Mountain Jam’s Gary Chetkof on Booking This Weekend’s Evolving Fest

null – Gary Chetkof
Mountain Jam

Mountain Jam is heading into its 14th edition this weekend in Hunter, N.Y., with Jack Johnson, Sturgill Simpson and Alt-J headlining.

It’s the third year the festival has pushed away from its jam band roots and the first to skip any legends from classic rock. Instead of the Steve Miller Band, a Grateful Dead offshoot or Peter Frampton, Mountain Jam has in its stead The War on Drugs, Portugal. The Man, Father John Misty and The Decemberists. It’s posed quite the booking challenge for Gary Chetkof.

“As far as top tier bands go, it’s been a challenge for us as we’ve gone more mainstream with our top talent,” says Chetkof, whose Chet-5 Entertainment produces Mountain Jam with Townsquare Media Group in association with the radio station he owns, Radio Woodstock 100.1.

“Unfortunately in America, headliners overshadow everything — America is the land of the home run hitter and I like the singles and doubles. I take really great pride in curating a festival where the middle lineup is bands that in their 20s and 30s are still digging in their heels and coming up with their best music.”

As a promoter, station owner and music fan, Chetkof champions independence — and he’s fighting to stay unique in an area where Live Nation has an increasing amount of sway.

Pollstar: Last year, you were one of the first to announce a date for Tom Petty’s 40th anniversary tour. You also had String Cheese Incident and Peter Frampton. This year, there are no acts like any of those. Why is that?

Gary Chetkof: It’s about availability and who wants to play our festival. This year I didn’t really see a classic rock act that was going to be right for a headline spot. Also, I need to get the headliners set early so I know how much I have to spend on the rest of the bills. There’s only so much time you can wait to get started with the booking.

The proximity to New York worked in your favor when you started because nobody else was promoting acts like the Allman Brothers or Warren Haynes or Grateful Dead offshoots at that time of year. What’s the effect now that you’re competing for bands with the New York festivals?

First, we’re surrounded [about a two-hour drive] by two venues that are controlled by Live Nation — Saratoga Performing Arts Center to the north of us and to the south, Bethel Woods Center for the Arts and we have radius issues and radius clauses and obviously competition competing with top headliners. That’s one reason Dave Matthews Band has never played Mountain Jam — he’s intertwined with Live Nation.

We’re also getting radius clause restrictions from Governors Ball and Panorama. We’re sharing Father John Misty and The War on Drugs with Panorama but we couldn’t get Jack White. [He played Governors Ball]. We have radius clauses, too; we don’t want bands to play New York City close to Mountain Jam and that can mean no Forest Hills or Brooklyn because we draw a lot from those areas.

You’re putting 50 acts in the festival over three days, what do you do to make sure it’s distinct from the other nearby festivals?

A lot of attention is focused on who the headliners are but that misses the boat on what a great festival should be all about. It should be about music discovery and about bands that haven’t achieved great commercial success yet, but are going to. Mountain Jam, over the years, has specialized in those bands whether it’s Grace Potter, Michael Franti, My Morning Jacket, Avett Brothers or the Lumineers. We caught them all very early and were part of their career development.

– Gary Chetkof With The Black Keys

What’s the connection between the artists who are played on Radio Woodstock and Mountain Jam?

The radio station has a 37-year heritage of being very progressive, mixing the classics and emerging artists and jam bands. It’s one of one of the most diverse in the country and we take great pride in playing most of the bands that play Mountain Jam, especially new people like Jay Bird and Alice Merton. War on Drugs, Father John Misty and Portugal. The Man are all bands that the station got behind very early. At Radio Woodstock, we go through a lot of new music every week. We love to be the first on something and help develop a career.

You just wrapped the Taste of Country festival with Eric Church, Florida Georgia Line and Sam Hunt. How does booking the two festivals compare?

Booking the country festival comes together more easily. My partner at Townsquare, Matt LaRose, books the country festival and I’m just envious of the fact that he books two headliners at least a year in advance. Also he only has about 20 artists to book.

My brethren in indie festivals complain to me about how difficult it is to find the right headliner and Taste of Country seems to be able to get around that issue because country people plan ahead and they book multiple country festivals. And having a lot of stronger ties at country radio stations and relationships can get around a lot of the Live Nation constraints.