BUCHTEL, Ohio — At the 2025 Nelsonville Music Festival, patrons and workers connected with nature and honored those who have passed on. The fest wasn’t just about the good music — it was about connection.
The festival happened to fall on the summer solstice and some of the hottest days of the summer thus far.
Stuart’s Opera House and NMF Coordinator Tim Peacock said the festival sold around 2,600 weekend passes and, on average, 500 day passes per day. He estimated that around 5,000 people were there each day, including vendors, volunteers and guests.
Performers feel community at NMF
Columbus-based band DANA performed at the Campground stage at 1 a.m. Sunday, June 22. Members Madeline Jackson and Chris Lute said this was their fourth year playing at the festival.
“It’s a wonderful community and it’s very well curated, and they take really good care of artists,” Jackson said.
“It’s like a family reunion,” Lute said.
Rosali Middleman, also known as Rosali, performed a solo guitar act as Edsel Axel on Saturday, June 21. She also performed with David Nance & Mowed Sound at the Creekside Stage on Friday, June 20.
“After playing with them a bunch on the road we felt like we had a lot more territory to explore –– and friendship,” Middleman said.
Middleman said the festival has “a very laid back feeling,” compared to other festivals that can feel restrictive.
Performing as Weedghost, Andrew Lampela and Kris Poland have been coming to NMF since 2008, with a few gap years.
“This year in particular is just a little oasis,” Lampela said.
“You get to see a handful of bands that you never get to see, that you don’t know,” Lampela said. Shirlette Ammons, Two Runner, Brood X, Southern Avenue and BALTHVS were some of the bands that made their first appearance at NMF this year.
Volunteers and vendors contribute, too
Harmony Renn volunteered at the kid’s activities tent, sponsored by Athens Birth Circle and Snowville Creamery. Renn said the Stuart’s Opera House Afterschool Music Program bands designed shirts, which kids could screenprint themselves at the kid’s tent.
Talcon Quinn, one of the vendors, sold jewelry and accessories made out of repurposed materials, like deer bones.
“The deer bones are coming from hunters who are hunting for subsidence and I’m using the front feet which would otherwise be thrown out and when I do that, I’m also harvesting the skins,” Quinn explained.
She also makes jewelry out of electrical wire, computer parts and antique beads. Quinn said she’s trying to “create art that has a minimal impact and an impact that’s attuned with nature.”
Another vendor, Bancroft Street Music, a vendor from Washington, D.C. who creates folk instruments out of cigar boxes, also tries to minimize its ecological footprint.
“Now, because supplies are so readily available, part of our interest in it is reusing materials that would end up in a landfill,” Claire Inie-Richards, who was working at Bancroft Street Music’s tent, said.
For another year, Zero Waste Productions managed waste at NMF.
“We keep tons and tons of waste out of landfills to make room for things that can’t be recycled or reused or composted,” said Lexi Beshara, one of the five owners of Zero Waste Productions.
As of Sunday afternoon, June 22, Zero Waste had handled 3,000 lbs of waste with a 87% diversion rate.
Honoring Howard Fokes
Among changes to the festival this year, organizers renamed the main stage Howard’s Stage, after Clifford “Howard” Fokes, who volunteered at the festival since 2009. He passed away earlier this year.
Peacock said Fokes worked on the festival year-round, attended weekly committee meetings for the festival, and served on the board of Stuart’s Opera House. It was Peacock’s idea to name the stage in honor of Fokes, though he’s still uncertain if the name is permanent.
Volunteer OJ Bolin supervised the merchandise tent alongside his wife, Angela, and his sister, Julie, and spoke highly of Fokes.
“No matter what was happening, Howard would know what [was needed] to fix it, where it was happening, where to go,” Bolin said.
Bolin thought it was “fitting” to name the stage after Fokes.
“He’d be here working his fingers to the bone for those guys at Stuart’s,” Bolin said.
Honoring Michael Hurley
NMF also held a celebration of beloved folk singer-songwriter and cartoonist Michael Hurley at 6 p.m. Sunday, June 22, on the Creekside Stage. While alive, Hurley attended NMF almost every year it was held.
Soon after Hurley passed April 1, Bonnie Prince Billy, or Will Oldham, who was the master of ceremonies for Hurley’s celebration, reached out to Peacock about putting together something to memorialize Hurley.
Sarah Warda, a friend of Hurley’s, made the art surrounding the Creekside Stage. The design, which was inspired by Hurley’s work, was made to look like the tavern on the cover of Hurley’s record, “Hi Fi Snock Uptown,” released in 1971. The name Snock’s Tavern came from Hurley’s nickname.
Warda also set up vintage toy viewfinders along the path to the Creekside Stage, with pictures of Hurley that patrons could peruse.
Wished Bone, Spencer Radcliffe and Everything, Styrofoam Winos, Linsey Nevins, Jolie Holland, Tara Jane O’Neil, and Chico Bunch paid tribute to Hurley at the celebration.
“What I’ve learned from this whole situation is, Michael kind of curated, kind of without us knowing, a really amazing group of friends,” Nevins told the audience. “If you were a weirdo — not like your standard weirdo, but real weird — he embraced you more.”
Nevins tap-danced to keep rhythm for Hurley’s songs she performed, and others’.
“It was a nice way to listen to Michael’s music and share his story and part of who he was through the voices of other musicians,” Peacock said.
The audience joined in on several of the songs, one of them written by Jack Michelin for Hurley. Nevins said Hurley would sing it “at significant times where he wanted to convey something about eternity to a friend.”
The chorus of the song goes: “It’s the dead, it’s the dead, it’s the goddamn dead; it’s the dead that rule the world.”
Changes from last year
Festival-goers may have noticed that the layout of the festival this year was a little different from last year: the Porch Stage was flipped around to relieve concert-goers from direct sun. “The primary reason was that it gives the audience more shade while they’re watching the show,” Peacock said.
People were sprawled on the grass in front of the Porch Stage this weekend, favoring the shade, which moved farther away from the stage throughout the day.
The festival introduced additional Americans with Disabilities Act-accessible areas this year, to provide those with less mobility clear views of the Howard’s, Porch and Creekside stages.
Peacock said the festival dates for next year haven’t been decided yet. Stuart’s selected the June dates for 2025 to avoid scheduling conflicts with other music festivals and events. Peacock said many of the NMF patrons are from Columbus, which hosts a Pride event the second week of June.
Weekend pass prices started at $170, and, while previously receiving free entry, this year Nelsonville and Buchtel residents were offered weekend passes for $85.
Camping cost $30 per person and parking cost $35–75, depending on where patrons parked.
“We’re trying hard, desperately hard, to keep ticket prices low, but our expenses just exponentially grow,” Peacock said.
Festival merchandise is not a huge revenue source, but it helps, volunteer Bolin said. Artists who sell at the festival retain 85% of profits, and Stuarts Opera House keeps 15%, Bolin said.
Every year, the NMF poster is designed by a different artist, with Catie St. Jacques behind this year’s art, NMF Marketing Director Mackenzie Zucharsky wrote in an email to the Independent.
Snow Fork Event Center has been the location for the festival for the last four years. Stuart’s Opera House leases the land from Miki Brooks. The land was previously used as a golf course, and before that, a mine.
Let us know what's happening in your neck of the woods!
Get in touch and share a story!
