As he gets ready for the 10th annual Domefest,Jeremy Schon is constantly fielding phone calls and emails about issues big andsmall. “Without organization, you end up with Fyre Fest,” laughs the PigeonsPlaying Ping Pong guitarist who founded Domefest in 2010 as a one-day eventnear the University of Maryland, the band’s alma mater.
Through the years, PPPP has ushered Domefestinto its current three-day format, including five of their own headlining setsand 20 other bands. “Obviously, we’ve expanded beyond the small College Parkmusic scene,” Schon explains. “But the community vibe has stayed and grownstronger year by year.”
Domefest is scheduled for May 16-18 and withits new location at Marvin’s Mountaintop in West Virginia, PPPP is expectingaround 2,500 fans aka Flockers.
“My favorite part about Domefest is when weget on stage and it all comes together Where it all pays off and we get to playfor the amazing community we’ve built up,” Schon says.
Toss in the brand new, festival-closing“Domefest All-Stars” set and its sure to be a memorable year for Domefestveterans and rookies alike. Below, the guitarist and festival founder tellsfans what they can expect from Domefest 2019.
You’reon tour with Pigeons Playing Ping Pong and you’re also organizing Domefest. Howdo you keep that balance?
It’s exhausting at times, but I’m definitelyused to it at this point. It’s the 10th year so I’ve done this a few times.When we’re on tour, basically from when the time I wake up until soundcheck ismy office hours and then I switch into show mode. We soundcheck, write asetlist, warm-up, play a show, go to sleep and do the same thing. Fortunately,right now we’re traveling in a bandwagon, which is a small bus. In the past, Iwould just sit in the van, make calls and work on spreadsheets until we get tothe venue.
A lotof bands have their own festivals, but you’re the founder, the lead guitarist,you book the talent and oversee most aspects of the event. Last year, you wereeven helping park cars.
A big thing with Domefest is since day one wehave been super involved. The first few years, with a small team, I handledevery single aspect of the festival. Over the years we’ve delegated more andmore. Domefest works because of our team and the patrons that help us makeeverything a reality. So if something needs to be done, I’m not going to belike, ‘Go tell someone else to do it,’ I’m going to do it with them if I can.We’re all in this together and we try to lead by example.
Werethere any times you’ve surprised yourself with your willingness to jump in anddo something?
Every single year. Countless occasions. Goingup ladders, dumping trash, everything.
Youswitched locations this year to Marvin’s Mountaintop in West Virginia. Did youvet a bunch of different places and see which you liked it the best? I imaginealmost like a House Hunters scenario...
Well, our new tv show Festival Property Hunters airs in June. Really excited about that.[Laughs.] Seriously, I probably went through my list of 88, or so, festivalproperties that we considered. But Marvin’s was a no-brainer. The layout wasperfect, even for something small like what we’re doing. Immediately, I saw somany different opportunities there for booking and layout. It’s really a greatsite and we have history in Preston County. We had Domefest at Trips Farm inPreston County from 2013-2015, and it was great working in West Virginia. Ireally enjoyed it. Built a good relationship with some of the county people,and it was nice. I enjoyed having our home there, and we’re so excited to bemoving back to West Virginia. It’s sort of where the festival started to takeform from being in someone’s backyard with 400 people.
Whenyou think back to that first Domefest and then all the way here now at the tenthyear, what are the big lessons that you’ve learned along the way?
Every year we learn so much. I could literallywrite a book about throwing festivals and all the different dos-and-don’ts andlessons you learn and the obstacles you face. Very few people understand whatit really takes to put on a music festival with multi-days and camping.
I feel like people are a little more aware ofwhat goes on now because the Fyre Festival documentaries, obviously on theworse end of it. The documentary made me shake my head the whole time. Like,“What the hell, how could they screw this up?” That was doomed from the get-go.
As afestival organizer, I can’t even imagine the perspective you have watchingsomething like that.
For me it’s like a thriller, you know?[Laughs.] But you pick things up along the way. The first year of Domefest, Ijust brought in a stage, a few lights. We didn’t even have a stage cover. Ididn’t even think about it, and thankfully we had perfect weather. Every year,we try to expand and make it better than the last. Looking back, it’s crazy tome this whole thing still happens and we developed this event. It’s amazing.We’re super lucky to have the support we do from our fans with it.
Lastyear in particular, Domefest faced quite a bit of rain and [singer-guitarist]Greg [Ormont] lost his voice. That being said, it was widely received as asuccess, with the band even playing a60-minute, single song set.What was it like to come up against incredible odds and exceed expectations?
Well, there’s no hurdle you can’t pass whenyou’re throwing a festival or life in general. When something happens, you’dnever be like, “Oh well, this is fucked,” You find a solution. You make ithappen. We’ve dealt with countless scenarios with the festival, some harderthan others, some more stressful than others, but you put a smile on and youhandle it. As long as you do it with a smile, that kind of reverberates amongyour staff and team and all the people attending the festival. Truly, whatmakes Domefest so special is the community. It is a community festival for thePigeons fans and the people who’ve been coming to Domefest since year one.
How didthat 60-minute “Whirled” set come about?
It just sort of happened. We had a setlistwritten and we just started playing, and kept playing. We just kind of let themusic take us wherever it did, you know? Obviously Greg had lost his voice sowe were trying to avoid big vocal songs. But yeah, those kind of sets are allabout just being in the moment and seeing where that moment takes you.
Thefestival grows every year, but you always want to keep it intimate. Is theresomething special about capping it at a certain size?
Absolutely. I’ve always loved smallerfestivals and basically anything 5,000 people and under were my favorite. AtDomefest, we want to retain that intimate festival vibe where you meet a ton ofpeople through the weekend and you see them throughout the weekend. If you goto Bonnaroo and you meet someone, your odds of seeing them again are one in80,000 people. I’m not after that. While Bonnaroo’s amazing, in countless ways,it’s a different kind of thing. We had 2,000 people last year. We’re onlyselling 2,500 tickets for this year because we want it to grow slowly. If wesell 2,500 tickets, that’s already amazing growth. We’re not really looking foranything more than that.
As faras new things for this year, you’ve planned a Domefest All-Stars set. Tell me alittle bit about that.
I’ve always wanted to do a superjam of sortsat the festival, and as I was putting together this year’s lineup, it donned onme that this is the 10th year, let’s just do it. We’ve got a lot of wild ideasfor that. It’s basically all of the musicians from Domefest this year, and somemusicians from Domefest past years, collaborating together on this one set.
Sothere’s going to be artists at the All-Stars set who aren’t necessarily on thelineup?
Yep. We’re super excited to close out thefestival this year with our first ever Domefest All-Stars set where Domefestmusicians, both on this year’s lineup, and Domefest musicians who have playedon previous year’s lineups will be coming together and collaborating in thisbig epic set full of jams and surprises.
One of my favorite things about our fanbase ishow open they are to new bands and new artists. It should never be just, ‘Oh,Pigeons, and that’s it.’ We want our fans to have open ears and open minds, andgo support all the different artists, not just us.
Yeah,absolutely. Are there any other surprises in store for Domefest that you canshare?
There’s a lot, but they wouldn’t be surprises if I told you.
