QUILCENE — An all-day music festival was a classic rock fan’s dream afternoon, although many of the participants were wondering why there were so few people at the show.
“This is a lot smaller than I expected, but everyone is having a good time,” said Tony Forrest of Port Ludlow.
“This is a great thing for the Peninsula.”
No accurate crowd estimate was available although Jim Munn, who hosted the Woodstock-inspired festival, estimated that about 400 people had attended by the late afternoon.
Mike Fisher, who was co-producing the festival with his brother, Roger, said it was possible that 1,000 people “wandered in and out” during the day.
Moon Fest, as it was called, was a fundraiser for the American Cancer Society in honor of his late wife, Sandi Munn.
There was no count of the money raised at day’s end, although Munn previously said he needed to sell 1,000 tickets in order to break even.
The music was presented on two alternating stages.
On the main stage a series of tribute bands performed sets that creditably imitated Jimi Hendrix, Heart, Tom Petty, the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin, while the smaller stage featured musicians playing original music during the equipment change between mainstage sets.
Both stages were routed through a 12-speaker surround-sound system and sounded great, according to many attendees.
At one point, the sound of the audience was taped and rerouted into the system to give the illusion of a much larger crowd.
The crowd ranged from senior citizens to toddlers, all who were reacting enthusiastically to the music.
Carrie Speer of Quilcene said her parents played records by the original bands that were feted when she was growing up.
In turn, she plays the same music to her own daughter.
The festival was meant as a tribute to the Woodstock Festival, which took place 43 years ago on the same weekend.
The Woodstock spirit of peace, love and tie-die was alive and well on site — even if the crowd was far fewer than the estimated 500,000 who occupied the Catskills dairy pasture in New York in 1969.
Candi Lester of Sequim said she had an “ulterior motive” in coming, to interest the musicians in her poetry, which she says “will save the world.”
“I love that this is for a cause,” she said.
“We need to save our kids and do the right thing for them.”
Leon Hendrix, whose brother Jimi closed Woodstock, participated in the jam that closed Moon Fest.
“People copy the old music out of love,” he said.
“To see it performed in places like this is the only way that people can reach out and touch it.”
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Jefferson County Reporter Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at charlie.bermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
