How Doe Bay Fest 2010 Could Out-festival Sasquatch!

The audience on the second day of Doe Bay Festival 2009.

​ Now that my ears have stopped ringing and my sunburn has faded from last weekend's Doe Bay Fest on Orcas Island, I've been daydreaming about next year's festival. Given the success of this year's event--it sold out the week before the festival, and so many people were on the Island that ferry lines on Sunday afternoon boasted four-hour waits--there's no doubt another will happen next year. (Oh, and the promoters all-but-announced Doe Bay 2010 on Saturday, when they polled showgoers about which summer month was best to hold the festival.)

When it comes to outdoor summer festivals in the Pacific Northwest, Sasquatch! is currently king. So, it's no surprise that I spent a few hours on Saturday afternoon thinking about how Doe Bay Fest matches up to the Memorial Day monster. On the surface, the festivals already bear similarities: Both are hours from Seattle in breathtaking settings and allow total immersion into live music. But Does Bay have the potential to be better than Sasquatch? Head-to-head comparison after the jump.

1. Desirability.
Only so many people can attend Doe Bay Fest, which means it's going to become a hot ticket. Orcas Island is only so big, and Doe Bay is even smaller. Everything at Doe Bay Fest--the stage, the eateries, the campgrounds--are all contained in the same space. Unlike at the Gorge, there's no extra campground two miles away to house a couple hundred more showgoers. Doe Bay Fest Organizer Chad Clibborn told me about 500 tickets were sold for the event, plus a few hundred comped tickets for bands and media. That means, at the most, 800 people could attended Doe Bay this year. And if the line-up's philosophy stays the same--local up-and-coming acts, with a few big name indie rockers--more fans will scurry to attend.
Winner: Doe Bay Fest

2. Location, accessibility and convenience.
It's harder to come and go from Doe Bay Fest. Sasquatch! doesn't have to last three days. If you want to see Jane's Addiction, you can leave from Seattle Saturday afternoon and make it home late Saturday night. Not so with Doe Bay: you can only get there by ferry boat, and the ferry terminal is 45 minutes away from the resort. The festival is only worth it if you arrive on Friday and leave on Sunday. To the festival's credit, there was a very convenient chartered water taxi that left Anacortes and dropped off directly at Doe Bay, but it had one drop-off in each direction on Friday and Sunday only. In future years, that taxi should be the primary mode of transportation to the festival.
Winner: Sasquatch!

3. Culture.
Doe Bay Fest has no corporate sponsorships and is locally-owned. The one thing I couldn't stand at Sasquatch! this year was the corporate ads that flashed on stage behind performing musicians. Not so at Doe Bay. So far, the event isn't sponsored by anything. Doe Bay Resort is a small, cooperative resort with an organic garden that is emphasizes "ethical treatment of our guests, our staff and the land." (Even the food in the cafe is vegetarian and organic.) Oh, and the proceeds from the beer garden benefited the local Montessori school. It's hippies, not hipsters, that run this place.
Winner: Doe Bay Fest

4. Affordability.
Beers cost $2 in Doe Bay Fest's beer garden. I'll repeat that for affect: $2 beers at Doe Bay Fest. In fact, the beers were supposed to cost $4 all day and only $2 during a few designated "Happy Hours," but the beer garden was so popular that Happy Hour became a permanent condition. At Sasquatch!, I paid $14 for a margarita that may or may not have had any alcohol in it. Oh, and the food is cheap, too. Local vendors sold falafel and burritos for $5. And huge ice cream cones for $3. And there was, as previously mentioned, a cafe on site if you wanted a sit-down meal, and a store on site if you wanted to purchase your own food and booze. At Sasquatch!, I couldn't even bring in my own water bottle. The only downside? All those cheap things are cash only, and there's no ATM at the resort.
Winner: Doe Bay Fest

True, all the qualities that made Doe Bay Fest awesome are also qualities that are virtually impossible at huge music festivals. I understand you can't pay for big name bands like Ben Harper or Coldplay if you don't have corporate advertising bringing in revenue, and that it's incredibly difficult for local island vendors to make enough organic burritos to serve 10,000 people. And I know that Sasquatch!, for the most part, emphasizes indie and PNW bands despite its size. But Sasquatch! doesn't feel like an indie music festival, because there's very little about corporate sponsorships and over-priced food that fosters a grassroots, we're-doing-this-because-we-love-music feeling. And those are qualities that Doe Bay still has and that the festival should hold onto.

As Doe Bay becomes more popular and successful in years to come, I'm hoping the festival stays true to its roots. (Sure, I'd like transportation to be better, the WiFi needs to be more reliable and the place could use an ATM, but those are small demands.) Because right now, I don't know if the organizers realize that they're sitting on a goldmine.