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According to an article on Pollstar.com, Jefferson County commissioners have denied plans to move the annual Wakarusa Music & Camping Festival from Clinton State Park in Lawrence, Kansas, to the nearby Circle S Ranch.
There was a similar proposal last year that was also rejected, and the issue appears to be that the site just isn't set up for a festival - with gravel roads that would fall apart under rain and heavy traffic. That and local residents oppose the idea in general.
Promoter Brett Mosiman previously told Pollstar he wanted to move the event because of “inequities in contractual terms versus other events."
Mosiman said that over the past few years Wakarusa's rent was raised “somewhere in the neighborhood of 800 percent," while another local fest, Country Stampede, didn't experience any fee increase. Mosiman went on to say that the parks department had reduced Wakarusa's capacity to 13,000, while they increased Country Stampede's to 40,000.
Mosiman intends to continue work on Wakarusa and hopes to find an adequate home, but he doesn't think Clinton State Park is the place. Mosiman reportedly told the Capital-Journal: “It's doubtful we'll stick around Lawrence. We wanted to stay here, but it is looking less likely."
Check out JamBase's 2008 review of Wakarusa here.
