This episode features the new WildFlowers Music Park in Melrose, Florida. Nestled in the heart of North Florida about 20 miles east of Gainesville, this 270-acre nature park provides space for the arts, education, dance and a deeper connection with nature. The nature park features live oaks, colorful wildflower meadows, mysterious cypress domes, sinkhole marshes and lake shores alive with wading birds. The land itself tells stories of a century shaped by turpentine, timber, hay fields and grazing livestock.
After a unanimous vote by the Alachua County Board of County Commissioners, the inaugural WildFlowers Festival of Music and Dance will move forward on March 13-15. Robert Hutchinson handles regulatory compliance, safety and operations and Catherine Booth handles community engagement, volunteers and tickets for the event. The goal is to raise enough revenue for the annual event to eventually pay back the $2.6 million loan.
For the event, noise levels will be limited; traffic would be contained on the property; deputies will control traffic flow; and a water truck will sprinkle down the limestone road to prevent dusty conditions. Gopher tortoise burrows would be fenced, and all sanitation would be collected and trucked offsite to be disposed.
WildFlowers Music Park
4107 NE 255th Drive
Melrose
WildFlowers Festival of Music & Dance
March 13-15
Tickets, volunteer information and directions available at www.wildflowersmusicpark.org
Host (Ailee Shanes): Welcome to Tell Me About It on WUFT 89.1 and 90.1. I’m Ailee Shanes filling in for Sue Wagner. I'm here with Robert Hutchinson. He's the manager of the WildFlowers music Park and Catherine Booth. She's the community engagement officer for the park. And we're here to talk about the upcoming WildFlowers music festival. So can you guys tell me a little bit about what this festival is about?
Guest (Catherine Booth): Sure, yes. The WildFlowers Festival of Music and Dance is a three-day, three-night community celebration. So we're going to have music from all genres - bluegrass, reggae, funk, soul, rock and roll. A little bit of something for everyone, even zydeco from New Orleans. It's half local bands from North Florida, several from Melrose, Gainesville, Jacksonville, and half from all over west Africa, Jamaica, Massachusetts. We'll also have dance workshops going on throughout the weekend. So we'll have a contra dance every single day - Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and then different dance workshops, whether that's zydeco, Brazilian samba. There'll be other types of workshops, including drumming workshops, art classes.
Shanes: You know, it sounds like there's a lot going on here. Where can someone find, I guess, the itinerary? And they could say, hey, you know, I'm going to go this day because I know that, you know, this specific band is playing this specific event is happening.
Booth: Yes. The schedule is posted on our website. That's WildFlowers Music Park dot org. You can find ticket prices. You can find the daily schedule. We are adding even more workshops to it, but all the ones that are scheduled so far are available. We also have a Facebook page and Instagram page.
Shanes: Awesome. Well, can you tell me a little bit about the background of this festival? Why is it happening? You know, how do we get to this point?
Guest (Robert Hutchinson): Kind of the long story shortened is that there were grassroots festivals started 33 years ago in upstate New York, and they decided to have a spring and fall location in North Carolina. And then they ended up with a Florida location as well, in Miami. That one sort of ran its course, and one of the organizers of that festival started looking around for a place to do a similar type festival and found the land in Melrose. So he, purchased land, got a purchase contract on the land, got a number of us locals involved. I was one of them. And so now there's a winter festival location for the same type of festivals that Catherine just described.
Shanes: Yeah. Tell me about the name Wildflowers Park. I mean, Robert, before we recorded this conversation, you told me that, you preferred a different title, and it kind of all ties in to, you know, the name of the WildFlowers Music Festival. So can you tell me a little bit about that?
Hutchinson: Well, first, one of the things we noticed on the property is it's really got beautiful wildflowers. And then wildflowers in Gainesville, Florida also means Tom Petty's first solo album, and it's one of his favorite songs. And so we kind of tied those two together. And in that came my unofficial job title, which is Chief Petty Officer for Existential Logistics. And basically that's just referencing that we will be growing wildflowers out there, propagating them for use on other conservation properties and just to make our own property more beautiful. But it also, hearkens to the fact that Alachua County has a wonderful musical history, and many festivals bring in people from everywhere else. But ours has a lot of local musicians who really come from that same tradition that Tom Petty was one of the pioneers in.
Shanes: Yeah. Can you tell me about how you found these performers and did you reach out to them? Did they reach out to you? You know, how did this kind of happen?
Hutchinson: I would say it's a little bit of each. Some people beat down the doors and other people we invited, and we wanted to make sure that the roots part of the grassroots and the flowering part of wild flowers came together in that we really want to represent the music of a lot of different genres that are considered roots music. And so I would say 90% of the music that you'll hear will be originals, that the bands themselves have written, as opposed to, I mean, there's a lot of bands, including my own, that will play covers when that's what's called for.
Shanes: Oh your own band is playing?
Hutchinson: Yeah, The Weeds of Eden will be there.
Shanes: Oh, wow.
Hutchinson: But it's nice to have bands that really emphasize a certain, genre of music that they helped build up.
Shanes: Yeah, absolutely. So how many people have bought tickets so far? Are we seeing a lot of interest for this already?
Booth: Yeah. Our ticket sales, they're starting to increase now, especially with the event approval. We have a lot of interest from locals. We have a really, really big volunteer base that's working on the kids and teens area that's working on the land. And so just as many people that have bought tickets are actually earning their way in by being part of the very first festival and even bands, it's not where they're just coming in for their set and then leaving. For example, Remedy Tree, they're a big bluegrass band around here. They recently opened up for Billy Strings. They play a lot in the Jacksonville-St. Augustine area, and they're coming in. They're actually teaching a songwriting workshop at 4 p.m. on Friday, and then a banjo workshop at 5 p.m. on Friday, before they take to the stage at 8 p.m. on Friday. So it's kind of it's it's a cool festival where you're going, you're going throwback old school about 20 years and see a lot of the artists actually camping and involved with the community teaching kids’ workshops, adult workshops.
Shanes: So for someone who's never been to, I guess, this kind of bluegrass kind of festival, more like a folksy kind of vibe. Can you kind of explain maybe a little bit about what the vibe is and what people could, should kind of expect maybe what to where, what they're going to probably be seeing?
Booth: Yeah, I would say it's very inclusive and there's going to be a little bit of something for everyone, because even now, like I said, there is bluegrass. There's still the Homestead Brothers with southern rock and roll. You know, there's great reggae bands. You're going to walk onto the property, you're going to see a really big dance tent set up that will have a plywood platform on the ground, so you can hear the clogging. You can hear the tap dancing, the flamenco. It's a really cool feel. Instead of walking around at your average Florida festival, which I love, but walking around at your average Florida festival, you see a lot of, well, just standing around kind of bobbing their head, at these grassroots festivals, because it is the value of music and dance. You see a lot of learning going on, a lot of dance workshops. When it comes to later at night, there's not people just stumbling around. There's people literally teaching each other dance moves. And so I think we can't, you know, say enough on this family-oriented atmosphere. Even the kids and teens area, they're going to have their own stage made out of pallets, dress up trunk instruments, workshops going on throughout the weekend just for kids and teens as well.
Shanes: How much money was is put into like a festival like this?
Hutchinson: That's a difficult question because one of the reasons we're doing this is to raise the money to purchase the land. And so, when the land is purchased for $2.6 million, that was all done with just local people, financing it. And so the festival in part, is to generate the funds to pay for the land, but more importantly, it's a way to bring a community together. We've been both of us have been to the other festivals that are in this tradition. And the remarkable thing about it is nobody feels like a stranger there. I sat down at the picnic table at one in North Carolina, and there's a guy over here practicing a song, and there's somebody else, over here talking about their arts and crafts. And the next thing you know, we're all talking together, and it's a sense of instant community that you really don't find very much anymore, anywhere. And because, there's so much going on, people pretty much put their phones away. I almost never saw people walking around looking at their phones.
Shanes: Oh really.
Hutchinson: Engaged.
Shanes: Not even to film or anything like that.
Hutchinson: Very little of that, surprisingly. The other thing is that there's so many the whole morning is not music. It's all kinds of workshops and yoga and nature walks and a lot of kids activities, art and that sort of thing. So, it's not just the music and dance. The whole mornings are, learning and just sort of waking up and enjoying the day. It's a beautiful location.
Shanes: Yeah. Can you, tell our listeners about what the web address is for? To buy tickets and also, the address of the music park. How should people navigate there?
Booth: Yeah, sure. That to find out more information on the website, it is WildFlowers Music Park dot org so you can navigate there. The landing page is set up with the festival information. The specific park address right now is 4107 Northeast 255th drive. However, we are asking all festival traffic. We're going to route 219 A to 35th Avenue, so we will have an additional entrance for the festival.
Shanes: All right. Awesome. Well, we're going to talk more about the park. In our next segment. But, Robert, Catherine, thanks for talking about the festival itself. And, we'll be right back.
[Music]
Shanes: Welcome back to tell me about it on WUFT 89.1 and 90.1. I'm Ailee Shanes again for Sue Wagner. We're talking to Robert Hutchinson, the manager of the WildFlowers Music Park, and Catherine Booth, the community engagement officer for the WildFlowers Music Park. And we're talking about the WildFlowers Music Festival, which happens in March, March 13th through 15th. It's in Melrose, Florida. It's an actual county north of Gainesville. And I wanted to ask you we were talking a little bit off mic about, camping options during the festival. Can you tell me a little bit about that?
Booth: Sure. We just purchased this property. It's about 270 acres. And so with that, we have plenty of room and space for people to do overnight camping. So we have event-related overnight camping, all primitive camping. There aren't hookups. However, people are welcome to come out and set up their tent. They could bring their vehicle, RV camping, the existing meadows, and that's just a $49 add on whether they want to come for one night or four nights at the property.
Shanes: So people could just bring their tent, pitch a tent and everything like that.
Booth: Yes, we'll have our camp rangers on site to guide everyone to where the camping areas are. And like I said, if you want to do vehicle or RV camping, you'll be in the existing meadows. So we don't damage the roots of the live oaks. But if you're tent camping, you're welcome to come in and camp under our gorgeous live oaks on the property.
Shanes: Oh, wow. So speaking of, you know, some of the nature there, can you tell me a little bit about the Wildflowers Music Park itself? I hear there's gopher tortoises there.
Hutchinson: We have a lot of gopher tortoises. It's a beautiful site that has five completely distinct Florida ecosystems, with a trail that goes through them - a two and a half mile walking trail. It's got a lake which is turning into more of a mud flat right now in the drought we're in. It's got streams, it's got sinkholes. It's got, just a lot of beautiful features. That's kind of the inspiration for me. I've been involved in land conservation for years and have always looked for creative ways to acquire and preserve land. And so this is an opportunity to basically one ticket buyer at a time is going to help save this property and help us steward it. Just in the last seven months since we've owned it, we've cleared out 20 acres of invasive camphor trees and other problem.
Shanes: Oh, wow.
Hutchinson: And that's become our festival village site. The festival village is just a small portion of the property where the festival will happen. And then around it, we're preserving all the rest of the property. We do have an area that's going to be for wildflower propagation, more like farming them, because we want to generate lots of seeds to be able to plant in on other conservation lands as well as around. One of the unique things about the property is 300 large, beautiful live oaks. And so we're doing everything to preserve them. A lot of the exotic trees we took out were actually damaging to the health of those live oaks. So we're, we're helping them, and we even have a live Oaks society where people can, for a contribution, adopt a live oak.
Shanes: Oh, wow.
Hutchinson: And that's helping us to further steward the land.
Shanes: How much would it cost to adopt a live oak?
Hutchinson: $1,000. And we've already got 30 members of the Live Oak Society.
Shanes: I know that there, you know, it took a lot to get to this point to, you know, have the music festival, WildFlowers Music Park. Can you tell me a bit of background about that? I know that you're, Robert, a former county commissioner. So can you tell me a little bit about what was going on between you guys and Alachua County to kind of get to this point?
Hutchinson: One of the things that I kind of knew as a former elected official but never really experienced, the other side of it is what it takes to get a project like this fully permitted. We have seven different permits from different agencies. And, I drew the short straw and got to do most of the writing for this, and it's been a fascinating look for me into the internal workings of the regulatory process, some of it very frustrating, some of it very, energizing because I realized that there are people that work for the water management district and the county EPD that really know their job well, and, the neighbors were, very concerned about our impacts on the property and on them. And so I can truthfully say that the, regulatory process has made us much better stewards of the land and much better neighbors. Right now, as a matter of fact, this weekend we've got a sinkhole full of garbage that's been dumped in there for years, that we've got 17 volunteers who are going to come and do the very tough work of getting that out of there.
Shanes: How many volunteers?
Hutchinson: We have 17. And that's about the right number that can handle this job. But almost all of our work out there is being done by volunteers, hard physical labor. Somebody just trenched in 2,500 feet of water main - a volunteer. Other people are out there chipping some of the brush that we've chopped down. Very hard work, dangerous work. But, we train them, we insure them, and we make sure that everybody is safe. And we're getting a huge amount of work done for little or nothing.
Shanes: Yeah. And are people going to be able to access the park, after the fact?
Hutchinson: So, it's like a public park. It's open 365 days a year. And the nature trail has a parking area and a trailhead and a marked trail. We have other people who love to come out there. Birders love it, because it's one of the few places where they can see marsh birds, but stand in the shade because mostly when you go out to marshes the sun's baking your head. And, we have horseback riders like to come out there and a lot of hikers and an archeologist out there the other day, walking around and he pointed out to me.
Shanes: Oh, that's really cool. Wow. And I can only imagine, as someone who may live close to that area, that there could be some concern for noise from the festival. How would you like to address that if you could tell, you know, the people living there like, hey, don't be concerned. This is going to be good for the community, you know, what would you say?
Hutchinson: Well, we know that we're going to have an impact on the community, and we're trying to make that as positive as possible. For neighbors, we're giving them free tickets so they can check us out. We to check the sound levels, we put a very large speaker system up high in the air in a tractor bucket, turned on the most of noxious music. We could cranked it up to over 100 decibels, that it was painful to stand in front of, and then walked around the boundaries with a meter. And the most we got was 37 decibels, and the county allows 55 decibels to be the noise limit.
Shanes: And for someone who who's not kind of aware of how this whole decibel system works, is that a lot, is that a little?
Hutchinson: I mean, well, the one way to think about it is 85 decibels is what OSHA allows a person to be exposed to for eight hours of work.
Shanes: Okay.
Hutchinson: And so 57 is way under that, or 37 is way under that. The 55 is, the level that the county believes is tolerable to a neighbor. And you and I are speaking now at more than 55 decibels. So, you know, it's, people will be able to hear it off site, but it won't be the kind of thing that's rattling the windows or anything like that.
Shanes: And what about the animals? I mean, going back to the gopher tortoises, for example. I mean, what are you guys doing to help, you know, protect those species, to make sure that they're not being harmed in this whole process?
Hutchinson: We've got 66 gopher tortoise burrows, active burrows. And that's approximately the number some tortoises have two burrows, but, we are protecting all 66 of those burrows with enclosures that, or at least 25-foot radius are being fenced off completely away from any human impacts. We love our tortoises. We're taking care of them. We're making the habitat much better for them. One of the problems on the property was a terrible infestation of red ants and quite a few armadillos, both which are harmful for gopher tortoises. So we're controlling those populations as best we can. So we think, because we're required to do a lot of, measuring of the burrows and, and, locating them and so forth.
Hutchinson: We think over the years we'll see a lot more young and happy gopher tortoise families.
Shanes: And Catherine, just one more time. It's just so our audience knows what is the web address that people could go to learn more about the park, learn more about the festival, and also with the addresses as well?
Booth: Yeah, sure. The website is WildFlowers Music Park dot org. You'll find everything from ticket pricing to event schedule there tickets. We're keeping very affordable. Adult tickets start at $39 a day, $99 for all three days. Teens are discounted and kids 12 and under are free. So you can go to the website, Facebook, Instagram and then the property address is 4107 Northeast 255th Drive out in Melrose.
Shanes: All right. Well, Robert Hutchinson, Catherine Booth, thank you so much for joining us on Tell Me About It today and the Wildflowers Music Park Festival is going to be March 13th through 15th in Melrose, Florida. So, Robert, Catherine, thanks again for joining me.
Hutchinson: Y'all come.
Booth: Thank you.
Shanes: That was Robert “Hutch” Hutchinson and Catherine Booth from the new WildFlowers Music Park and upcoming music festival on March 13th through 15th on today's episode of Tell Me About It. To listen to previous episodes of the show, go online at WUFT dot org slash Tell Me About It or on the WUFT media app. I'm Ailee Shanes in for Sue Wagner on Tell Me About It on WUFT.
