated and is giving a shout out to all the people who attended the Wakarusa festival in the past years. And this one goes out to Brett Mosiman and the good people who helped make this festival happen too. Here’s to you, bud.