What are you doing this October 27-29th? I’ve got some super, fantastic and fun plans for you. Hop in your car and follow the lines going south straight towards The Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park conveniently located near Live Oak, Florida. When you arrive, you’ll think you took a space ship because you’ll be transported to a whole new world. That world is the Suwannee Hulaween Festival. With an epic lineup that includes three nights of the String Cheese Incident paired with face melting art installations and activities and you’ve got yourself a mighty good time.
I took a moment from my day and chatted with one of the men who made this festival happen. He’s the bossman of Silver Wrapper, his name is Michael Berg and he’s a magical human being. This is what we discussed:
Taraleigh: What makes Suwanee Hulaween the place to be for Halloween?
Michael: Suwannee is an 800 acre forest preserve and national park filled with centuries old oak trees draped in Spanish Moss. If you're unfamiliar w/ Spanish Moss, it resembles cobwebs. The venue starts off looking spooky before we add all of the art installations and 20k+ fans in Halloween costumes and make-up.
Taraleigh: Sounds to me like that place was MADE to host a Halloween music festival. Besides finding the perfect venue in Suwannee, what was your motivation to bring world class artists and production to Florida?
Michael: The first time I walked in the park was to play there with my old band Van Ghost. I was brought there by our partner on Hula, Paul Levine (Purple Hat productions) for a fest he founded called Bear Creek. I knew from the second I walked on the grounds that there was an energy and limitless potential to grow something magical on that site. It's the perfect canvas for a freak show such as Hula. Between the years of history that Paul and the park put into curating the locale scene mixed in with the fresh blood of the Silver Wrapper team getting involved, led to a very successful event.
Taraleigh: When you first started in this industry, did you think Suwannee Hulaween was something you'd have a part in creating?
Michael: When I first started in his industry, Hulaween was only a club/theater show that String Cheese Incident played every Halloween. It wasn’t a camping music & art festival. I don't even think they had an idea that it could turn into such a beast this many years later. I've had dreams to do something like this since my first visit to Electric Forest which shares a similar model w/ the art installations. The biggest difference lies in our drastically different lineups. The thing about dreams and manifesting ideas into reality is that by the time you reach the goals you once set out for, you have a whole new set of goals ahead of you. That’s where we are now, but this is truly the flagship event for all of us involved.
Taraleigh: Dreams do have a way of changing forms wildly from their original inception. Surrendering to the flow while holding onto your original intentions is the key. You’ve done that and that’s why you’re finding such incredible success. If you were trying to convince Chewbacca from Star Wars to attend Hulaween, what would you say?
Michael: Although the event has grown and diversified over the years, most people (ourselves included) consider this a jamband festival at it's core. Since jam fans are wooks, and Chewy is THE OG wookie, I'd just tell him to come join his people and to bring Yoda and the others
Taraleigh: Many of my friends call me Lil Wook so that all makes sense to me. Rock out where your fellow weirdos are rockin out! I’ve been feeling a calling lately to attend Burning Man and Hulaween puts a flame under my tooshie to get there this year because of all of the Burning Man inspired art you bring. Tell me more about ALL of that.
Michael: The art at Spirit Lake is the true headliner of this event, and yes, it’s inspired by the spirit of Burning Man. We include art by commissioned Burning Man artists, but we’ve put our own spin on it with creepy Halloween elements. For example we use the nature of the park by creating giant re-claimed wood sculptures and the earth-scape mandalas. They’re made up of foliage and loose elements collected at the park over the weeks leading up to the event. We also have a 30+ foot tall water screen that houses projected holograms onto it. It uses recycled water from the lake itself as the screen, hence the name of the overall installation, Spirit Lake.
Taraleigh: Holy guacamole, that must be beautiful! When you add in the sounds of the festival bands, it’s gotta be crazy. When you were considering the musical line-up, how did you choose the bands?
Michael: As talent buyers we just try to book a show that we'd want to be at.
Taraleigh: That’s the only way to do it. Who are your top three must see bands and why?
Michael: As far as narrowing down my top three, I'd have to say that is too tough for me to do with such a diverse and large line up. I'll go with three upper tier and three under card acts if that's cool.
Taraleigh: Totally cool.
Michael: Headliners: Portugal. The Man - I've been a fan for years and had them on our other festival in Chicago, North Coast. This will be their Suwannee debut. Their recent massive pop explosion actually happened after we booked them so this is going to be a highlight of the weekend.
Run The Jewels - Our biggest hip hop headliner this year. They are politically charged and one of the most relevant acts on the line up.
Mike Gordon - Phish has been my favorite band since early 1993. This is the first time I've ever booked a member of them, so Mike had to make the list.
Undercard: Manic Focus - Aside from having a new record this year called Minds Rising that did really well, this will be his first night time set at Suwannee. He's bringing his lasers to the Amphitheater, plus a ripping version of the MF'n live band including Russ Liquid & Andrew Block (The Russ Liquid Test), and Nicolas Gerlach (Michal Menert & the Pretty Fantastics), plus JmaC and his drummer Jake of course.
FKJ (French Kiwi Juice) - Another act with an incredible self titled release from this year. A true talent and one man band. Very live and very real. Do not miss this set if you like improvised musicianship at it's finest.
David Shaw (of The Revivalists) - After all of the madness ends on Sunday night and everyone is trying to get that last hang in at Spirit Lake, our brother David Shaw is going to drive the vibe up for everyone as we all wind it down w/ a solo acoustic performance to close out the weekend. His set has the writing on the wall to be very special.
Honorable mention shout outs go to Spafford, Joe Russo's Almost Dead, Greensky Bluegrass, Noname, Nathaniel Rateliff, Tank & The Bangas, Kamasi Washington, Big Wild, Lettuce & Marian Hill. Honestly, the list goes on.
Taraleigh: That’s how you do a lineup. You win! With all that's going on in the world right now, why do you think it's so important for people to go to music festivals?
Michael: With the awful state of affairs in the world these days such as racism and destructive natural disasters paired with an extremely inept president (and general leadership) in this country, festivals are where people can detach from that reality for a few days and just be humans interacting with one another. There’s something truly primal about it actually. Festivals serve a greater purpose than just a "good time." They generate a level of escapism for all of us including the fans, bands, & staff/producers. This made our decision for our music and costume theme this year and easy one; "Night of the LOVING Dead." For String Cheese’s Halloween set, they’ll play songs with love in the title or with lyrics about love. Love wins in the end if we have anything to say about it, and that is the vibe we are going for at Suwannee Hulaween.
Taraleigh: Love always wins. Thank you Michael for being a lover warrior delivering your brand of awesome to the world in the form of music festivals.
Be a part of love revolution and check out Suwannee Hulaween right HERE.
The magic in me sees the magic in you,
Taraleigh Weathers
Want to rage the sweet life on and off the festival grounds? Check THIS out.
