The geniality and the professionalism of the people running the festival were truly impressive. Jarrett Hartstone (manager, Sam Kininger Band) loved Up North and said it was "extremely well put together." Voicing what may be the best compliment to the festival's producers, Quinn Ferree (The Indobox) said he "never would have guessed that this was their first year doing it," a sentiment that was echoed by many other performers and festival-goers. "Between the beautiful campgrounds, the awesome staff, the diversity of music and overall vibe, you'd think it was in its third or fourth year. It was a nice balance of having big name acts without the overwhelming crowd and gigantic concert grounds that come with festivals like Bonnaroo or Gathering of the Vibes. At no point did I feel overwhelmed or pressured to go see this music and then cut that band short to go to a third stage, and then leave them to go see the main act and so forth. It was planned really well because the side stage and the main stage were right next to each other and you could walk so there was a nice back and forth. Once you add a third stage, then it kind of gets a little hectic. The campgrounds were amazing, the staff bent over backwards to make people happy, the crowd was mad chill. It wasn't a dirty, scrappy scene, like you see at other festivals, but it was an amazing draw for a first year festival. It was a manageable crowd with big name acts at an amazing, beautiful campground." The Indobox is almost constantly on the road ("permatouring," as Quinn put it), and he said that since they had been playing shows with many of the bands at Up North for a couple years now, "it really felt like a professional home production." Quinn also praised the general cleanliness of the festival; after some of the recent larger festivals, Up North was a breath of fresh air. Van Martin (Spiritual Rez) said Up North was the most fun of their tour, thanks to the outstanding organization, wisely chosen lineup, and because "they invited a lot of friends, especially people who don't see each other that often from upstate New York and New England. Rez will definitely be back next year." Johnny Trama (Peter Prince and the Johnny Trama Unit) also promised to return: "I love the home vibe," he said, describing the connectedness of the producers, the bands, and extended music family.

The superb musical lineup for the festival was a carefully chosen mix of larger touring acts supported by up-and-coming local bands. The main headliners were The Wailers on Friday night, Umphrey's McGee on Saturday, and Bob Weir & RatDog closing out the festivities on Sunday evening. In between we were treated to the luscious musical stylings of a terrific mix of artists including: The Everyone Orchestra (featuring Jon Fishman), Jimkata, Soulive, Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad, Lettuce, Red Generator, Incus, Eddy Dyer, The Indobox, Peter Prince & the Johnny Trama Unit, John Brown's Body, Spiritual Rez, Ryan Montbleau Band, The Breakfast, RJD2, You Can Be A Wesley, The Trainwreks, American Babies, Lazy Lightning, Railroad Earth, The Brew, Assembly of Dust, Sam Kininger Band, and Future Rock.

Tickets to see these 27 acts were only $140 for a 3-day camping pass (at the gate, day of the festival), with cheaper early bird rates available in the weeks leading up to the event. Up North also offered a $325 VIP package that included VIP lounge access, with discounted Gritty's beer and Island Creek oysters, complimentary food and massages, a VIP viewing area at the concert field, and the nicest portable bathrooms I have ever seen at a festival. That having been said, there were some small but smelly issues with waste management, but it's fair enough to chalk it up to one of the small yet inevitable messes that may accompany the birth of any new thing.

To the credit of the organizers, even unforeseen problems (like the port-a-potty issues) were acknowledged and resolved with fastidious and efficient care. On the last day of the festival, Corey Moses got a radio call that a young boy had been missing for an hour. He asked where the boy had last been seen and, without knowing what anyone else was doing, immediately ran to the area, yelling the boy's name. While he was out searching, another call came in that the boy had been found. Later, he discovered that Courtney had done exactly the same thing. "And we weren't security, you know?" Corey said. "We were just producers."

This kind of sincere concern for the well-being of the campers cannot be faked, and many remarked that the organizers' consideration for the attendees was so personal and authentic that it was like going to a really big party thrown by your friends. Up North was attended by an audience as varied and colorful as the artists who performed for them, and the assortment of people present was the kind of collective that can only be found at such a singular event. Present were artists of every kind, mixed in with the young families, the bohemian wanderers, the urban professionals and the urban gypsies who had come from far and near. The local fans were people of all ages. A banjo-playing doctor in the VIP camping area told me he had shared a beer and a conversation with the local Chief of Police, who was enjoying himself immensely. To give another example of the easy amiability of our Hiram hosts, a handful of volunteers failed to show up on the first day of the festival, so some local kids were recruited off the street to replace them; the organizers said the new recruits were incredibly helpful and were happy to be a part of the festival, even after working all day for free. I had the pleasure of sharing some Sunday morning mimosas with Ryan and Holland, two Portland residents who were relishing being able to hear so much great music in such a terrific setting so close to home -- a rarity for them. Their friend, who had arrived to meet them the previous day at the festival, had promptly fallen asleep in his tent. That morning he was still sound asleep and (according to Ryan and Holland) not even the bacon and eggs they made could wake him up. They explained that he had been following bands on tour all summer, and now that he had come home to Maine, he could finally rest.

If bacon and eggs isn't your thing, there were all kinds of delicious fresh, organic, vegetarian/vegan, and ethnic foods available among the vendors. There was also a live glass blower, a hot air balloon, a massage tent, a general store, and all kinds of eco-conscious and hippie-friendly crafts, jewelry and apparel. Visibly marked recycling boxes were posted at regular intervals throughout the fairgrounds, and many of the vendors catered to the green theme. One of the booths was even solar-powered. Also apropos to the festival was the presence of Strangers Helping Strangers, an organization which conducted a raffle and canned goods drive to benefit a local food bank.

Karen Tracey, a licensed massage therapist and reflexologist, provided complimentary bodywork in the VIP area. Karen's practice is based outside of Boston, and her bodywork includes Thai yoga massage, prenatal massage, Shiatsu, ear candling, and Indian head massage. Karen told me a bit about why massages are such a great service to offer at a festival: "People who go to these festivals are generally more open to natural therapies. Many people drove for hours to get here and massage can be really beneficial in recovering from the strains of driving." Karen also described how valuable massage therapy could be for professional musicians, many of whom suffer repetitive strain injuries and muscle tension from playing for extended periods. Of course, massage has more than just physical benefits, as seen by the continuous stream of people walking blissfully away from Karen's massage tent, some muttering about having just had "a spiritual experience."

"With festivals you have the opportunity to do so many different things, culturally," Rick added. "When you see these mega-rock festivals, it's this super-corporate, big rock and roll interface and it's really not cultural at all. So this vibe of having all these friends around -- that's a cultural experience. That's what I think festivals need to get back to. If we can grow on that feeling, then we're doing what a festival actually is, you know what I mean?" Being able to experience the local culture is certainly a major advantage of a smaller, more personal festival. As Rick explained his festival philosophy, I thought about balance. Up North was a beautifully balanced festival that maintained its own distinctive feeling, which included the flavor of the local community -- without losing its essence to a saturation of big corporate sponsorships. "On some levels, it's cultural no matter what when you get that many people together enjoying different kinds of music, but when you get to the roots of it -- what is a festival? It should be a celebration of the local community, a celebration of friends, of family; it should be a celebration of concepts and ideas, and that's what links into this whole green thing. We would love to get to a point where there are many festivals within the festival." Rick discussed Earth Day in Boston, where there is a focus on one thing -- the greening of the planet -- but there many different activities happening underneath the Earth Day umbrella. Up North Productions wanted to do a similar thing by including various kinds of arts and crafts in their festival, and are looking forward to expanding their artistic offerings in the future. Chris conveyed a similar message: "What people can expect is another really good festival. We're going to try to keep the caliber of bands on the same path; we don't want to steer too far left like Bonnaroo, or festivals of that size that tend to go more mainstream. We want to try to keep the grassroots feel. This is going to be a New England brand of festival for years to come."

Up North was billed as a "Green Event" and encouraged attendees to carpool by providing a link on their website to eco-rideshare program PickupPal. As an extra motivation to carpool, only vehicles with three or more people in them were allowed within the campgrounds, and others parked farther away in a satellite parking lot and were shuttled to the festival site. Rick shared some of the ideas that influenced making Up North a green festival: "I've been really inspired by the Lowell Folk Festival; their recycling program is unbelievable. They literally recycle everything. The actual garbage that they throw out is less than a 30-yard container for 250,000 people." The Lowell Folk Festival is certainly an excellent role model for any festival aspiring to sustainability: every consumable sold at the festival can be recycled or composted, and the effort is organized by the festival through the local community, the vendors, and the attendees. Given that this was Up North's debut, it is premature to compare their festival to something on the scale of the Lowell Folk Festival, but Rick explained that they "wanted to at least get people focused on the concept [of sustainability], just to introduce it to people. Get people carpooling, get people conscious of separating their cans and their recyclables. Our goal for this year was at least to get a consciousness going. When we move forward, we'd love to be able to get into composting, we'd love to be able to get into truly a 100% green event." Bearing in mind the producers' earnest sincerity and professional dedication to efficiency and infrastructure, I have no doubts that Up North will be able to successfully make their mark without making a footprint. "If people had a good time this year," Rick said, "well, just wait until next year…"

Considering the overwhelming success of this year's event, we have a lot to look forward to at the next Up North Festival. Rick revealed some details about what to expect, and how Up North Productions will address the balance between having big-name acts and continuing to expand without losing the quality of intimacy: "From our perspective, the more people that show up to support it the better, but I think it could still probably grow with a couple thousand more people and it would still have the exact same feeling. There is room and space to grow, which is good. I can't imagine we're going to be doing a mega-rock fest with Metallica; if anything, you might see the genres change a little bit. We might get a bit more into some country stuff, but all that fits in the jamband scene. We talked about wanting to potentially bring in someone like Wilco or My Morning Jacket, and some of the more indie-rock bands, too. So there's going to be some growing in terms of the genres, but I think in terms of size, we're years away from having to worry about this thing getting too big." The sense of friendship and intimacy that was present at Up North led numerous people to draw comparisons to the early Berkfest and Creekside festivals, and seems to have emerged as their successor. Here's hoping that Up North Productions can continue to raise consciousness while connecting friends in the name of great live music.

Rick expressed his gratitude for all enormously positive response Up North Productions has gotten: "I definitely want to have it be out there how much we really appreciate everybody coming and supporting it. It's really an overwhelming feeling to stand up there and think that we had this idea, and we all believed in it and thought it would be a great plan, and to put that much work and effort into it and then to be validated by all of those people that showed up and had a blast… A big thank you on behalf of Up North Productions, as well as a big thank you to all the volunteers and everybody, we so appreciate it. Everybody there basically was volunteering their time to make this happen. We really appreciate all of the love and support that we've gotten from the music community. Hopefully we'll be able to keep doing this again and again."

They say that the family of the twenty-first century is made up of friends and not relatives, so maybe that's why Up North felt more like a homecoming or a family reunion than an arbitrary collection of strangers. Forrest Chess, another member of the extended music family, was a last-minute recruit to the production team. In addition to being The Indobox's manager, he was also the Stage Manager for the second stage at Up North. When asked for his thoughts on the festival, Forrest said, "I thought it was extremely well-run, especially for a first-year production." He also commended the choice of location: "Everyone heard 'Maine' and 'jamband festival' and thought it was all the way up in Canada like the Phish ones, but it was pretty conveniently located for Northern New England." Hiram is in western Maine near the New Hampshire border, roughly a three-hour drive from Boston and about four hours from Burlington, VT. Forrest also appreciated the lack of overlapping musical acts, and fortunately his Stage Manager duties didn't keep him from rocking the Saturday night Indobox set. "The late-night set was phenomenal. They smashed the whole festival in half over their knee. It was massive." The Indobox encored with "All My Friends" by LCD Soundsystem, and segued into a chorus of Lighthouse (an old Indobox favorite of fans and friends). "The reason that they selected 'All My Friends,' and even the tag on the end of it, was because the song was a namesake: that's who they were working with and surrounded by and playing with and who was standing in the audience. It really had that family-like vibe going on."