Spend the day at the annual Pawtuckaway Takedown music festival in Nottingham and, along with a great line-up of local bands, you’ll also see tree houses come to life, artists and musicians doing their best dinosaur impressions, and a community — and family — dedicated to art, music, acrobatics, and almost every other creative medium. This year’s festival features performances by Nat Baldwin, Dan Blakeslee, Notches, People Skills, Little My, and more, along with a reenactment of Back to the Future. The festival returns this year on Saturday, Sept. 5, and The Sound caught up with Joey Pratt, the festival’s founder, via email for a look at what’s in store.
How did the Pawtuckaway Takedown start?
I came up with the idea for the festival over the summer of 2010 while hosting a weekly open mic series at my folks’ place. I was talking to a friend of mine who was working in the state park and said something to the effect of, “How cool would it be to have a festival in the park?” To which she replied, “Here’s the park ranger’s number.” A month later, we had all the permits in place and we had about a month remaining to arrange the music, art, food, and volunteers. I’ve always been a very task-driven person, but I had never really dealt with something with so many moving parts. The volunteers were the main reason the festival worked. People manned ticket, food, and cooking stations for six-plus hours while I bit my fingernails and worried about things that could go wrong. It was a great success.
What part of it are you most proud of?
That’s a very tough question. Its very existence is a major thing. The perennial volunteers are another. When we decided to move the festival out of the park in 2013, I thought it was done. We had tried to do a two-day festival in 2012 and it had gone wrong in more ways than one — bad weather and low attendance, on top of the fact that we were paying out the ass to have the grounds for two days. The ranger had also forgot to reserve campsites that I had paid for in advance. I ended up shelling out a little over a thousand bucks of my own money to break even. In the wake of that year I was sure we wouldn’t be back in the park. I was also in a very dark place personally and didn’t have the energy to do much of anything. My dad, mom, and especially my sister (Katrina) were the reasons the festival happened in 2013. We decided to have the festival at my folks’ place and we would find a more suitable (larger) location for the following year. While I was going through the organizational motions, Katrina had rallied about 15 of her circus friends to drive up from Brooklyn (where she lived at the time). They basically made the festival. It would have been shit without hem.
Through it all though, we have had the same gate attendants (Sue and Pete Russell), grill master (Gary Cox), and head chef (Lori Pratt) every year. They work for eight-plus hours, manning their stations and asking nothing in return. I don’t know if proud is the right word for that, but I’m certainly awed by that kind of selflessness.
Katrina Pratt performs an aerial dance at the 2014 Pawtuckaway Takedown. Photo by TinaMarney.com
What can festival goers expect this year?
As we try to do every year, we build upon things that worked, and try to tweak things that didn’t. We had one solo act perform away from the main stage last year, and because it went so well, we’re having about four solo acts on a secondary stage this year. We will have the same giant blow-up slide and basketball hoop, but we’ll also be adding several new games and a scavenger hunt. The treehouse will once again come to life, but this year it will be telling fortunes. The main stage acts will grow progressively louder into the evening and the night will cap of with a re-enactment of “Back to the Future.” Besides the entertainment, there’ll also be other creative outlets for the quieter crowd. Places to write your thoughts down, collaborative storytelling, and a community canvass. The food will consist of burgers, turkey burgers, salads, soups, and sweets. All food is available at whatever price you’re comfortable paying. The vibe is a mixture of summerc amp, a backyard party, a music festival, a family reunion, and an underground Brooklyn theater. There is very little hippy-ness or reggae involved, and I like that.
What are you most looking forward to at this year’s festival?
I am definitely looking forward to the “Back to the Future” re-enactment the most. Last year was my first experiment in directing, with the “Jurassic Park” performance and though nearly every scene had a major snafu, the crowd loved it. This year we’re attacking a more difficult movie and in a more difficult way. Last year we just played the movie’s audio and acted out the physicality. This year we’re combining that with the traditional play format (where people actually have lines). We’ve prepared much more for this year, but no one really knows how it’s going to look. I can say though that there will be a homemade DeLorean, a mannequin on a zip line, and fireworks.
The Pawtuckaway Takedown takes place Saturday, Sept. 5, noon-10 p.m. at a private residence in Nottingham. Tickets and a full line up are available here.