After five-year hiatus, NedFest resurrects for a weekend of tunes from local legends, an epic superjam

Aug. 23—After a five-year hiatus, Nederland's much-missed summertime music festival — aka NedFest — is returning Saturday and Sunday in the form of the NedFest Family Reunion.

For most people, the phrase "family reunion" conjures up images of old potato salad plopped on a paper plate, a smattering of distant relatives wearing matching T-shirts, or some humid picnic table in rural Pennsylvania.

Luckily, the NedFest Family Reunion is slated to be nothing like your standard family gathering. (Unless you have a really, really cool family).

Rather, the revived two-day festival is set to feature a stellar lineup of performances from some of the top players in the Colorado music scene — and some special guests from elsewhere.

The weekend lineup promises music from Flash Mountain Flood, Smooth Money Gesture, Rocket Parade, No Go Gillbillies, Fruition, Dango Rose, Bridget Law, Taylor Sims, Silas Herman and The Hillbenders, to name a few.

The weekend will culminate Saturday night with one massively funky superjam, with musicians from all over the genre spectrum joining together on stage for a once-in-a-lifetime performance.

The superjam supergroup consists of Dave Watts (The Motet) and Scott Messersmith (The California Honeydrops) keeping the beat on drums and percussion, Kyle Hollingsworth (The String Cheese Incident) tickling the ivories on keys, Jennifer Hartswick (Trey Anastasio Band) on trumpet and vocals, Robert Mercurio (Galactic) slapping the bass, Adam "Schmeeans" Smirnoff (Lettuce) on guitar, Dominic Lalli (Big Gigantic) tootin' away on the saxophone, and the seven-time Grammy-nominated artist Joan Osborne leading the group on vocals.

The festival will also feature a local kid's music showcase with performances by tweeners Eric Stone, John McKay, Kyle Brock and Blackdog Jazz Trio. There will be a kid's tent with activities, food vendors and pours from local microbreweries.

For Dave Watts, the NedFest Family Reunion is a bittersweet occasion. He performed at the very first NedFest back in the late '90s when he was just a young whippersnapper, fresh off of the plane from the East Coast.

"I was there when NedFest was just a party in front of the promoter's house," Watts said. "It felt special because back then, we had a little scene happening. I had just come from Boston, and that whole rat race of the Boston music scene was just so exhausting. It didn't feel like it was satisfying or heartfelt in a lot of ways. But when I came to Colorado, everyone had such a big heart, everyone was just so happy to be playing music and there was so much less judgment about what you were doing. It was just about performing and sharing this beautiful space in the mountains."

Founded by the late "Michigan Mike" Torpie, NedFest started as a low-key jam session between local musicians 1998, and eventually grew in popularity to become a full-out, three-day festival taking place near Barker Meadow Reservoir, attracting thousands of music lovers and big names such as Taj Mahal, Sam Bush and Merl Saunders.

After 20 years of hosting NedFest, festival organizers Peak to Peak Music Education Association (PPMEA) announced in 2019 that the festival would no longer take place due to issues with the festival site.

This year Peak to Peak found a way to bring back the festival to a new location. NedFest Family Reunion will take place on the Caribou Room property. Kristen McFarland, Peak to Peak's event coordinator, said the Caribou Room has the infrastructure built in to support large-scale performances and to accommodate larger audiences.

But fans of NedFest shouldn't get their hopes up — this year's festival is meant to be a one-time reunion, and nothing more.

"Nedfest only made money three out of the 20 years that we put it on," MacFarland said. "It was very tough on the late Michigan Mike, and after he passed away and we made the nonprofit we kept it going, but quickly realized that it was just a lot of overhead for such a small festival — unless you have a corporate sponsor, but we never found one to support the festival."

MacFarland said this weekend will be a true reunion for fans.

"If anybody wants to get the old NedFest feeling back, they better come up this weekend," she said.

Watts, himself, has played at over half of all of the past NedFests, and has witnessed the festival — and the Front Range music scene, as a whole — grow and change.

"The festival has grown, gone away, and now it's here again," Watts said. "It's very special to get everyone together like this. Boulder and Nederland, it used to be where the music scene was, back when I was coming up in the 90s. But now, all that has shifted to Denver."

He added: "Nederland doesn't get a whole lot of music there these days, so I think that something like [NedFest] is a special occasion for a lot of folks. There's always a great energy to the crowd."

Watts said audiences can look forward to a mix of soul, jazz, funk and a fair share of instrumentals and solos during the superjam Saturday. And with the caliber of musicians that Watts has put together for the festival, the vibe at NedFest is sure to be electric.

"Most of these guys that are playing with us, they're not only incredible musicians, but also incredible friends of mine," Watts said. "So the rapport between us is well established already."

While many of the artists performing over the weekend are longtime NedFest veterans, there are some groups who will be taking the stage for the very first time.

Though Nederland-based singer and guitarist Benjamin Sproul isn't exactly new to NedFest, his band Rocket Parade will be making its NedFest debut — and NedFest finale — all in one go when the group takes the stage Saturday.

"We're stoked to have the opportunity to play this new project in Nederland, because since we started, we haven't really played here," said Sproul. "It's been really interesting, because even over just the last decade of me being around the music scene, things have changed a lot, and there aren't as many places to play music. The Nederland music scene really took a hit during and after COVID.

"So to have NedFest coming back, it's so exciting."

Rocket Parade — a seasoned group of musicians consisting of Sproul, Andrew Lunsford on keys and vocals, Todd May on drums, and Miles Ridnell on bass and vocals — just formed in February. A beam of light in the dimming Nederland music scene, the foursome have been releasing new music via videos on Facebook, YouTube and Instagram.

"We started recording our gigs with basic little cameras and stuff, and started putting out videos to get some attention because it's such an over-saturated market with the internet and Spotify," Sproul said. "The idea was like, hey, let's try working backwards — starting with videos, and then maybe we'll get to an album."

NedFest attendees can check out the band live from 6-7:30 p.m. Saturday. Rocket Parade has a soulful, funky, rock-forward sound that is sure to make audiences want to get up and groove.

And, if that's not promising enough, Sproul — who comes from a family with deep roots in the Front Range music world (Boulder's Rose Hill Drive) — said that attendees can look forward to a very special guest hitting the stage with the band towards the end of the set.

Be sure to catch Rocket Parade, David Watts on drums, and the whole slew of Colorado talent at NedFest this weekend at the Caribou Room property at 55 Indian Peaks Drive, Nederland. Kids under 12 years old are free, and teen tickets are available for $30 a day. General admission tickets range from $60-$148 for various days and packages.

After the outdoor shows Saturday, Fruition will hit the stage inside the Caribou Room's venue for a 10 p.m. ticketed show.

Though the NedFest reunion won't have camping on-site, festival goers have plenty of camping options in the nearby national forest campgrounds.

For tickets, the full lineup and festival information, visit peakmusic.org.

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Dave Watts of The Motet said double rainbows have a...

C. Alan Crandall / For the Camera

Dave Watts of The Motet said double rainbows have a knack of appearing during the band's sets at NedFest. This double rainbow appeared during NedFest on Aug. 23, 2013.

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Boulder's Gasoline Lollipops took the stage with a rousing set...

File photo

Boulder's Gasoline Lollipops took the stage with a rousing set of alternative country music during NedFest 2015. (File photo)

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A regular feature of Kids parade at NedFest in 2016....

C. Alan Crandall / For the Camera

A regular feature of Kids parade at NedFest in 2016. This year's NedFest Family Reunion will feature a kid's tent with activities. (C. Alan Crandall / For the Camera)

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Fans listen to the music during the 2017 NedFest in...

C. Alan Crandall / For the Camera

Fans listen to the music during the 2017 NedFest in Nederland. (C. Alan Crandall / For the Camera)

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Ella Mueller, 7, of Nederland, hula-hoops in the rain during...

Jeremy Papasso

Ella Mueller, 7, of Nederland, hula-hoops in the rain during the 2012 NedFest music festival in Nederland. (File photo)

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