~ by Ryan Stacy
Pulling off America’ s most laid-back music festival every year is hard work— just ask Tom Burkhart, co-promoter and talent buyer for the 8 th Annual John Hartford Memorial Festival( JHMF), scheduled for May 30 through June 2 at Bean Blossom’ s Bill Monroe Music Park. The outdoor event features three stages of simultaneous performance over four days dedicated to the life and music of the late John Hartford, known to many as the fiddle-playing tour-de-force who influenced generations of American roots musicians, and to others as the godfather of the Newgrass movement.
As a lifelong disciple of the musical genre that came to be called Americana, Tom went to the Hartford Festival’ s earliest incarnations as a fan. Blown away by what he saw and heard there, he was soon talking to John Hotze, the Festival’ s founder and a former bandmate of Hartford’ s, about how he could put his business background and organizing acumen to use for Hotze. Soon, the two formed a partnership, and Tom’ s been busy ever since, scouting bands, doing promotions, selling tickets, and coordinating all the people and equipment involved at showtime each year.
But Tom’ s no corporate promoter looking to make JHMF outgrow its beauty and purpose by appealing to the fickle tastes of the masses. Far from it. By capping festival ticket sales well below capacity and allowing people to bring in their
May 30 – June 2, 2018
John Hartford Memorial Festival
The Hammer and The Hatchet. photo by Cindy Steele
20 Our Brown County • May / June 2018
Festival co-promoter Tom Burkhart. photo by Ryan Stacy
own food and drinks, for example, he violates a cardinal rule of business(” Thou shalt squeeze every possible dollar from every possible customer!”)— which is A-OK by him.“ We’ re a for-profit business that doesn’ t turn a profit,” he laughs, referring to his and Hotze’ s partnership.“ But John Hartford wasn’ t about commercial success, he was about music, and that’ s what we’ re about. We want people to have the space to camp, to not be on top of each other, and to attract the audience that really appreciates what John’ s music means.”
This approach even extends to the way Tom chooses the bands who will perform each year.“ We strive to strike a balance with who we book,” he explains.“ The common thread between all the acts is their love for John Hartford’ s music, but beyond that we want some folks representing the old-timey sound, and some representing the newer musical directions. We like big national acts, but we also want to get a good number of performers from right around Brown County. And we always make sure women— especially bands fronted by women— are well-represented in the lineup.”
True to form, this year’ s roster at the Festival has lots to offer fans of old-timey music, traditional bluegrass, Americana, roots, and all the subgenres and hybrids in between. Fans will recognize names like The