By Dan Alford

Over the last five years the Gathering of the Vibes has become one of the most important music festivals on the East Coast. It is a rite of summer, falling on or near the Solstice and supplying jam fans with a healthy dose of great music, psychedelic adventures and good ol' fun; the perfect way to kick off a new tour season.

For the year 2000 the Gathering returns to Seaside Park in Bridgeport, Connecticut to celebrate its five year anniversary. I spoke with the Grand Pooh-Bah of the Vibe Tribe, owner of Terrapin Tapes, Ken Hays about the history of the GOTV, the logistics o f putting on a festival, and some things to look forward to.

The Gathering of the Vibes will take place on June 23, 24, and 25 at Seaside Park in Bridgeport, Connecticut. For band and ticket information call 800-677-8560 or check out the website at www.gatheringofthevibes.com. Also check the streaming audio and vi deo of performances from last year's bands in the Band Info section.

DA: For those who don't know, those living under rocks, what's the history of the Gathering of the Vibes?

Ken: In 1995, after the death of Jerry Garcia, there was an organized entity working with the Grateful Dead and the New York City Parks Department to try to assemble a gathering, similar to that of the memorial held at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. They wanted to do the gathering at Strawberry Fields in Central Park. Mayor Giuliani said no. He said no because of his concern of the number of dollars it would cost to clean up the park after a gathering of this type.

When 1996 came around, there had still never been a gathering of any significance of the Dead Head community. Terrapin Tapes and Dupree's Diamond News collaborated to put together a festival called DeadHead Heaven: A Gathering of the Tribe. Max Creek an d moe. headlined. Strangefolk, Jazz Mandolin Project and many others were there. We had about 3200 people hang out with us over the weekend as we celebrated the life of Jerry Garcia and featured some of the newest and best emerging talent that has been influenced by Jerry. It was a great event; it was a community event; it was friends gathering to celebrate life and to remember Jerry at his finest points, and the Grateful Dead.

It was a great event. We had no idea what the hell we were doing. We had code brown on the portapotties. We had no idea. You know I had always liked throwing parties and this was just an extension. You know, what the hell, man? Let's just get a bunc h of people together and have a party.

SUNY Purchase agreed to allow us to host such a party. I think something unique is that the University didn't know we were calling it DeadHead Heaven. Nobody knew. It was a music, arts and camping festival. This is something I haven't really told anyo ne, because we were trying to keep it quiet, but we're at a point- especially with jambands- I think it's cool for them to see where we're coming from.

Imagine me walking into the University and trying to get them to approve a camping festival called DeadHead Heaven; it would never happen, anything Dead Head. And I've been in the community with Terrapin Tapes for nine and a half years. I know the preju dices that are placed on the Dead Head community. I mean when I tried to get Visa/ Master Card processing approved through Terrapin Tapes in 1991, they said no because of their fear of charge backs, theft and fraud within the Dead Head community. It was outrageous. Finally we got a bank to support us and we were allowed to have Visa/Master Card processing and we have had zero fraud in nine and a half years of business.

So I went in there and said music, arts and camping festival and they were supportive. They had done camping once. It was when all the Westchester moms and their kids came with their Volvos and Mercedes and their dogs and they had a dog show, with campi ng. And the University was like, 'Alright, we've done camping before. We've done this, we can do this.' Sure enough, we get the go ahead and everything's great, and then five days before the event, the president of the University calls the head of the performing arts department and says "You wanna tell me what this DeadHead Heaven is?" They said basically, it's a gathering of Dead Heads after the death of Jerry, and the president was like, 'I want everything locked down. You lock down chairs. You l ock down tables.' Again the fear and the stereotypes have always been unfounded. But they still exist.

After that really cool event in 1996 we decided to change the name to Gathering of the Vibes. Gathering of the Vibes was a festival out in California, I found out later. It didn't do very well. In fact it did pretty poorly. It was a tough event but th ey did a couple cool shows. I talked to the owner and he was cool with our taking the name. In 1997 Gathering of the Vibes was at Croton Point Park. It was just a magical weekend experience and we had a lot of people there. And it's grown, but that's the seed. That's where it's come from; that's where we come from. Nobody knows that, but we're leaving names out to protect the innocent.

DA: Do you still try to keep things in the Dead vein? This year there is obviously Ratdog, but there is also Sector 9, or the Disco Biscuits last year. They're pretty far removed from the GD.

Ken: Indeed they are. Our goal here at Terrapin has always been to provide a platform for these bands, a majority of which have been significantly influenced by the Dead in terms of improvisation and live performance; whether it's by selling the bands ch eap tapes so they can get their music out there and flourish or by having them at our festival. They all- I won't say all- but the majority of them have influences to some extent from some of these 1960s and 1970s performers; mainly the Grateful Dead, Sa ntana, and Neil Young. They have the ability to play opened ended but directional improvisation. They all have a foundation of a love of improvisational material. Going way, way out and then reeling everybody back in musically, and taking people on a j ourney. We select our bands at the Gathering of the Vibes based on diversity, based on a loyalty of a grass roots fan base and very much by what Bob Kennedy and myself enjoy.

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Ken: The regulars are moe., Strangefolk, Creek, the Zen Tricksters and Percy. But it's a combination. We receive between three and five CDs of bands that wish to perform at the Vibes or other Terrapin events every day. It's out of control, but it's out of control in a good way. There is some amazing talent out there. Our mission- and it's a difficult mission- is to bring in diversity to the Gathering of the Vibes and to always bring in new blood. I would love to work with every single band that has e ver played the Gathering of the Vibes, but that would foster stagnation. People have accused Terrapin, accused the Gathering of the Vibes, accused me of being stagnant musically, because we bring back all these bands that we love.

This year, it's gone from the Dead Head community to the jamband community and our goal is to integrate the two: old school and new school. A significant chunk of the Gathering is all about the music, but there is also a significant chunk that's about co mmunity. It's about hanging out with friends and making it an annual event, an annual meeting point. Like when I was on Dead tour, every Giants Stadium show, for example, two weeks before I'd get a call from a friend I hadn't spoken with in forty-nine w eeks. They called, and I called them, a couple weeks before and say, 'Hey man, we're getting together at Giants again, right?' What's really meaningful for me about the Gathering of the Vibes is that it's a gathering of friends to join each other, to se e each other again. You know, we're all growing older, we're all working, graduating and trying to make a living. Everyone's cranking right now and the Gathering is one weekend out of the year to push all of the daily stresses aside, to bring your famil y, to bring your dog, to bring the people that you love together.

DA: Do you get to go out and enjoy it?

Ken: For the first time last year I did. Up until last year, it was mostly snap shots for me. I remember DeadHead Heaven with Bob Kennedy, looking over the campground. Imagine going in and looking at a venue that's totally empty; and conceptualizing in your mind what it's going to look like when it's filled, when there are people sitting on their coolers, playing acoustic guitar and singing. There's nothing there, there is no infrastructure. It was mostly snap shots for me at DeadHead Heaven. Specif ically Bob Kennedy and I walking together and looking for the first time at a sunset with a thousand, fifteen hundred tents. We were both in tears. This goes to the heart, it goes to the essence of us, of the entire Terrapin family.

DA: Do you have any favorite musical memories?

Ken: I do. 1997, Croton Point Park, Warren Haynes, solo acoustic.

DA: Which he's doing again this year.

Ken: Which he's doing again this year.

DA: I just saw him do it opening for Jorma. It's rare, I think, for anyone to make it hard for Jorma to follow up, but man, it was hard for Jorma to follow up.

Ken: Another highpoint was at Croton Point Park, we had a bon fire. It has been the only year we could ever pull off a bon fire. Dealing with local municipalities and stuff is tough. It's the most difficult part, dealing with politics.

DA: What about the venues? You did Plattsburgh.

Ken: Plattsburgh sucked for us; and this is something kind of interesting that we're gonna be working over the next week or so- we'll have streaming audio and video. I don't think people have a really good appreciation for what it is and what it takes to put on a festival like Berk Fest or the Gathering of the Vibes or High Sierra or the All Good Festival. Everyone shows up and everything's in place; the portapotties, water and electrical distribution, and staging and craft vending are in place. People don't have an idea about the magnitude, about how much work actually goes in to putting on a festival like this.

What we're doing on the Gathering of the Vibes web site is streaming audio and video of behind the scenes at the Gathering of the Vibes and at Terrapin Tapes. Meeting our department heads, our compliance people, our stage manager, our production director , and our vending coordinators. It allows viewers to get an appreciation of all these different departments, how all this comes together and how much work it involves. Those that have put on a really big party will know. A couple kegs in a fraternity? Sure, but last year we threw a 235 keg bash. That's a big party. There is literally tons of garbage for removal and recycling centers. So I'm excited to show people fi rst hand kind of a little of what goes on behind the scenes at Terrapin.

DA: Since you brought it up, the portapotties were clean! Let me say that again, the portapotties were clean!

Ken: 1996 we had code brown. It was awful, cause I fucked up and didn't have the guys come and service them as often as they should have. Every year I pick one thing that I want to improve on; this year it's gonna be our food service. This year we're g oing to have, I think, the best food service of any festival around. Every year the trial and error process is huge. I'm a tape guy. If you want to know about Maxell XL IIs or a Sony D-8 DAT machine, I could talk for hours, but the learning curve for f estival production?

What's cool is that we're doing it ourselves, we're not following the beaten path. I don't want to know how other festival promoters do things, because I know what I want and how I want to do it. I have the best people: the Terrapin crew. It's not abou t the money, it's about doing it right: providing a space where we can all gather in peaceful harmony and safety.

DA: Is there anything you are really looking forward to this year, aside from, of course, Warren?

Ken: I'm very much looking forward to seeing Ratdog. Bob's just come out of the studio recently; the whole Dead organization is thrilled with what they have, all the tracks they have.

DA: People have their differing opinions about Ratdog, but I dig 'em.

Ken: The thing I most dig about Ratdog, other than musically, is that they do something similar to what I'm trying to do, which is to bring this community together. The more time we spend together, the tighter we are.

DA: I was saying last night that for some reason it doesn't bother me that much when people sing along with Ratdog. That's something that usually drives me crazy. There is something about the community.

Ken: Indeed there is. It's about keeping our community together at whatever means possible. You know, we've lost Dupree's Diamond News, we've lost Unbroken Chain Magazine. Five years ago Jerry died. It rocked our world. The most important thing right now, as far as Dead Heads and a love of music, is keeping our community clean and keeping it together.

Other than that, I'm very much looking forward to exposing people to Mr. Walter "Wolfman" Washington. 1996, Jazzfest. Phish was playing Jazzfest and late night, Tipitina's I think it was, Michael Ray, Trey and Fishman and whole bunch of others- maybe Pa ge was there, I'm not sure. It was packed in there, it was just ungodly hot. I walked out the door to get some fresh air and I heard some blues guitar coming from the little bar right next door. I walked in there and there were like thirty people in a room that would hold two hundred. For the next hour and fifteen minutes, this guy- I had no idea who he was- just blew my mind. Soulful and beautiful, beautiful guitar; and his name was Walter "Wolfman" Washington. Walter didn't know anything about the tape trading community. I spent hours on the phone with management, and management spent time on the phone with Walter. And after these conversations, Walter agreed to be taped, because only artists who allow taping will play at a Terrapin event.

It's similar with John Scofield. My brother Kevin played piano for John Scofield. He's a Blue Note artist and he recently came out with his latest release with Jack Dijonette and Ron Carter. He's played with Sonny Rollins and Joshua Redman, and he's pl ayed with some of the other jazz greats. Kevin played with us in 1997. Anyway John called me up, we have a good relationship, and said, 'Ken, tell me about this taping community.' This was before A Go-Go with Medeski and crew. John and I spent some ti me on the phone and when we hung up, John was like 'I'm cool with that.' That I feel really proud of.

DA: One of my favorite things about Scofield is that I've been a fan for a while, and when A Go-Go came out, the jamband community embraced him and he did the same. He's out there all the time with DBB and Soulive, or Mule. It was like we got this ready-made Grand Master of the jam world.

Ken: I'm very happy that John has been so well received. He's an amazing artist, an amazing person and a friend.

DA: Anything else you want to say?

Ken: Here's my greatest concern. I think we're going to have a very big festival this year. Parking is going to be a problem; it's the worst part of this venue. I ask that people please be understanding, this is the most difficult thing that we're faci ng. I hate shuttle bussing. I hate it with a passion, but we gotta do what we gotta do. So I'd start with that.

Aside from parking , my greatest concern is our ability as a community, with greater numbers of people, to keep the vibe; to sustain that feeling that those who have been to the Gathering of the Vibes have experienced. I have a difficult time putting tha t feeling into words. But we're gonna have more people. And my greatest hope is that we can, with a greater number of people, shed light.

To be able to show New School how Old School used to do it; and show Old School how New School does it now. I want people to be able to come together as a community of old and new, and to express themselves. I want an 18 year old kid to talk to a 35 or 40 year old guy about how it is on Phish tour now; and then talk to the 35 year old about stories of how things were on Dead tour. I don't want the Gathering of the Vibes to grow to anything similar in size or nature to a Woodstock. It's most important to me that we keep our community together. That's our number one goal.

Dan Alford will record the two-hour Iron Chef: New York Battle while he's at the Gathering of the Vibes.