Gary Chetkof never intended for any of this.
Chetkof, the owner of 100.1 WDST/Radio Woodstock 100.1, wanted to throw a one-day, open air show to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the radio station. Having grown up on powerhouse New York City area radio stations WNET and WLIR, he knew a big outdoor show would be a cool thing to do for his listeners.
However, the results of this show had consequences that would change his life, and his radio station’s forever — it created Mountain Jam.
See, before outdoor multi-day festivals were the ‘in thing’ in the U.S., Chetkof and his crew were producing yearly Mountain Jam shows in the shadow of Hunter Mountain in the Hudson Valley of New York. Artists like: The Allman Brothers, Pretty Lights, Damian Marley, The Avett Brothers, Umphrey’s McGee, Levon Helm, The Roots, My Morning Jacket, Bob Weir, Coheed & Cambria, and yearly headliner Gov’t Mule.
The festival has become one the preeminent summer shows, and each year Chetkof and company tweak the experience a little bit every year — adding fun, games, food, and social political, and spiritual awareness to the festival.
Recently, we caught up with Chetkof to talk about Mountain Jam 2015. His positivity and excitement was utterly infectious. The joy and pride this man spoke with about the lush mountain region where the festival takes place, the new bands he’s dying to check out and the overall Mountain Jam experience, bursts through every word. While he never intended for any of this to happen, it sure seems like he’s loving every second of this experience.
Mountain Jam started off a show that was like a radio show, correct?
Correct. It was a show to celebrate the radio station’s 25th anniversary. I had grown up with both WNEW and WLIR in Long Island as my role models and they always had these big outdoor concerts, so I was like we need to throw a big outdoor concert. After looking at different venues, we found Hunter Mountain, and we loved it. It was gorgeous and after the thing was over everyone was like, ‘This is great. Are you going to do this next year?’ I’m like, ‘No, I’m not!’ But so many people! I said I’ll do it in five years at the 30th anniversary, but so many people had come to me during the aftermath. [They] said, ‘Please! You should do this again. It was great!’ So that’s how it was born. The next year we did two days with camping, and then we did three days with camping. Then slowly but surely we ended up getting to four days with camping. Obviously the line-ups, the talent ,and the number of artists that are playing has grown every year. It’s kind of crazy to think how the festival started and where we are now actually.
Why did you originally say that you were only going to do it once?
You know literally it was just a one day outdoor festival and I had never thrown a camping festival. I had gone to them but it wasn’t the intention to do an annual festival every year. It really was just to celebrate the landmark of the radio station. So the intention wasn’t there until afterwards, which is kind of one of the nice things about it, that it happened spontaneously.
It has got to feel cool that now with the proliferation of big outdoor festivals that you guys are going on your 11th annual show.
Yeah, it’s pretty cool. We see these other festivals that start then they just throw everything at it all at once and they end up losing millions of dollars and then they disappear. It is kind of nice to know how we built it up slowly and organically and spontaneously. It’s probably one of the coolest things I’ve done in my career only because it was so spontaneous and it just sort of happened out of people’s asking for it.
This might be a silly question but how do you think being in the mountains heightens the Mountain Jam experience?
I always make a point to sit at the top of the mountain and enjoy the music each festival year because it is really mind blowing and it’s powerful. You’re literally sitting on ancient Native American holy lands. The view is incredible and the air is amazing and it’s fresh and the landscape and the backdrop is just astounding. The funny thing is that I had been to that mountain for years to ski like most people but I had never thought of going up there in the spring or in the summertime. So the first time we ever did Mountain Jam I drove up there to set up and I couldn’t believe how gorgeous it was and green and everything is so lush at that time of year so it’s pretty amazing. It’s a natural setting, a natural amphitheater because of the way the ski mountain runs up and the stage is at the bottom and there’s great wildlife around. There’s bears that we see every once in a while and there’s eagles and it’s pretty amazing. It really is. I’ve been to festivals where the setting is not that good at all and I think, especially with the proliferation of festivals, I think you really need a unique location. If can have people camp, you want people camping in mountains and under trees and rolling hills so I think there is something to be said about having an amazing site and this is an amazing site.
One cool thing I was reading about the festival is you do an Awareness Village every year. You see a lot of fests where it’s more vendor based, where it’s like, ‘Hey we’ve got tents for a local business and then here’s Sprint.’ Yet,  you have this Awareness Village. Do you mind elaborating on what what’s all about and how it came to be?
It was one of those things that we just came up with in a meeting. We were like we should do something with a consciousness to it and make it not commercial.  Over the years it has grown, and it has changed, and it has morphed and it’s really a place where people can sort of go to relax and expand your thinking. Whether it’s social issues of the day or it’s how you can be a little greener in your life and really just the kind of information that you wouldn’t ordinarily get. Also, there are healing arts and there is chiropractic and there’s massage and there are acupuncture services so it’s really this mind spirit body kind of a part of the festival.
I know originally the festival was a radio station promotion. Have you seen, as the owner of the radio station, have you seen the awareness for the station grow because of Mountain Jam or has the Mountain Jam become it’s own autonomous thing where it’s just about that?
I would say a little of both. I think people from out of the area look at it as an autonomous thing and the radio station is something that they may not be familiar with or place a lot of significance on. As far as being in the local region, where the Hudson Valley is, it’s definitely the opposite. It’s definitely the radio station’s event and everybody here really has been a part of its growth. People look forward to it and mark it in their calendars every year. It’s really, from a local standpoint, in the Hudson Valley, which is pretty large actually because it goes from exit 16 on the New York State Thruway to exit 22, that territory, it’s really seen as the radio station’s event and a premiere event.
Of all the artists you’ve booked throughout the years, which ones blew your mind – the ones you never thought you’d land in a million years?
You know I’ve had a couple of those moments actually because it really has different milestones over the 11 years. The first time that happened to me was Phil Lesh in the third Mountain Jam. He had just gotten over a liver transplant and this was one of the first festivals, first performances in a year. He had agreed to do it at the last minute and we added him as a last minute addition and it really took the festival over to another level, so I’m always grateful for him. And I remember the Allman Brothers coming twice. They came a few years after that and they came again last year as part of their finale tour, final run of shows so both times the Allman Brothers were there blew my mind and I couldn’t believe that that had happened. The Levon Helm 70th birthday was another milestone — we had so many special guests come for that including Ray LaMontagne, Allison Kraus. That was another milestone for me and then this year I have both Robert Plant and the Alabama Shakes. It’s just another level!
I was going to say, I mean, Robert Plant shows up at your thing. I would be smiling from the moment he signed up tll the moment he gets on stage.
Yeah I hope to be! When these bands play I always tell everybody okay I’m shutting my radio off. If it’s an emergency text me, otherwise I’ll be in the front row. Leave me alone!
So we know Robert Plant; we know Black Keys, Alabama Shakes, big time bands. What are some of the bands that are in the mid to opening card that you think people should be paying attention to like this is a special band because how many fests have we seen where that opening band goes on to blow up like five years later.
You know that’s like the greatest fun I have too. Those middle tier bands or the baby bands that are going to explode in the future. I mean for me, I would say that, there is a bunch of them for sure. I’m psyched to have Rebelution. I’ve seen them play and I was like I’ve got to get these guys so that’s very cool. Benjamin Booker and Shakey Graves are both playing on Saturday and they are incredible musicians. I know they are going to be the kind of musicians that people are going to be blown away and say they saw them first at Mountain Jam. I am really happy to have Lake Street Dive on the bill. They exploded last year but a lot of people still haven’t seen them. I think that’s really cool. Hurray For the Riff Raff.
EDM has become a big part of outdoor festivals. When it comes to a fest of your nature where it’s steeped in classic rock and jam, do you feel some people might be resistant to the inclusion of EDM?
First of all, I love so many different kinds of music that from a musical standpoint I like it all. We had Pretty Lights before and he was amazing. I kind of like it all and what we’ve learned really is that our festival is not so much an EDM festival. We do support a real diverse lineup and musical taste but having EDM, the right amount of it, is probably the right thing for us because our demographics is a little bit older so it’s not really that, per say the EDM audience. I think to have a taste of it but you can really have too much of it. I think what Mountain Jam really is built on is rock ‘n’ roll and really built on a lot of live instruments and live musicians and improvisational and sharing the stage with one another. So I think from that historical standpoint of who we are and what we are, we’re more about that than we are about deejays.
That has got to be a cool setup. I mean Pretty Lights has such a cool light setup and stage show that within that setting of Mountain Jam has got to be pretty cool.
He played last year at like one in the morning — from 1am to 4am in the morning. It was incredible. His lights with the moisture that was in the air and how that created patterns and the lasers. It was something I had never really seen at that level before. I had been to a bunch of shows but you talk about the atmosphere of Hunter Mountain and the mountain top, it really blended into what he was doing and it was pretty amazing. He tailored his music to be more rock oriented and so I give him a lot of credit. He’s a really talented guy and it was an amazing show.
And for those who are maybe Mountain Jam goers or attendees, what is new this year that people can get to know about?
We’ve reconfigured some of the mountain top spacing and tents. We’ve brought in some different food; we’ve really kind of upgraded the food. We have more brands of beer. We’re going more towards craft beer than we have before and we have a whole bunch of other non-musical activities. We have this adventure tower that we have never used before which is like a gigantic 60 foot climbing tower that people can try to climb, try not to fall off but you’re harnessed in so it’s safe. Then there’s the whole thing with zombies and paintball and a whole bunch of kid activities. There is indoors we have a bunch of seminars and a bunch of workshops that are pretty interesting. They’re still being finalized now but they’re pretty interesting topics.
You seem excited just talking about Mountain Jam so what is your final thought about what separates Mountain Jam from all the rest? The economy sucks still and people want to spend their money on one fest, why is Mountain Jam the fest people should see this summer?
You know I think it’s just a really good vibe. It’s a mix of people. It’s a mixture of bands. All the bands we’ve really pored over and selected and put together, we think, the best lineup out there this year. The setting is amazing and we are really here for customer service. We try to minimize lines. We try to focus on from the minute you drive in until the minute you leave you have a positive experience and everything is clean and things move nicely. The other thing is that it’s intimate. It’s not a gigantic festival where you have to walk far and you get lost in the crowd. It’s pretty small. Everything is pretty much at your fingertips and there’s not a lot of walking and it’s a beautiful place to be.
To attend Mountain Jam, click here for tickets.
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Bill Bodkin is the Owner, Editor-in-Chief and Co-Founder of Pop-Break. Most importantly, however, he is the proud father of a beautiful daughter, Sophie. He is beyond excited that Pop-Break will be six years old in 2015 as this site has come a long, long way from the day he launched in it in his bachelor pad at the Jersey Shore. He can be read every Monday for the Happy Mondays Interview Series as well as his weekly reviews on Law & Order: SVU, Mad Men and Hannibal. His goal, once again, is to write 500 stories this year (a goal he accomplished in 2014). He is a graduate of Rutgers University with a degree in Journalism & English. Follow him on Twitter: @PopBreakDotCom
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