Festival City: Rearview mirror

By Kelsey Duvall

Raft races. Reggae. $4 tickets. There’s a drawer at the Tulsa City-County Library that is crammed with newspaper clippings, a collection of photos, articles, line-ups and reviews that catalog Tulsa’s historic musical festivals. We have found it easy to laud our current festivals, but when one dies or evolves, we’ve had trouble finding the words, or perhaps the inches, to explain why. Some organizers of these festivals, those still here, help us remember.

1973 Mayfest

Tulsa’s largest arts festival was initially known as Jubilee ’73. It was a celebration of the city’s 50th birthday, organized by the Tulsa Junior League; it also coincided with the 25th birthdays of the Tulsa Philharmonic and The Tulsa Opera. After the first year, the festival was turned over to Downtown Tulsa Unlimited (DTU), which relied on local artists as volunteers and organizers. One of them, Rocky Frisco, remembers when the festival was held at Civic Center Plaza, when it was a collection of artwork and Native jewelry. When the festival changed hands again in 1978, this time going to the Tulsa Arts and Humanities Council, the festival offered its first International Music Competition, starting at Mayfest ’80. The festival spent 1991 and 1992 in the Brady Arts District; Mayfest has since been held on the Downtown Main Mall, where it now draws crowds estimated between 350,000 and 400,000 each spring.

1974 Western Swing Festival

It’s only fitting that Tulsa, Home of Western Swing, would at some point have a festival celebrating the genre which it saw birthed. The first Tulsa Western Swing Festival was held November 16, 1974, at the Tulsa Fairground Pavilion. Sponsored by KVOO (naturally), festival goers could attend workshops hosted by the likes of Leon McAuliffe and Eldon Shamblin for a $4 ticket, then watch performances by a slew of classic Western Swing artists.

1977 Tulsa International Music Festival

In September of 1977, Jim Halsey, the legendary Tulsa music manager and promoter whose career spans 60 years working with a slew of renowned artists, replaced his Ranch Party’s five-year run with the first-ever Tulsa International Music Festival. It was held at the Tulsa Assembly Center, now known as Cox Business Center. For two nights, 30 acts, including those Halsey represented, played for television buyers, advertising agencies, the directors of all the major county and state fairs, record execs, and entertainment directors from Vegas and Tahoe, all in an effort to give international bands exposure to talent-industry buyers in the U.S. Halsey brought major acts like The Oakridge Boys, Tammy Wynette, Roy Clark, and Oklahoma’s still-reigning fiddle queen, Jana Jae, along with the Nashville editor of Billboard Magazine and England’s top country disc jockey at the time, David Allan.

1979 Tulsa Bluegrass and Chili Festival

Another festival pioneered by Downtown Tulsa Unlimited, The Tulsa Bluegrass and Chili Festival took over Williams Green, Bartlett Square, and the Main Mall from 1979-1999 in early September. Dell Davis, a bluegrass radio show host from 1974-1987 on KVOO, took over as coordinator in 1980 and made it her mission to draw local and regional acts together to compete in a musical challenge. Kicking off on Friday, the festival brought office workers to the streets. After 1999, the festival moved to Claremore, where it continues to draw crowds close to 30,000 each September.

1983 Aquafest

In 1972, the first Great Raft Race kicked off Labor Day Weekend at Tulsa River Parks. According to Janet Kendall of the Tulsa River Parks Authority, the race and all the attendant activities were originally referred to as River Romp, eventually adopting the unofficial name River Parks Festival. In 1983, a special Aquafest became part of the activities. The festival showcased local talent like Dwight Twilley and Jim Sweney, with Tulsa legend Leon Russell as the headliner. The Tulsa Philharmonic also figured into the festivities, playing Disney themes to be followed by a screening of the original “Tron.” The festival was a one-off, meant as the blowout celebration for the completion of the dam in 1983. In 1992, KRMG ended its sponsorship of the Great Raft Race, citing low turnout.

1986 Reggaefest

Long-time local music promoter Tim Barraza launched Reggaefest in Veteran’s Park in 1986. It switched homes a few times over the years, first to the River Parks Amphitheatre, then to Mohawk Park. Major headliners included Little Feat and The Fabulous Thunderbirds in 1988, but as an Oklahoma festival, the emphasis was on homegrown musicians. Bands like Local Hero and The Upstarts figured prominently as well as bands from Oklahoma City and Norman. The festival drew crowds of up to 15,000 until 2001. In 2012, Barazza brought Reggaefest back to Veteran’s Park for one last year with local, regional, and international acts.

1989 Juneteenth

Juneteenth has served as a celebration of Oklahoma’s African-American community and its music. The Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame and the North Tulsa Heritage Foundation were two organizations involved in getting it started, among others. Greenwood, as the heart of Black Wall Street, is home for the festival, also a commemoration of the June 19, 1865, emancipation of slaves throughout Texas, a holiday that gained traction and observation throughout the region. Last year, a second Juneteenth festival launched at Guthrie Green. Details on both are forthcoming for 2014.

1995 Edgefest and Birthday Bash

In the mid-90s the popular radio station Z104.5 became The Edge, an alternative programming format. Riding the wave of popularity that an alternative music outlet brought to Tulsa, the station began hosting Edgefest in Mohawk Park in the summer of 1995. According to Chuck Stikl, on air with The Edge since the beginning, the festival beat its attendance record each year, eventually drawing crowds of 20,000. Major headliners over the years included Kid Rock, Velvet Revolver, and Cypress Hill as well as Oklahoma bands like All American Rejects, Caroline’s Spine, The Nixons, and The Flaming Lips. In 2004, the last Edgefest took place at The Green on the East End, the current location of ONEOK Field. In 1996, the station launched its Birthday Bash at The Expo Square Pavilion with headliner Gravity Kills. The festival, which usually coincides with Earth Day, has included headliners like Cypress Hill, Collective Soul, and Beck. Birthday Bash remains an annual event, the most recent on April 27, 2014, at River Parks.

2002 Diversafest

Diversafest, or Dfest, is arguably the event that put Tulsa on the map for today’s pilgrims of the music-festival circuit and is also, arguably, responsible for the recent explosion in the number of music festivals in our city, both large and small. Tom and Angie Green founded the series, intending to promote emerging bands. That first year, the line-up was 12 bands strong; 150 fans came to the festival grounds at 18th and Boston. In 2004, the festival added a music-industry conference; a yoga conference was eventually added, too. Dfest rivaled other regional festivals with key music industry speakers and line-ups including Paramore, Ghostland Observatory, Cake, and The Black Crowes. The festival moved to the Blue Dome District in 2007. By 2009, Dfest spanned 14 stages in venues from the Tulsa Performing Arts Center to Flytrap (now Legends Dance Hall) to McNellie’s, along with two outdoor stages. Attendance eventually soared to 70,000.

2010 Free Tulsa

Marc Matheos, Tulsa club owner and music producer here since the ‘80s, planned a concert he called Free Tulsa in 2010, a plan to lure some of the Dfest foot traffic to Soundpony Bar, The Crystal Pistol (now Yeti), and the rest of the Brady Arts District. When Dfest organizers announced the event’s indefinite hiatus, though, bands called Matheos to see if they could perform as part of his concert, he said. In short order, he suddenly had a full-blown festival on his hands. That first year over 100 bands played on two outdoor stages and six indoor stages in Brady neighborhood venues. In 2011 the event moved to the Blue Dome District with more than 15 stages, drawing a crowd of more than 20,000. Free Tulsa showcased a multitude of Oklahoma musicians, including Taddy Porter, Jesse Aycock, and colourmusic, before its last festival in 2012.

2011 Brady District Block Party

Oklahoma City’s DCF Concerts debuted the Brady District Block Party the summer of 2011, with The Flaming Lips as headliner. Other acts included Primus, Awolnation, and Pretty Black Chains from Oklahoma City on stage at Cameron and Boulder, a package and a location promoters hoped would draw attention to the revived arts district. Thunderstorms and high winds collapsed the stage the day of the festival. Shows were cancelled. The Flaming Lips performed a rescheduled concert at The Brady Theatre later that year.

2013 Center of the Universe Festival

(The free one.) The nonprofit group Tulsanity presented the first-ever Center of the Universe Festival in the Brady Arts District the summer of 2013 as a free music festival. Organizers expected a turnout of 40,000 to see the 70 bands play across two stages on two nights, including headliners One Republic, Neon Trees, OK Go, and Mutemath. Instead, according to festival organizers, attendance was twice that, compounded when food trucks, Brady neighborhood art galleries, and other vendors joined the party. The festival, which requires paid admission this year, will expand to three stages this year as part of a goal to provide more airtime for local and regional talent; more than one hundred bands will join the line-up, including six headliners: AWOL Nation, Fitz and the Tantrums, and Twenty One Pilots on Friday, Young the Giant, Capital Cities, and Cold War Kids on Saturday.

Festival City: Rearview mirror

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