Written by Elise Olmstead

 

There’s a new festival in town at the legendary Marvin’s Mountaintop venue in Masontown, WV, and they’re making their debut with a bang.  With a lineup boasting headliners like Greensky Bluegrass and Leftover Salmon, and hometown heroes like Pigeons Playing Ping Pong, Fletcher’s Grove, and Ginada Pinata, there’s a plethora of amazing bands that could please many kinds of tastes.  Deep Roots Mountain Revival put a lot of thought into ways to foster the local music community as well as a family friend environment.  We couldn’t wait to learn more about this festival and asked the organizer, Claude Ryan, a few questions about what’s in store.

  • Tell me a little bit about yourself, where are you from? What do you do for a living?

First and foremost I’m a Husband, Father, Son, Brother and friend, that is what matters the most to me in life…..everything else is just icing on the cake, or secondary in terms of importance.

I grew up in a family owned business and worked my entire life in the construction industry, so that is my primary background. So I like to build things from the ground up. Then I dabbled in the bar scene for about 4 years, have owned rental properties and worked as a part-time music promoter. I guess if you add all that up I’m a Self-Employed Entrepreneur.

  • How did you get into live music?

It all started with attending music festivals in college, I was always into listening to music, but never really got into the live music scene until college. I started going to festivals and basically cut my teeth at Sunshine Day Dream. I loved it so much it inspired me to just start throwing an annual party in my backyard. Things just progressively manifested from there all the way to Deep Roots Mountain Revival. So here we are…

  • What gave you the idea to throw a festival?

A life-long dream, and my partner Clayton Koontz nudging me along for the last 3 years to pull the trigger. Clayton grew up hunting on that farm as a kid, before it was Marvin’s Mountaintop, he threw the 1st Music Festivals out there that place had ever hosted and he really wanted to get back out there and bring Marvin’s back to life.

  • A lot of people start out small, why did you decide to go big right out of the gate?

If one is going to take on the lofty task of Reviving Marvin’s Mountaintop, then they better be prepared to go big or just go home. Marvin’s is such an iconic festival location because of the run All Good had up there, that starting small just didn’t seem to make logical sense. So we busted our asses to build a monster lineup that would inspire people to want to come back to the Mountain.

  • How did you decide on the band lineup?

We started with listening to what the folks in the region were interest in an we wanted to build something that the community would get excited about, and want to support.

I don’t think you can really choose a lineup; the festival and the lineup just seem to choose one another. The process of booking the artists for a first year festival is exhausting, and extremely complicated, because you have no real history and everyone is a nervous wreck when it comes to committing to a new event. But I’m a music junkie, so when we lost one band that we had targeted, we would just move onto the next band on our list. The best part about the entire process though, is discovering a new band that you have never listened to before and then bringing them onboard. There are is a lot of new music on this lineup that I’m personally stoked to see live for the first time.

  • The venue, Marvin’s Mountaintop is famous for All Good Music Festival, so people may be coming with expectations, how do you want to meet these expectations but also show them something different?

The Mountain itself is enough to fill their expectations. We believe that Marvin’s Mountaintop is  the best music venue, from top to bottom, on the entire East Coast… and I’m sure there are a lot of former patrons out there that will agree with us.

We can’t be All Good and we don’t aspire to be them. We want to be the first Deep Roots Mountain Revival and put our own unique stamp on the festival scene, and that is what we intend to do. So I guess everyone just needs to Come Back to The Mountain and see if we can fulfill their expectations, we don’t think they will be disappointed with what we have in-store.

  • What are some other features about the festival besides the music?

Community and a family friendly experience. Both of which are extremely important to us. We have partnered up with the local non-profit, Friends of the Cheat, and they are organizing a Kids Activities Program that will be available to the families that attend Friday through Sunday.

We have also made it a priority to book Local and Regional Artists, from WV and the surrounding states, so that we can remain tapped into the rich musical history that already exists in the Appalachian Region.

We are also introducing (3) brand new stage locations that we are extremely excited for people to experience. The one we are building in the woods is going to be awesome!

  • What are the ticket options (tiers, gate, etc)? What is included in VIP?

GA – 3 Day Pass is $150.00 with primitive Camping included.

GA – 4 Day Pass is $180.00 with primitive Camping included.

This will increase on July 31 to $165.00 & $195.00

Then again on August 29 to $180.00 & $210.00

And finally to Day of Show Pricing of $200.00 & $230.00

Parking Passes are $25.00 for all weekend

Car Camping Passes are $75.00 for all weekend

Children 12 and under get in FREE with an adult

  • VIP is $570.00 and includes:
  • Camping Thursday September 15 – Sunday September 18, 2016.
  • Access to VIP festival areas
  • Special Viewing Platforms at All Stages
  • Prime Viewing at Main Stage
  • Buffet Style Hospitality for Lunch / Dinner Friday-Saturday; Lunch Sunday
  • Complimentary Beer & Wine Garden
  • VIP Tent Stage for Exclusive Performances
  • Discounted Beer on GA Festival Grounds)
  • Deep Roots Mountain Revival Beer Mug
  • Children Under 12 Free w/ Adult GA + Early Arrival Ticket Purchase

ALL TICKETING INFORMATION can be found at MOUNTAINREVIVAL.COM