NWWRF, Sea Jay Sound & Lights and Harmonious Collective are proud to announce The 20th NorthWest World Reggae Festival will be held July 19th-21st near Brightwood, Oregon. Featuring Roots Reggae bands for six countries, two stages, craft booths, organic food booths and youth activities, NWWRF continues their tradition of peace and unity through the festival experience.
CATCHING UP WITH DOUG
The publisher of the Reggae Festival Guide, Kaati Gaffney, caught up with NorthWest World Reggae Festival producer, Doug Carnie, to ask him some questions about his event and this milestone.
Q: What is your initial relationship with reggae? What made you want to start a festival?
A. Well like most people it was Bob Marley early on. It changed my life so much I have him tattooed on my right arm!! That opened the door —I got turned on to many other acts over the years with my most loved one (after Bob) being Midnite. ¬Their 4.5 hour show in 2012 at NWWRF changed my life!
I also followed a lot of the “reggae” style bands in the 80’s like the Police and Bad Brains!! Roots is what we do and that is all we do — with its message of peace and love and respect for each other!
As a touring sound engineer for 18 years, I mostly worked in the jam-band world but occasionally we would get to open for one of the Marley boys and a couple of Burning Spear shows, that brought thru a love for the live shows. I will never forget an early Melody Makers show that we opened
for —with all the kids and family folks that Ziggy brought out on tour. It was great to get to hang with them — such a family vibe!!
I was the Quartermaster at the Oregon Country Fair from 1991-1998 -sort of the set-up coordinator for the first three weeks of the set-up camp that happens there every year. I think it was around 1995, I was sitting in the sauna and decided that we, as a crew, should do our own event. A few years later, in 2004, NWWRF was born…and away we went. (We had to move our first show 10 days before the festival date because Horning’s Hideout got shut down!) Been thru many changes in folks and venues over the year,
some great and some bad, but we have gone forward no matter what.
VENUE WOES
Q. Over the years, you have had to change venues a few times. Please tell us why.
A. The first two years we were in, what we knew, was a temporary spot while waiting for Horning’s Hideout to reopen. They ended up not being able to host more than two events a year, so we looked elsewhere. We were at Bob’s Ranch in Eugene from 2007-2013, which was a great location (but did have a few down sides like no cell phone coverage.)
In 2013 we had a major loss due to both in-house stealing and outside ticket selling (five- figure loss at the gate on Friday) and had a very rough year!
No one thought we would come back from that, including Bob, who decided to host his own event the following year (the county would only allow one event per summer, so we became a nomadic event).
Q. What kind of obstructions does a festival producer face? Does your crowd follow you to different venues?
A. The size of our festival presents a unique problem: too big for small venues and too small for the big ones, we have been looking since then for the perfect spot. Some were wonderful but we overwhelmed the owners and some just did not work due to logistics. This year we back to where we were in 2017 and 2018 and we love this site! Great location and a great owner (who is a drummer) and we hope to be here for at least five years while we look for our own site to purchase.
Q. What are you looking for in a venue?
A. Our dream venue would be an old Scout/church camp. That is what we are
looking for up here in Northern Oregon. That would have the infrastructure that we need (cabins, kitchen, water) and be permitted to hold more events (we own our own production company now).
Q. What is your 2024 venue? Is it remote? If someone is flying in, where do they fly to?
A. This year we are at Pfau Pfamily Pfarm, 58885 E Marmot Rd Sandy, OR 97055. It’s near Brightwood, Oregon off Hwy 26 on the way up to Mt Hood.
It’s a great location, all sorts of great camping options: family camp, VIP backstage camping in the trees, RV areas, quiet camp and much more). Plus, there is access to the Sandy River to take a swim.
ACCOMODATIONS AND TRANSPORTATION
Do most of your attendees camp? Tell us about your camping area and what people can expect and what they should bring. If not, are there hotels nearby?
Folks flying in will use PDX (Portland) airport. There are wonderful RV camps and rental sites (tiny homes, AirBnB and more) very close to the venue for those who want to sleep in a building or have RV hookups.
We are working on a discount deal with a local bus service for transportation from the airport, plus there is also TriMet bus service from Portland.
ENVIRONMENTAL RESPONSIBILITY
Q. Do you have an environmental program that you adhere to?
A. The environment is always top on our list. Number one is only organic. Food is sold at the venue. We power our site with bio-diesel. Our office is on 100% wind/solar power, all paper products are recycled and we do our best to sort out and recycle everything we can after the event. We are a pack-in/pack-out event and will do our best to educate the folks how that works more this year.
We also have many great craft vendors and we love to support ones that are doing right by our world. Many use reclaimed materials and more. Check out the list on our website www.nwwrf.com.
LINE UP
Q. Your lineup looks really strong this year. When booking a festival, what are you looking for.. how do you select which artist are going to perform?
A. Booking is both our favorite and hardest job to do. As a small event we will never have any of the big acts (one of them would cost us our whole entertainment budget) so we look for acts that are: 1.ROOTS, and #2. Available.
We always look for the next group that is going to “blow up” and we have often been the first to have them at a festival.
REGGAE ACTS
Nattali Rize is one such act and we love that she has agreed to come back this year to celebrate our 20th event. We also want to support as many female-lead bands as possible. I have always wanted to do a whole Saturday featuring just the Queens of Reggae!! (we will do that one year)
We also like to bring in acts that have worked with us in the past. Prezident Brown was our first headliners, and this will be his 14 year with us! He is family now and we will have him every year that he is
available to join us.
We like to support our local and regional acts. This year we are going to welcome Liberation Movement (from Heavy Weight Dub Champion) as we move our event to include a wider range of talent while still staying with our roots messaging.
This is a not-to-be-missed show with a lineup of guest stars that weave reggae with native South American music and performer… three hours of sights, sounds and love like U have never experience anywhere else!
We are also doing a second stage this year with DJ’s, dub acts, late-night dance hall and a couple track shows.
The Wise Lion Stage will be live during the set breaks on the main stage. We will also have morning yoga, drum workshops and more activities for the youth in the mornings.
Q. Any other changes that will affect the attendees?
A. This year, we can accept credit cards at the gate. Also, the legalization of cannabis has brought a change to the vibe for sure.
INSPIRATION
Q. What inspires you to keep producing this festival?
A. We keep doing this for two reasons. Number one is because of the folks who write us every year and say that we have changed their life and “please come back year- after-year”. We have a great fan base and lots of kids running around!!
I always tell the crew we work for the folks who are dancing their ass off in the middle of the show and having the time of their life.
If we all focus on them, then nothing else (ie. broken amps or big egos) matters.
Second is the message that we try and send out to this overwhelming world thru the music. A message of peace and love but also of making positive changes in our world for our children and their children.
Q. Is your organization involved in producing music year round?
A. As a sound company (Sea Jay Sound & Lights LLC) we do several events each year. This year we will be doing Oregon Country Fair where we do two stages, also Black Sheep Family Reunion, and a couple of shows at the JaJa PDX here in Portland in the Fall, plus a four- day New Year’s Run at The JaJa PDX which will include one night of Roots Reggae.
NWWRF will continue to do our Reggae PDX pre party every year in June.
Q. What does the future look like for NWWRF?
A. The future — well if all goes well this year, we hope to stay at this site for the next four years, and during that time purchase and renovate our final home. I am planning on passing NWWRF to the next generation soon, and see what they can do with it!!!
MORE INFO
For information and ticket, visit https://nwwrf.com/
Pictured here with Doug Carnie is Megan Stolle, NWWRF partner, and owner of her artist booking and PR company here in Oregon: Harmonious Collective. She scouts out all the new performers for us every year!
