On Saturday, August 1st, starting at 2 p.m., Centennial Field will host the 18th season of the Dacono Music and Spirits Festival. The combination music festival and spirits competition has become a beloved and celebrated tradition for Dacono and continues to grow in attendance. We recently jumped on a call with concert director Chris “K.” Kresge, a music industry veteran and the host and producer of The Colorado Playlist radio show. Later, we spoke with the festival headliner, William Clark Green, to talk to him about the upcoming performance.
Jamie Lammers: How did this festival start? Chris K.: The original festival was called Dacono Days in 2008. It was a celebration of the 100th anniversary of the city of Dacono. My original intention, because of who I am, what I do, and how I’m known, I wanted it to be a Colorado-centric lineup every year. You get to a point where availability and price dictates that you can’t do that because you get to a point where you want to grow every year, so a few years into the deal, I started booking non-Colorado headliners.
Jamie: How was organizing this year? Chris: My process goes on all year. I’m already thinking about two years from now. Starting in October, that’s when I start getting serious. I start building my list of what I want for the year. I think my initial offers went out in November. Basically, the industry shuts down in December and January, so when we come back to work, that’s when the real hard work gets going. I’ll be shooting emails and on the phone pretty heavily all the way up until I make the final contract in March.
Jamie: What’s been particularly cool about getting the festival ready? Chris: The national headliner has always been fun for me because, being a promoter, having had my own place at one point, you learn to understand that marquee matters. If you want to build something, you need a name that attracts, that has draw. My objective every year is, “Can I get a Colorado headliner?” Then, what you do in that process is you weigh that against the marketing of this whole program. It’s a fascinating process, and I don’t want to take away the fact that this festival is the premier event of its kind in our region, hands down. Our in-house estimates range from 3,500 to 5,000 people on this show. It is representative of the efforts of the city of Dacono. Every year, I think about all the shows we’ve done and how increasingly popular and successful they’ve become, and the team the city has built to plan and organize and staff. This is not a small town show; this is the biggest show of the year in Carbon Valley. That, to me, is what it’s all about.
Jamie Lammers: Are you excited to head to Dacono? William Clark Green: Absolutely. We play Steamboat, Denver, and Boulder quite a bit, so it’ll be nice to get out and see what the rest of the state looks like.
Jamie: How did you get started in music? William: I started writing songs about seventh, eighth grade, and it just slowly formed into a career. I really started in Lubbock, when I was going to school in Texas Tech, and played at every open mic and songwriter’s circle I could get on. Once I turned 21, I started a band and started hitting the road. I’ve been doing it for about 18 years now, and it’s been a very fruitful, awesome, and amazing experience – most of the time. Sometimes, the road life has its challenges, but we’ve been on the road for 18 years, so I don’t really know much different.
Jamie: What do you focus on in terms of songs and performances? William: My songwriting could be anything, but it primarily lends itself to folk-country. I put myself as a songwriter first and foremost. I’ve written rock songs, folk songs, country songs, and everything in between. I like writing with different people and getting different perspectives with everything. It’s always interesting.
Jamie: What do you hope people end up taking away? William: Well, the goal for every show is to gain fans. We’re in the business of making fans, so hopefully, everyone has a great time and enjoys the music, we have some fans that show up, and we leave with some new fans. That’s the pretty basic formula for the touring life, especially for an independent band.
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