I guess a lot of people writing a review about this festival will pretty much have the same information, so I will try to do something different. Rather than focus on the technical aspects of things or how professional this was done, I will approach this from my personal experience.

Friday, August 25

Unfortunately, I arrived very late Friday night and missed everything on Friday’s schedule. My plane landed at 10:10pm local time and I finally got to the hotel and checked in around 11pm. I was starving because my only chance to eat all day was at the Chicago airport during my 2 hour layover and the restaurants were packed with long lines and I was not about to do that. To make matters worse, I had been up all night from my “day job” as the night master control operator for a TV station. So I was really tired and starving.

I decided to try to find some food before settling in and discovered the only chance I had for food was a vending machine with microwave burritos and frozen pizzas. It sounded like fine dining at that point. As I made my way to the vending machines in another building across the parking lot, I see this guy getting out of his car. On the back of his lettermen’s jacket was the word “FARLEY” and lose my mind!

“Farley?” I ask the man and he say’s “Yeah?” “Jackmaster Funk, Farley?” and again he says “Yeah”.

I was on the phone with Andy Turner from Deeplife Records and I said, “Andy, I gotta go. I’m meeting a legend!” CLICK!

I babbled on at him really fast about I don’t know what. I think I introduced myself and muttered something along the lines of how much I’m a fan and I tried to coherently explain to him that I missed his set and that I’m spinning there tomorrow. Please understand, I don’t get star struck. Ever. But this was so spontaneous that I was caught off guard. I asked him if he was going to be at the fest tomorrow and he said he was leaving in the morning. That kinda bummed me out. I noticed (I am assuming) his wife busted out the video camera and was taping my nervous ramblings, so somewhere out there is video of me reacting to meeting Farley. That ought to be fun to see. I politely excuse myself explaining, for some reason, that I hadn’t eaten all day and was about to raid a vending machine and then giddily walked away like a pre-teen girl circa 1989 who just met Jordan Knight.

I made my way to the vending machine, bought about $5 worth of cholesterol-filled heart goodness, and then heated them up in the microwave in the hotel lobby. I felt silly standing there waiting for my food to “cook” as people walked by. When they were done, I went back to my room, scarfed them down and then clocked out for the night.

Saturday, August 26

Breakfast in the hotel lobby was your typical hotel continental breakfast, so it didn’t look too appetizing to me. I spotted Adriel Thornton, the director of CloveR, and he gets me in touch with my ride to the fest. Upon the ride over, I see the beauty that is Traverse City and I can’t wait to get out and start snapping pictures.

Upon arriving at the festival, I meet up with Aaron Vince (the festival Artist Relations guy) who escorts me to the Artists Tent to get signed in. After that, I decide to go for a walk and get some pictures. From the street, the festival is very visible. A huge main entrance surrounded by a fence that is covered with banners all over that let you know this is the CloveR Festival. All along the streets are flags posted on the light poles. The presentation is very well done. You can tell the community has embraced this event and are fully supporting it. I ventured into the historic downtown a bit later and you see CloveR posters in just about every business window as well as the programs inside the business.

I wandered around the festival grounds for the first hour or so to get a feel for how things are run and to get plenty of pictures. Immediately I noticed the level of professionalism that went into this. The two “big” stages are really nice. Nothing was held back. The main stage was simply enormous with a raised platform showcasing the DJ booth.  Behind the main stage was a beautiful view of the Grand Traverse Bay, with boats and other water fun. The other big stage was the Ecclesiastes 3:4 stage, which was a bit smaller, but not by much. I actually preferred this stage simply because it wasn’t so big.

Around the rest of the festival grounds were two smaller stages under tents such as “Dance Tech Studio” and “AudioLab” where lessons on how to use Native Instruments products were taking place. Other attractions included the Teen Faith Activity Center, Katie’s Chapel, DDR Tent, the official merchandise tent, and a prayer tent where you could go and “get away” from the fest and pray. The fest was really lacking in vendors. There were a few places to buy cool drinks, a coffee shop, a Chinese restaurant, a Greek food vendor, a place to buy expensive purses, and a fried stuff vendor advertising Elephant Ears. I probably could have counted them all on two hands.

Saturday’s weather was cool and damp for the most part, which made for a nice day in the park; however, it had its toll on the attendance. I’d say the fest was pretty much empty until about 6pm Saturday night. There was rain off and on all day with a small bit of humid sunshine peaking through around 3pm. The weather also had a bit of an effect on the stages due to rain falling and getting the stages and some equipment wet. That didn’t stop the artists and DJ’s from bringing out their best!

I started off the day meeting up with DJ Rish, DJ Dima and Carey Jarvis with his wife. We chatted for a bit, taking pictures and talking about the event. We headed to the stages to check out Reggie Harrell (on the Ecc 3:4 stage) and Frankie Vibe (on the main stage) who spun some great deep house. Sometime after Frankie’s set, I meandered into the artist tent and hung out there with the great kabob buffet! The food provided to us artists all weekend was fantastic; however, I knew there had to be some amazing cuisine in the town, which I would find out for sure Sunday Afternoon.

At 3pm, I was in the AudioLab checking email on the computers when Craig from Sheltershed walked up and said “I knew this is where you’d be” and I couldn’t deny it. I was guilty as charged! LOL. Craig started his set at 3:30 and did an amazing live performance featuring the usual Sheltershed stuff along with some trancy-ish tunes as well, which blew me away. I went on right after Sheltershed at 4:30 and it seemed almost immediately the small handful of people there in front of the stage dispersed. Needless to say, I was bummed about that, but I tried to not care. I played my set and then made room for Kubiks at 6pm.

Kubiks played an interesting set. He started off with what we would expect: smooth liquid drum and bass. Then he teamed up with a rap guy (MC Die Rek) and a break dance crew and spun hip-hop and oldschool breaks for a while. He did a great job getting people to gather and participate in the performance. I’d say he had a nice crowd of about 200 people. When they were done, he was in limbo thinking the next act, Joy Electric, was ready to go. To kill time, he played a rare blend of disco, 80’s and 60’s tunes! He tried to pay me off to not mention that, but his British money is not worth anything to me.

During Kubiks and MC Die Rek’s performance, I went over to the main stage to see how Luke (DJ Life) was doing. For what he was playing, I felt bad that Kubiks was hogging the attendance. Luke was dropping some amazing trance that deserved a lot more than what it got.

Saturday night finished with an equal crowd at either stage for Stacey Pullen on the main and Joy Electric on the Ecc 3:4 stage. Stacey played a really fun set with lots of infectious grooves and deep basslines. Joy Electric was more on the Joy Eclectic trip this night. Ronnie was doing his usual impressive thing with his monosynths, and he had someone I have never seen before with a small electric drum kit and a crash cymbal. The performance was a lot weirder than I remember JE being that last time I saw them. He had a nice crowd response, though and I am sure he moved some of his two-colored vinyl after the show.

By the end of the day, I was well ready to get to the hotel. I was hoping for an after party, but Rish was nowhere to be found and everybody else was going to bed anyway. I went for a short relaxing swim in the hotel pool and then off to bed.

Sunday, August 27

I checked out rather early from my hotel room and took advantage of the continental breakfast. In the lobby of the hotel, I saw a familiar face, but was unsure why this face looked familiar. The face was attached to a “BTU” shirt, which stands for “Birmingham Trance Underground”. I always connected “BTU” with Fitzpatrick and Oneel, but this guy was neither. Without trying to look stupid (which I am sure I will look now once he has read this article), I go up and say “hi” and start to chat in an attempt to jumpstart my early morning memory. I knew I know this person, but I couldn’t remember where. Finally it hits me. This is Adam Sean (aka Zion’s Gate), and I knew him from a Halloween event we both played in Kentucky last October!  To be sure I knew who it was, I called Aaron Vince over and introduce Adam to Aaron. Phew! I was right. LOL. Aaron calls our ride, and we are quickly taken to the fest grounds.

Adam was first up on the Ecc 3:4 stage, so I hung out to hear his set. I really liked his brand of euphoric psy-trance. He started his set off with a nice, mellow Asian style intro, which lasted about 2 minutes or so and quickly blossomed into some 145bpm goodness. It was a shame that he was booked so early in the day. His set deserved a better time slot closer to sunset. Being 10am, the place was pretty much empty.

I heard some hip-hop coming from the main stage, so I wanted to check out who was there. Turns out to be a husband and wife duo who calls themselves “A.O.N.”, an acronym which means “All Or Nothing”. They were awesome, and I can’t wait to hear more from them. For those who are connected to oldschool Christian rap, they kinda had an “A-1 SWIFT” thing going on. On a more personal note, it took me back to when I was 18 – 20 years old in the early 1990’s giving it a go at a Christian rap career. The Christian rap scene was really budding with artists like Dynamic Twins, Gospel Gangstas, IDOL King, and so many other “new” acts. I wanted to be a part of that and did so many church and rap outreach concerts. I liked those days. Anyway…back to 2006.

After Adam’s set, I got a chance to witness the wonder of DJ Surgeon! This guy was throwing down oldschool rap, breakbeats, and soulful house all while cutting and scratching with extreme precision. I haven’t been this floored by a DJ in a LONG time. (No offense to all my DJ friends, this guy was rockin’ it oldschool, that’s all!)

Then there was the never disappointing (and my good friend) Terrence Parker, bringing his usual brand of soulful, funky, deep, gospel house. It may be funny to say, but I think I will never get tired of seeing his telephone receiver turned headphone. If you have never seen it, he actually uses an old telephone headset that has been rewired to plug into the headphone jack on the mixer instead of headphones. It’s pretty cool to see, that’s all.

From about 12:30 – 3pm, I took a brief hiatus from the festival. I went for a walk along the Grand Traverse Bay around the pier. The bay is absolutely beautiful, and on this particular day, there was a plethora of activity on the waters. Boats, fishermen, swimmers… lots of fun that was tempting me to go slip into my swimming trunks and spend the rest of the day at the beach. I decided to not give in and instead headed to the Clinch Park Zoo, which is pretty much on the beachfront. The Zoo was free, however a little disappointing because it seems that it is closing for whatever reason. As small as it is, they only had a few cages that were still occupied. Almost as quick as I went in, I left and crossed the street into downtown via an underground tunnel from the zoo’s entrance. On the other side of the tunnel, I noticed there is a creek or small river that circles the downtown area that many of the locals fish in.

Speaking of fish, I was getting hungry by now, and it was well past lunchtime. I remembered seeing some bistros from my previous walk into town on Saturday and figured I’d stop in the first one I saw and have a bite. As it turns out, the first bistro I saw, “Amical”, was right in front of me. The food was fantastic. If you are ever in the area, stop in and treat yourself. You’ll be glad you did.

After lunch, I wandered through the town a bit more than I did on Saturday and actually got lost trying to find what appeared to be a lighthouse. Upon finding this lighthouse, it turns out it was actually a facade. It was nothing more than a light and electricity pole disguised as a lighthouse. From a mile or two away, it looked real. It was then I decided I needed to get back to the festival.

I headed right for the artist tent to sit down and relax. I ran into DJ Rish and Adam Sean again. Adam was telling me about a DJ, Kenneth Thomas, who was about to go on the Ecc 3:4. Apparently he has been marketed as Paul Oakenfold’s prodigy and was signed to Oakenfold’s “Perfecto” label. This peaked my interest, so I had to check him out. Kenneth turned out to be one of the best DJ’s at this event, and I was happy to see him play live and meet him afterward.

I realized that during my time away from the fest, I missed one of the acts I wanted to see live, Dawn Tallman. Luckily I didn’t miss her! She was hanging out in the artist tent with Kenny Bobien, so I had a chance to meet them both and get to know them a for a bit. Very cool brother and sister in the Lord. You can see Jesus in them. Sadly, that seems to be a rarity in Christian entertainers.

That was pretty much it for my first CloveR experience. I spent the rest of the day hanging out in the artist tent until I got my ride to the airport. I was ready to go home.

Final Thoughts

I know this “review” has been long and probably more than you really wanted to read, as it tended to wander away from the festival in spots. I just wanted to give you a real feel for my own experience. The festival itself was a lot of fun regardless of the low attendance. If you have any doubts of the festival’s success based on the attendance, you need to understand they would have had a bigger attendance if they had more time to advertise, but they didn’t even get permits cleared until a few months prior to the event. Instead, focus on what was actually accomplished: This was the first ever, all Christian, all dance festival that happened. It happened. You need to understand. The very fact that it happened is a landmark, historic event for the Christian dance scene. The numbers are not important this time around. The D.E.M.F. put their reputation on the line, crossed boundaries that many have failed to cross, leaped hurdles, and overcame obstacles to make this happen. They held nothing back, and it was all worth it. The standard has finally been set, and I hope to see many more events of this caliber, including CloveR, happen more often. You can bet I will be a supporter for CloveR for many years to come.