Editor’s note: After publication of this story, the marketing director of the Finger Lakes GrassRoots Festival Organization Inc., wrote to WUFT saying the organization is not pursuing the property in Melrose, and Jordan Puryear is not the director of the organization. This story has been updated to reflect those facts, as well as additional response from GrassRoots.
A former director of a New York-based nonprofit organization is hoping to add to the active music scene in Gainesville with a new venue.
Jordan Puryear, of Trumansburg, New York, is eyeing Alachua County and has a contract to purchase a 270-acre site near Melrose with the intention of developing it into a space called Wildflowers Music Park.
The property — with a pending sale price of $2.6 million — will remain under contract until late October while he gathers the funds to purchase it.
In the search for a location, Puryear said finding the property near Melrose was “somewhat fortuitous.”
<i>A concept drawing of Wildflowers Music Park included in a proposal for the venue by Jordan Puryear. (Courtesy Clarissa Farrell)</i>
“When I saw the property, I was like, ‘This is an incredibly perfect festival site,’” Puryear said. “It just needs some mowing, landscaping and a little bit of water and power, and you could just have a big gathering there.”
In late August, former Gainesville Mayor Lauren Poe circulated Puryear’s proposal to the Alachua County Commission. Puryear stated in the proposal he was pursuing the property as the director of Finger Lakes GrassRoots Festival Organization Inc., which currently produces three music festivals a year.
The group founded the Finger Lakes GrassRoots Festival of Music and Dance in 1991. The annual summer festival is held in the organization’s home base of Trumansburg, New York.
In 2003, GrassRoots expanded with the creation of the Shakori Hills GrassRoots Festival of Music and Dance near Chapel Hill, North Carolina, now the site of its annual spring and fall festivals.
Puryear is not the director of GrassRoots, the organization said on Sept. 25, following publication of this story.
“The GrassRoots Festival board of directors would like to make it perfectly clear that the Finger Lakes GrassRoots Festival has no intention or ability to purchase 4115 NE 255th Dr. in Melrose, Florida,” wrote Russ Friedell, the organization’s marketing director. “Northern Florida will not be the winter home of GrassRoots Festival.”
Friedell did not respond to a reporter's three separate follow-up inquiries to learn more about Puryear’s past or present roles with GrassRoots.
Puryear is forming an LLC called Wildflowers Music Park Finance LLC to purchase the site near Melrose. The goal, Puryear said, is to raise $1.5 million to secure the property. The company has not yet been registered with Florida's Department of State, according to Division of Corporation records.
Puryear said he is also seeking involvement from the community.
“There’s certainly, I would say, an amazing community coming together already to help work on it,” Puryear added.
Poe, now the president and CEO of the Greater Gainesville International Center, said he thinks a music festival would be a “good fit” for the greater Gainesville area and North Central Florida.
“I think we’ll see a lot more opportunities for local artists and musicians to be part of something bigger, showcase themselves and get themselves in front of audiences they otherwise wouldn’t have an opportunity to do,” Poe said.
Kenneth Metzker, an assistant in musical accompaniment at the University of Florida’s School of Theatre and Dance, has backed the project, too, Puryear said.
Metzker has been supportive of GrassRoots and thinks a similar festival would do well in the area.