In this conversation, Barnett English shares his journey from a music enthusiast to the founder of the Joshua Tree Music Festival. He discusses the unique aspects of his festival, including its intimate atmosphere, focus on emerging artists, and family-friendly environment. Barnett also addresses the challenges faced by the festival industry, especially in the wake of recent cancellations, and emphasizes the importance of shared experiences among attendees. The festival's diverse activities and workshops, along with its camping accommodations, contribute to a holistic experience for festival-goers.

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Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Barnett English and the Joshua Tree Music Festival 03:05 Barnett's Journey into Music Festivals 05:58 The Unique Experience of Smaller Festivals 08:47 Artist Selection and Festival Philosophy 12:02 Challenges in the Festival Industry 15:03 The Importance of Shared Experiences 17:57 Family-Friendly Atmosphere at the Festival 20:56 Workshops and Activities Beyond Music 24:03 Logistics of Running a Biannual Festival 27:03 Camping and Accommodations at the Festival 29:55 Final Thoughts and Festival Highlights

Barnett English (00:00.269) Yeah, it wouldn't be my first time.

Danny (00:01.914) And so here we go. All right, Barnett English. Thank you so much for joining me here on the Highway 62 podcast. How are you today?

Barnett English (00:12.377) Fabulous, best day of my life. Thanks for asking. Yeah.

Danny (00:14.235) Every day, right? I love the background there. You got some really cool artwork going behind you. that you in the home office or?

Barnett English (00:19.374) Hmm

Yeah, world headquarters. It's our only headquarters. Yeah, yeah, some killer photos that friends have taken and trinkets and books. Things that inspire.

Danny (00:33.838) Wonderful. Excellent. You are the founder, the creator of the Joshua Tree Music Festival. And I want to talk all about that and, you know, what's in store for this year. But first, I'd like to hear a little bit about your background prior to that and kind of how you found your way into starting a music festival.

Barnett English (00:57.351) Yeah, that's a good question. Gosh, I've been a music junkie my whole life. So I started collecting albums when I was 10 years old. I'd get split albums with my brother and it Sears and Roebuck back in Louisville, Kentucky for five bucks an album. And then made hundreds and hundreds of mixed tapes and spent a really stupid amount of my earnings in my whole life on.

Danny (01:12.044) Yeah.

Barnett English (01:25.927) on records and CDs. So I've always loved music and then started a coffee business back in 93. Started selling coffee at music festivals. And so now 30 years later, I've been to over 1200 music festivals selling coffee. And the first one I went to back in 95, I saw some of my favorite bands and met these friends, people that are still friends today and had the most amazing time.

Danny (01:34.815) okay.

Barnett English (01:51.656) I walked away from that one going, you know, that's all I want to ever do is be at a music festival. This is, this is it. This has got it all, you know? And so here we are 30 years later and I'm still doing it. So I was going to coffee, selling coffee at these festivals. And then on a whim, I came to Joshua tree to the campground on Sun Fair road, the Joshua tree Lake campground, where we have the festival. There was a small didgeridoo gathering there.

And so I came to sell coffee there and I drove in in the middle of the night and didn't see a thing and woke up in the morning and looked out and went, holy smokes, look at this view, know, looking at the national park and, you know, stars all, blinding stars at night. And then, so I mentioned to the folks that own the campground, said, hey, Sally, why don't you have a real music festival here, you know? And more than just didgeridoos, nothing against didgeridoos, but there are more instruments.

Danny (02:29.23) Yeah.

Danny (02:45.913) You should.

Barnett English (02:47.689) So she said, you know, gosh, if you're so smart, why don't you do it yourself? And so she dared me. And so within six months, I'd moved to Joshua Tree, found a home and had our first music festival. And that was April of, April 9 through 11 of 2003, we had our first one. So, so I just fell in love with Joshua Tree instantly.

Danny (03:05.324) Wow.

Danny (03:09.579) It's, know, as you know, from just a little bit of, you know, chatting we had done, I'm a musician myself, so I'm used to, you know, from that musician side of going to big music festivals as a musician. You know, I've played Reading and Leeds and I just got back this weekend, this last weekend, we played Riot Fest in Chicago, which is a huge music festival. And I guess from my standpoint, when you say like,

Barnett English (03:23.506) Yeah.

Barnett English (03:32.349) Right.

Danny (03:37.741) All she wanted to do was go to music. like what in your right mind made you think to go into the music festival business? Because it is it, you know, for people, you know, for fans that just go to watch the music. mean, obviously they see it's a big production and everything, but just what's going on behind the stages, the back end of it is is crazy. You know, I mean, did you know what you were getting into?

Barnett English (03:43.708) right. Yeah.

Barnett English (04:00.06) Madness. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I no, luckily I was very stupid and naive. I never would have started it. You know, I thought what, hard could it be, right? Build a stage, get some bands to play, rent a port -a -let, sell a few tickets. And so yeah, I just went into it super naive, but you know, we always, I always started small and you know, never, never dreamt too big and.

Danny (04:24.343) Yeah.

Barnett English (04:27.671) you know, and never ran up a bill too big that I couldn't, pay back later, by selling some coffee. So, you know, we just built it slowly and organically and, you know, so ours is very different. mean, I've been to every single Coachella, you know, that's massive and, been to all kinds of vessels, big, small, green, purple, red. And I've just, I just always, my big takeaway is, I love the ones that are a little more small. You know, they're smaller. So like you and I, we'd run into each other.

Danny (04:52.993) Yeah.

Barnett English (04:56.683) 25 times over the course of 72 hours, having breakfast in the mornings, around the campfire at night, and as opposed to at the Riot Fest, if we dropped a pin and we're lucky to know how to do that, then maybe we could find each other.

Danny (04:57.898) Yes. Right, right.

Danny (05:09.408) Yeah, I mean, was a gargantuan gargantuan event. And, know, you've got the crossover of bands. So, you know, and there was people there from, you know, all kind of bands that weren't playing that they were just there, you know, to just hang out and stuff like that. And it was tough for even them to be like, I want to come see you guys, but I got to get over to this stage. You know, I want to see this band. And and I think my experience has been playing some smaller

Barnett English (05:11.933) Yeah.

Barnett English (05:17.736) Yeah.

Barnett English (05:32.842) Yeah.

Danny (05:38.878) festivals have been where I've had the most fun. All props to Riot Fest, though. you know, not that anyone from Riot Fest will hear this podcast probably, but that probably was the best run big festival we've ever played. Like everything was dialed and the sound and the production, you know, for for you as a band, you know, like playing in the band, there is nothing worse than going to a festival and

Barnett English (05:44.544) Yeah.

Barnett English (05:53.683) Yeah, cool.

Barnett English (05:58.262) Nice.

Danny (06:07.896) You know, a lot of times, too, if you're not like the main headline band, you know, you're probably not doing a sound check. You're still wanting to use in -ear monitors. And, you know, we bring our own in -ear monitor rig and, you know, 20 minute changeover. And sometimes it's like, you know, you got 20 minutes, you turn on your in -ears and you're like, I'm hearing, you know, whatever craziness. I did a whole festival recently with zero monitors, nothing in my ear and nothing on the stage because they couldn't get it hooked up.

Barnett English (06:14.434) Yeah.

Barnett English (06:22.796) That's crazy.

Barnett English (06:33.583) my gosh.

Danny (06:37.036) But Riot Fest, man, it was so pro. Like I turned on my in -ears and it was like, I'm like listening to a record right now. It was so good. So when it's good like that, it's really amazing. But most of the time it doesn't go like that for the musicians. And

Barnett English (06:41.44) Yeah.

Barnett English (06:47.691) Yeah, it's nice.

Barnett English (06:55.246) Yeah, I go to a lot of the festivals and it's like that where they, you know, they just have unrealistic schedules and unrealistic change over times. And, know, so from the very beginning, we just always had two stages. we'd alternate from one stage to the other. So you have a full two hours to completely set up, check your in -ear monitors, make sure everything's sweet. And meanwhile, the crowd is all together at the other stage. And then when they finish, literally you just turn 90 degrees and you look, and then you start 15 minutes later. So.

Danny...

Joshua Tree Music Festival with Barnett English