BlogAsheville: 10 things to love about the new Mountain Oasis music fest in Asheville

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Jason Sandford

Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.

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gnomes_mountain_oasis_2013Here’s a great post by friend/supporter/collaborator Jen Saylor of Blog Asheville. (Follow her on Twitter @BlogAsheville.) It’s a great run-down of the first year of the Mountain Oasis Music Summit this past weekend here in Asheville. Read on:

(Photo credit: electric gnome photo by Rachel Whaley)

10 things to love about Mountain Oasis

1. Mountain Oasis supports emerging talent: The Mountain Oasis lineup this year included emerging artists like Jherek Bischoff, whose too-short set was a small highlight of 2013. When I saw Mountain Oasis mastermind Ashley Capps and Bischoff having brunch at Chorizo, I hoped it meant more exposure for the talented Bischoff, who was part of Amanda Palmer’s touring band in her recent world tour.

2. Mountain Oasis brings the world to Asheville: Like Moogfest in years past, Mountain Oasis brought top-tier talent to experience Asheville (Nine Inch Nails, Neutral Milk Hotel, Animal Collective). The result is artists raving about Asheville from the stage/Twitter/Facebook, like strict vegan Moby in past years, who shared his delight over the chef-prepared vegan food at Plant, or Brian Eno, who reportedly extended his 2012 visit because he enjoyed Asheville so much.

This year, Trent Reznor checked out the new Asheville Pinball Museum, ate food from Storm, and is rumored to have made a large purchase of local art. King Britt tweeted about bringing his wife along to the festival so he could convince her they need to retire here.

I can definitely see Mountain Oasis being profoundly influential in bringing an influx of creatives to visit or even move to Asheville. And I can even see a new tourism niche:creative class elites.

Because of Ashley Capps (an unabashed fan of Asheville who lives in Tennessee and visits regularly) and Mountain Oasis, world-class creatives see the sights in autumn, enjoying a vibrant downtown at one of its most exciting times of the year.

3. Mountain Oasis brings big money into the local economy: Pam Lewis, one of Asheville’s great supporters of entrepreneurship and bringing more film industry opportunity to Asheville, once told me that a major film shoot in the area put $200,000 into the local economy. EVERY DAY.

With dozens of performers, their entourages, staff, and 7,000 to 8,000 attendees daily paying for parking, lodging and food… Doing a little shopping… I’m guessing Mountain Oasis’ daily contribution to the local economy is equally impressive.

This year brought a more focused local initiative: an outreach event meant to help local businesses profit from Mountain Oasis attendees, and a “Trick or Treat” program that listed local businesses offering a discount to people with a festival wristband.

Nice work, Mountain Oasis. Love to see more outreach, even into areas outside of downtown like the RAD and the West Side.

4. Mountain Oasis honors the old guard of electronic music: Gary Numan played a well-received set of mostly new material, and was interviewed onstage by local electronic music journalist Geary Yelton. The Cellular Center was packed for Numan’s show, and a new generation (probably more than one) was reminded that Numan is more than just a great single. (Also, the electric gnome conga line was great.)

5. Mountain Oasis supports local talent: Continuing support of local talent included an art show of four talented local artists with live painting and live local music, as well as a local music showcase curated by emerging electronic music talent and Asheville resident Marley Carroll, who recently received attention from Stereogum for his new release, Sings.

6. Mountain Oasis supports the Bob Moog legacy: Asheville’s Bob Moog Foundation has a major new educational effort that uses sound and music to teach science with a power beyond words and text. Dr. Bob’s Interactive Sonic Experience was available throughout the festival to attendees, bringing the spirit of the late, great pioneer into the festival that once bore his name and still manages to celebrate his spirit.

Other events that brought Bob Moog to mind included a vintage synth exhibit, a sound-design event with world-class designers, and an industry demo at Echo Mountain.

7. Mountain Oasis didn’t miss a beat: From Moogfest 2012 to Mountain Oasis over the weekend was a significant transition and an impressive continuation. Deciding to do this and pulling it off couldn’t have been easy in light of Moog Music’s decision to end its relationship with AC Entertainment.

Capps made a bold move in renaming the festival and holding on to his claim on Halloween weekend, and actually pulled off a scaled-down, slightly different but successful festival.

It looks like Mountain Oasis is here to stay.

8: So now we get TWO technology/EDM festivals! Asheville is now gunning for becoming the EDM capital of the U.S. so long as it’s hosting two festivals drawing an international crowd, a nationally known recording studio, the Bob Moog Foundation, Moog Music AND Paper Tiger. It looks like we’ve got a fourth major local industry to add to tourism, beer, and restaurants.

I’m really looking forward to the new and different Moogfest in April 2014, a more SXSW-like five-day event with a job fair and tech expo as well as local art and musical performances. Will the music be on a level with the previous, AC-driven Moogfest, with artists on a par with Big Boi and the Flaming Lips? Only time will tell. But I’m curious who will perform and look forward to finding out.

9. THE GNOMES. Making their second festival appearance was what can probably be best described as electric gnomes: a group of attendees dressed as garden gnomes, with LED string lights on their conical hats and snowy white beards. Word spread around the festival that if you wanted to see the best of Mountain Oasis, just follow the gnomes…

Yes, this was a WNC/local group, not paid performers. Homegrown awesome! Thanks, gnomes.

Great video of the gnomes here at Gary Numan. Don’t miss the gnome conga line at 1:48.

10. A chance to let go of the Moogfest that was: Can we as a city say goodbye forever to the sheer mindblowing scope of the first few Moogfests, when spacemen roamed the streets and the Flaming Lips played an outdoor arena? Mountain Oasis seems to offer downsized decorations compared to Moogfests past, and a lineup that’s tight and strategic (catnip to young EDM fans) rather than packed with top-tier mainstream acts.

If that’s the case, can we all just accept that this is an electronic music festival, and just go to Bonnaroo already when we want to see Big Boi?

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Jason Sandford

Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.

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13 Comments

  1. Orbit DVD October 31, 2013

    This is one of the few weekends where I really miss having a store downtown. Love the energy of this festival.

    Reply
  2. JML October 29, 2013

    Trent Reznor bought art at Zapow Gallery. NIN was AMAZING at this festival

    Reply
  3. matt levin October 29, 2013

    Here is a video of our final Live Painting at Mountain Oasis. It was so much fun to work on – Thanks to all of the artists involved, and the enthusiastic support of the crowd!

    http://youtu.be/4CqoAe8XaFQ

    Reply
    1. Jennifer S. October 29, 2013

      Was this at Apothecary? I got there at 3 and nothing was happening, sorry I missed this.

      Reply
      1. chris October 30, 2013

        This was at the back end of the arena floor.

        Reply
      2. matt levin October 30, 2013

        This was at the Civic Center (Explore Asheville Arena)
        6 Artists, 24 foot x 3 foot canvas
        3 nights

        Reply
  4. hauntedheadnc October 29, 2013

    Hm… So it was a roaring success, brought publicity to the city, and was a lot of fun.

    How long before the naysayers and NIMBY’s start demanding it be shut down for making downtown “too crowded” or because it brings in people who aren’t part of the local cliques?

    Reply
    1. Jennifer S. October 29, 2013

      Only AC knows if it was roaring success (I’d love to known which if any of the festivals really made money), but I think aside from parking madness and a crowded downtown, Asheville saw a benefit and a festival worth celebrating.

      Reply
  5. chris October 29, 2013

    Occasionally I would look up at the screens, and see the tops of the gnome hats conga-ing by one of the cameras!

    Reply
  6. Kelly Prime October 29, 2013

    WELL SAID JENNIFER!!!

    Reply
  7. Jennifer S. October 29, 2013

    Gnome photo by Rachel Whaley! Thanks to all the gnomes for bringing your creativity and party spirit to the festival!

    Reply
    1. Laura Grotzinger October 30, 2013

      I was one of the gnomes!! Thanks so much for putting us in your article! We all loved it and we will bring back the gnomes again 🙂

      Reply
      1. Jason Sandford October 30, 2013

        Love you guys!

        Reply

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