The 20th anniversary of Jerry Jam, which celebrates the music of The Grateful Dead, was, once again, held in the sleepy, rolling hills of Bath, New Hampshire this past weekend. The festival moved across the street to Klay Knoll Farm, from Dodge Farm, for this year’s celebration. The new venue was bigger and more organized than the previous year. The stage was setup at the bottom of the hills, creating a natural amphitheater for the music to be heard throughout the majority of the venue.
One thing this festival does well is care about the land. Recycling and trash receptacles were scattered throughout the venue. A trash truck also drove through the camping areas to help attendees keep their sites clean by collecting trash and recyclables. Jerry Jam is also one of the best festivals to bring your children. They had a children’s tent, a kid’s parade, face paint, and much more for the young ones. There is also a creek nearby that provides plenty of space to cool off and take a break from the sun. Festival goers also were treated to fly-by’s from a yellow bi-plane two days in a row that made several passes overhead.
Jerry Jam had an unprecedented four night run of music featuring Melvin Seals. This was the third year in a row that Seals had performed on the festival stage, but this year he joined four different acts throughout the run: Cats Under the Stars, The Garcia Project, JGB and Dead Set. Each performance with Seals brought attendees out to dance under the stars, and dance they did. Having been a long time performer with the Jerry Garcia Band, it was quite the honor to be in the presence of such an incredible musician all weekend long.
The festival not only had performances of bands featuring the music of the Grateful Dead, such as DEAD Undercover and Fennario, but the line-up included music that reached across all genres. Other tribute/cover bands included Hurricane, which covered the music of Neil Young, and Pink Talking Fish, a tribute band for Pink Floyd, Talking Heads and Phish.
The Blind Owl Band gave an awe-inspiring bluegrass performance that had people talking about them long after their last notes dropped. Roots of Creation had people turning their heads with their reggae influenced sound. Otis Grove gave an absolutely energy-packed performance and had people coming out of their sites to come down and dance to their grooving tunes. Once again, The Van Burens made an appearance at Jerry Jam and rocked out to the tireless crowd.
Other notables included a complete power failure across the venue during Max Creek’s first song of their set. It was a five minute interruption, and they continued on once power was restored. Fluesy was also on the lineup. This band was the first to perform for Jerry Jam way back when, and was requested by Daniel Webb, the man behind this festival, to perform at the 20th annual. On Sunday morning, before anyone took the stage, a lone man appeared on the hill in full Scottish garb and, to the surprise and delight of all attendees, started the morning off with bagpipes.
One of the highlights of the festival was on Saturday evening when A Jam Beyond Description took the stage. It featured Melvin Seals, Jay Lane of Golden Gate Wingmen and RatDog, Kenny Brooks of RatDog, Zach Nugent of Cats Under the Stars and Dead Set, Scott Murawski of Max Creek and Trey Anastasio Band, Russ Lawton of Trey Anastasio Band and Soule Monde, and Tony Markellis of Trey Anastasio Band. They played to a packed concert field. The energy from the talented group had everyone bouncing all over the venue, including the high camping areas on the hills that had a direct view of the stage. It was impossible not to dance when they performed.
The variety of music at Jerry Jam goes from full on Grateful Dead covers, to blue grass to a little bit of everything in between. The festival is capped at 2,500 people and allows VW buses to get in free. Their mission is to “promote an experience of a truly pure, positive, higher level of consciousness….where music is the drug and the like-minded people are the driving force of energy to create the experience.” Like last year, rain fell during a few performances over the weekend, but that didn’t stop fans from kicking off their shoes and dancing their hearts out. Jerry Jam is the festival to attend if you want to be off the grid with no cell service while enjoying endless music and good vibes over a long weekend. For a truly amazing experience that is fun for the whole family, Jerry Jam should be on your list of festivals to attend next year.
Photos by Joey Simpson, full gallery below:
