Highway 62 – Détails, épisodes et analyse

In this conversation, Barnett English shares his journey from a music enthusiast to the founder of the Joshua Tree Music Festival. He discusses the unique aspects of his festival, including its intimate atmosphere, focus on emerging artists, and family-friendly environment. Barnett also addresses the challenges faced by the festival industry, especially in the wake of recent cancellations, and emphasizes the importance of shared experiences among attendees. The festival's diverse activities and workshops, along with its camping accommodations, contribute to a holistic experience for festival-goers.

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Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Barnett English and the Joshua Tree Music Festival
03:05 Barnett's Journey into Music Festivals
05:58 The Unique Experience of Smaller Festivals
08:47 Artist Selection and Festival Philosophy
12:02 Challenges in the Festival Industry
15:03 The Importance of Shared Experiences
17:57 Family-Friendly Atmosphere at the Festival
20:56 Workshops and Activities Beyond Music
24:03 Logistics of Running a Biannual Festival
27:03 Camping and Accommodations at the Festival
29:55 Final Thoughts and Festival Highlights

Barnett English (00:00.269)
Yeah, it wouldn't be my first time.

Danny (00:01.914)
And so here we go. All right, Barnett English. Thank you so much for joining me here on the Highway 62 podcast. How are you today?

Barnett English (00:12.377)
Fabulous, best day of my life. Thanks for asking. Yeah.

Danny (00:14.235)
Every day, right? I love the background there. You got some really cool artwork going behind you. that you in the home office or?

Barnett English (00:19.374)
Hmm

Yeah, world headquarters. It's our only headquarters. Yeah, yeah, some killer photos that friends have taken and trinkets and books. Things that inspire.

Danny (00:33.838)
Wonderful. Excellent. You are the founder, the creator of the Joshua Tree Music Festival. And I want to talk all about that and, you know, what's in store for this year. But first, I'd like to hear a little bit about your background prior to that and kind of how you found your way into starting a music festival.

Barnett English (00:57.351)
Yeah, that's a good question. Gosh, I've been a music junkie my whole life. So I started collecting albums when I was 10 years old. I'd get split albums with my brother and it Sears and Roebuck back in Louisville, Kentucky for five bucks an album. And then made hundreds and hundreds of mixed tapes and spent a really stupid amount of my earnings in my whole life on.

Danny (01:12.044)
Yeah.

Barnett English (01:25.927)
on records and CDs. So I've always loved music and then started a coffee business back in 93. Started selling coffee at music festivals. And so now 30 years later, I've been to over 1200 music festivals selling coffee. And the first one I went to back in 95, I saw some of my favorite bands and met these friends, people that are still friends today and had the most amazing time.

Danny (01:34.815)
okay.

Barnett English (01:51.656)
I walked away from that one going, you know, that's all I want to ever do is be at a music festival. This is, this is it. This has got it all, you know? And so here we are 30 years later and I'm still doing it. So I was going to coffee, selling coffee at these festivals. And then on a whim, I came to Joshua tree to the campground on Sun Fair road, the Joshua tree Lake campground, where we have the festival. There was a small didgeridoo gathering there.

And so I came to sell coffee there and I drove in in the middle of the night and didn't see a thing and woke up in the morning and looked out and went, holy smokes, look at this view, know, looking at the national park and, you know, stars all, blinding stars at night. And then, so I mentioned to the folks that own the campground, said, hey, Sally, why don't you have a real music festival here, you know? And more than just didgeridoos, nothing against didgeridoos, but there are more instruments.

Danny (02:29.23)
Yeah.

Danny (02:45.913)
You should.

Barnett English (02:47.689)
So she said, you know, gosh, if you're so smart, why don't you do it yourself? And so she dared me. And so within six months, I'd moved to Joshua Tree, found a home and had our first music festival. And that was April of, April 9 through 11 of 2003, we had our first one. So, so I just fell in love with Joshua Tree instantly.

Danny (03:05.324)
Wow.

Danny (03:09.579)
It's, know, as you know, from just a little bit of, you know, chatting we had done, I'm a musician myself, so I'm used to, you know, from that musician side of going to big music festivals as a musician. You know, I've played Reading and Leeds and I just got back this weekend, this last weekend, we played Riot Fest in Chicago, which is a huge music festival. And I guess from my standpoint, when you say like,

Barnett English (03:23.506)
Yeah.

Barnett English (03:32.349)
Right.

Danny (03:37.741)
All she wanted to do was go to music. like what in your right mind made you think to go into the music festival business? Because it is it, you know, for people, you know, for fans that just go to watch the music. mean, obviously they see it's a big production and everything, but just what's going on behind the stages, the back end of it is is crazy. You know, I mean, did you know what you were getting into?

Barnett English (03:43.708)
right. Yeah.

Barnett English (04:00.06)
Madness. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I no, luckily I was very stupid and naive. I never would have started it. You know, I thought what, hard could it be, right? Build a stage, get some bands to play, rent a port -a -let, sell a few tickets. And so yeah, I just went into it super naive, but you know, we always, I always started small and you know, never, never dreamt too big and.

Danny (04:24.343)
Yeah.

Barnett English (04:27.671)
you know, and never ran up a bill too big that I couldn't, pay back later, by selling some coffee. So, you know, we just built it slowly and organically and, you know, so ours is very different. mean, I've been to every single Coachella, you know, that's massive and, been to all kinds of vessels, big, small, green, purple, red. And I've just, I just always, my big takeaway is, I love the ones that are a little more small. You know, they're smaller. So like you and I, we'd run into each other.

Danny (04:52.993)
Yeah.

Barnett English (04:56.683)
25 times over the course of 72 hours, having breakfast in the mornings, around the campfire at night, and as opposed to at the Riot Fest, if we dropped a pin and we're lucky to know how to do that, then maybe we could find each other.

Danny (04:57.898)
Yes. Right, right.

Danny (05:09.408)
Yeah, I mean, was a gargantuan gargantuan event. And, know, you've got the crossover of bands. So, you know, and there was people there from, you know, all kind of bands that weren't playing that they were just there, you know, to just hang out and stuff like that. And it was tough for even them to be like, I want to come see you guys, but I got to get over to this stage. You know, I want to see this band. And and I think my experience has been playing some smaller

Barnett English (05:11.933)
Yeah.

Barnett English (05:17.736)
Yeah.

Barnett English (05:32.842)
Yeah.

Danny (05:38.878)
festivals have been where I've had the most fun. All props to Riot Fest, though. you know, not that anyone from Riot Fest will hear this podcast probably, but that probably was the best run big festival we've ever played. Like everything was dialed and the sound and the production, you know, for for you as a band, you know, like playing in the band, there is nothing worse than going to a festival and

Barnett English (05:44.544)
Yeah.

Barnett English (05:53.683)
Yeah, cool.

Barnett English (05:58.262)
Nice.

Danny (06:07.896)
You know, a lot of times, too, if you're not like the main headline band, you know, you're probably not doing a sound check. You're still wanting to use in -ear monitors. And, you know, we bring our own in -ear monitor rig and, you know, 20 minute changeover. And sometimes it's like, you know, you got 20 minutes, you turn on your in -ears and you're like, I'm hearing, you know, whatever craziness. I did a whole festival recently with zero monitors, nothing in my ear and nothing on the stage because they couldn't get it hooked up.

Barnett English (06:14.434)
Yeah.

Barnett English (06:22.796)
That's crazy.

Barnett English (06:33.583)
my gosh.

Danny (06:37.036)
But Riot Fest, man, it was so pro. Like I turned on my in -ears and it was like, I'm like listening to a record right now. It was so good. So when it's good like that, it's really amazing. But most of the time it doesn't go like that for the musicians. And

Barnett English (06:41.44)
Yeah.

Barnett English (06:47.691)
Yeah, it's nice.

Barnett English (06:55.246)
Yeah, I go to a lot of the festivals and it's like that where they, you know, they just have unrealistic schedules and unrealistic change over times. And, know, so from the very beginning, we just always had two stages. we'd alternate from one stage to the other. So you have a full two hours to completely set up, check your in -ear monitors, make sure everything's sweet. And meanwhile, the crowd is all together at the other stage. And then when they finish, literally you just turn 90 degrees and you look, and then you start 15 minutes later. So.

Danny (07:08.063)
Yep.

Danny (07:21.995)
Yeah. Right, right.

Barnett English (07:24.501)
It does a couple of things. makes life better for the musicians and the artists. So they do a better show, but it also makes it a better experience for those in attendance because we all get to see you and your band and we have this shared experience now. So like at midnight that night, we can both go, my God, did you see that drummer Danny do that backflip? That was crazy. know, and we all, right now we're past the backflip stage of our careers.

Danny (07:45.654)
There will be no backflips from me.

Danny (07:52.374)
Yeah, I did a 45 minute bike ride today and I'm like, God.

Barnett English (07:53.295)
You know, but the main thing is, wow, that's 44 minutes longer than I have done. But you know, it's that shared experience, I think, that really makes people bond and get even closer. know, not only are you and I interacting many times over the course of the weekend, but now we're having these shared magical experiences. So it's not like I was at one stage and you were at another. And we actually might as well have been at two different shows, because we were. You know, so we don't have that shared thing. And that's like a big deal.

Danny (08:19.719)
Yeah.

Barnett English (08:23.31)
I think that's one of the big things that people drive away with and going, God, we really connected. We really had a real analog human experience. And I think the world needs more of that.

Danny (08:34.451)
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Tell us a little bit about like your thought process from the standpoint of the type of artists that you're booking for this festival, because it is a little bit different.

Barnett English (08:47.791)
Yeah, definitely so. gosh, since the very beginning, I've always been really into finding artists that are on the rise, haven't made it big and haven't, the whole world doesn't know about them. There's two reasons behind that, number one, because I think a lot of those artists are, they're hungry, they're living and breathing it, they're sleeping in their van together, they're just really putting on amazing shows.

The other part being, of course, I could never afford large major headliner bands, but I really don't even want to go there. So it makes it, it's a bad business model, but now that we've been doing it for so many years, our regular attendees just come up to me. A lot of them say, Hey, you don't even need to have a website, man. We don't know any of these freaking bands. We love them. And now you got us. So, so we just look for artists that are on the rise and it really.

Danny (09:37.589)
Ha ha!

Barnett English (09:46.022)
You know, there's no specific genre. mean, we've had bands from jam bands from South Korea and Mongolian heavy metal bands and, you know, all over the world. And it's really just, is the artist super compelling and do they put on an amazing live show? And then the genre doesn't even freaking matter. And how many Facebook and Instagram followers they have doesn't even matter. I don't look any of that stuff up. It's really just, wow, you know, are they going to blow us all away?

That's what I go for.

Danny (10:15.722)
Yeah, Yeah, it's I mean, it's a really interesting from me also being a small business owner. It's an interesting thought process because, know, obviously, probably you have the connections and you know the people that if you wanted to book one big headlining act, you could do it. Doing it the way that a lot of festivals do, which is, you know, we'll give them a deposit, but, know, really, we can't pay this band until after the.

Barnett English (10:33.295)
Yeah. Yeah, for sure.

Danny (10:44.502)
festival tickets have been sold. And we again, you know, we we were in a festival in Australia that we, you know, 90 percent of the bands ended up not getting paid, you know, because that risk, that bet that the promoter had made went south and he was he was paying bands from the previous festival he did with the new festival. But there there's this, you know.

Barnett English (10:46.086)
Yeah.

Barnett English (10:55.874)
man, yeah, that's a bummer.

Barnett English (11:01.989)
Yep.

Barnett English (11:06.513)
Yeah.

Danny (11:11.956)
Like you're saying, you know, don't really want to go down that road, you know, keeping it at this smaller level. You've found an interesting way to make it work for you, work for the bands, work financially without having to have quite that, you know, level of risk and stress. would imagine that these these promoters that are doing these multimillion dollar shows are dealing with.

Barnett English (11:21.916)
Yeah.

Barnett English (11:31.122)
Yeah!

Barnett English (11:36.948)
Yeah. you know, and I think this year we're seeing, we're seeing, I mean, I've been going to music festivals for 30 years actively and I've never seen the, many festivals cancel ever. So this year has there are, could name a gosh, if I started putting a list together, it'd be easily a hundred major festivals in the U S and same in Europe. They've all gone belly up this year. And it's, I think it's two things. Number one, obviously times are tough.

Danny (11:49.747)
Mmm, okay.

Danny (12:02.248)
Wow!

Barnett English (12:07.157)
not just for a lot of us, but for most of us, you know, like I can't afford to go to a music festival with my, my sweetheart and take five days off of work and drive 400 miles and buy food. And, you know, it's an expensive endeavor. So I think that the prices have gone super crazy high for the times we're in, but then also there's a, you know, a huge over saturation. There's tons of festivals everywhere. So, but this year there's been a major correction and, and it's been kind of,

Danny (12:32.82)
Huh, interesting.

Barnett English (12:35.856)
because the costs have gone up in these last two years post COVID. The costs of everything have gone crazy. So we're actually selling more tickets in May, our last festival. The revenue goes up, but so do the expenses. So it's a crazy business.

Danny (12:52.627)
Yeah, I mean, yeah, it's a, you know, it's a cycle that that kind of feeds everything. I mean, you know, not to go down like a totally different road, but the conglomeration of, you know, corporate interest, you know, again, coming from the standpoint of a band, you know, Live Nation owning everything and all these venues. A big change that, you know, we saw like a year or so ago was Live Nation saying, by the way, now you got to provide your own insurance.

Barnett English (13:14.035)
Yeah.

Danny (13:23.209)
you know, to the bands and the bands are like, what are you doing? You're you know, you're taking and I think these are things, you know, that that, you know, the fans don't really get that back end viewpoint of what it's like to try to financially be successful as a music promoter or a midsize club owner. Right.

Barnett English (13:23.817)
my gosh, are you serious? my gosh.

Barnett English (13:31.593)
Wow, I've never heard that. That's crazy.

Barnett English (13:48.499)
Yeah, yeah, the cook.

Danny (13:48.851)
You know, the independent those independent clubs that aren't live nation, that your tickets aren't going through Ticketmaster. And those are some of the best clubs. Those are some of the best run clubs that when we go on tour, those are the kind of clubs again that sometimes they'll just have the best sound guy working there, you know, and just like great fans in the club. You know, the dressing room's nice and the from, know, the hospitality people want to take actually, you know, care about the band.

Barnett English (13:58.007)
Right.

Barnett English (14:11.658)
Yeah, they've got their... they've got their own...

Barnett English (14:17.249)
Yeah, they got their own organic, super groovy vibe, know? mean, because the people that work there really are living it. It's like, it's their thing. You know, they love it. know, a corporation can't love something that much. They can build a killer place, but can they really, will that love come through? you know, so yeah, it's unfortunate for a lot of the club owners and like you said, smaller venues, it's tough.

Danny (14:20.296)
Yeah.

Danny (14:33.256)
But it...

Danny (14:38.281)
And I think, you know, from the standpoint of the the the fan, the music fan going to see a show, you know, again, you see the band, maybe they're playing, you know, a House of Blues sized venue or, you know, something like that and thinking, wow, you know, these guys, they're making a ton of money and this is amazing. And, you know, not realizing like the cut that goes to your management, the cut that goes to the booking agent.

Barnett English (15:03.326)
Yeah.

Danny (15:04.596)
The venue wants 20 % of your merchandise sales. I mean, things like that. mean, it's just, you know, it's crazy on that back end. And it's just sort of you know, self -fulfilling prophecy here of the price, know. So, of course, then the ticket prices need to go up and then, you know, it's just this reoccurring nightmare that we're all sort of dealing with. But yeah, it is ridiculous to try to go to a festival price wise. I mean, it's out of control.

Barnett English (15:09.131)
Yeah, wow.

Barnett English (15:25.056)
Yeah.

Barnett English (15:33.081)
Yeah. And my heart goes out to all the musicians that, you know, I just don't know how anyone makes a living creating the art that they're, you know, they're, you know, they're, they're not just wanting to do it. They have to do it. You know, you're an artist. gotta, this is in you, you know, you want to put this stuff out and this is what you want to do. And so to make a living out of, just don't know how people got to be so savvy and frugal and, you know, wear 40 hats, you know, you got to be your, your own so

Danny (15:59.54)
Yes. Yeah, you pivot. Yeah, you pivot. You do different things, you know. I mean, yeah, it's certainly different like the way that we look at touring now versus years ago. You know, we do more special event type things, you know, to give the fan like a really unique experience. For example, probably one of my favorite things we've ever done this last December, we did three nights.

Barnett English (16:12.834)
Mm -hmm.

Barnett English (16:22.112)
Yeah.

Danny (16:28.838)
at the Overlook Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado, you know, like the Shining Hotel. And there is an old music hall there on the stage where the drums are set up. There was a trap door that they had built for when Harry Houdini was going to perform there. And I was like, OK, this is amazing. But, you know, so we did like an out on complete album.

Barnett English (16:33.068)
cool. Yeah.

Barnett English (16:47.053)
That's amazing.

Danny (16:53.34)
We did, you know, a different album each night, and then we'd take a break and come back and do another full set of music and then do a VIP event every night. So people could, you know, buy like a hotel package and the VIP tickets. And it became like a complete experience. But we found like, you know, that you kind of have to do more of those kind of things as opposed to just like, we're going to do a US tour and a bus and play a bunch of House of Blues type venues or something, you know, it's.

Barnett English (17:00.291)
Yeah.

Barnett English (17:08.621)
Yes.

Barnett English (17:13.56)
Yeah.

Barnett English (17:19.683)
Yeah, I think that's a great, that's a super great model. You know, you can really appeal to your super fan and just say, hey, come spend a weekend with us in this killer location. We're going to do four or five super far out weird shows. We're going to, know, like you say, do this one album one night and, you know, costume the next night. And that's a great way of really, you know, just kind of mining the, your fans, the ones that really freaking love you, you know, it's impossible to go out and try to conquer the world anymore. That's just crazy.

Danny (17:43.889)
Yeah.

Danny (17:47.805)
Yeah.

Barnett English (17:48.62)
You know, the world is too fragmented and disjointed. but yeah, appealing to your own fans like that is killer. That's a great, great model.

Danny (17:57.831)
You know, the Joshua Tree Music Festival was voted the number one music festival in the United States by USA Today. What other you know, what are some of the other things that make it so unique?

Barnett English (18:10.332)
Good question. And just for the record, I did actually vote for ourselves on that, on that Reader's Choice Award. I think I voted multiple times. But yeah, what makes it special is again, it's kind of like this living breathing organism and I try to keep it, you know, we don't want it to get too big, you know, because I think having a few thousand people out there is really a great size. Again, it becomes this, it's more the experience and the humor and interaction and the shared experiences that we have.

Danny (18:19.676)
Sure, why not?

Barnett English (18:40.253)
that make it unique. And then we also more than, like I said, I've been to over 1200 music festivals and we make it a family friendly experience. it's like five, 600 kids come and it's super action packed for the kids. So if the kids are having fun, then mom and dad can also have fun because just because you're a parent doesn't mean you don't like to rock and roll still.

Danny (19:02.395)
Yeah.

Barnett English (19:07.826)
But making it super kid friendly and really meaning that not just putting out a little sandbox and a couple of plastic toys. mean, we have this action packed part of the festival that really is the heartbeat of the festival. So I think that that's part of it, but it's also just really laid back. There's no long lines. You don't watch a band on the Jumbotron. You can walk right up to the front of the stage. You know, you don't have to get your bags checked by the guys in yellow jackets. You know, it's just really laid back. it's

We get a lot of people that actually come up to me and just go, Hey, you know what? We don't go to music festivals, but we come to this one. You know? So, it's just unique in that it's, think it's just smaller, more intimate and, and, you know, but still have some killer music to really inspire people.

Danny (19:43.11)
Hahaha

Danny (19:54.887)
Yeah. You know, you kind of started to mention a little bit and I had wrote it down besides the music. What you know, there's you do other things, right, for people to do and for the kids and stuff. What are some of those things about?

Barnett English (20:02.047)
Yeah. Yeah. Man, I just was going over the schedule for our next festival. We have over 99 different movement or mindfulness or merriment type workshops or play shops. So they might be a music play shop or a dance class or yoga class. We have a grief cafe and

AA meetings in a queer salon where we have counseling and drag bingo with the lovely Lady Shalane. She comes out to grace us and entertain us. So a lot of people really love that. In fact, you know, it's kind of a revelation because I've been going to festivals for so long and I'm such a music freak that I just go straight to the front of the stage and stay there all day. You know, go to the bathroom, get some food.

Danny (20:32.603)
Hmm.

Barnett English (20:56.543)
get something to drink, come back. But I just focus on the music. But so many people tell me that, no, we spent all day around the lake and we didn't, we just went to play shops all day. Cause that's where we actually really get to meet and connect with people. Cause they sat in this group with 12 people and they like poured their hearts out or learned something new together. Well, now they're friends for the rest of the weekend. Like they're tight. So it adds to that whole shared experience and then getting to connect with people. So.

Danny (21:05.776)
Hmm.

Barnett English (21:24.956)
We've really made that a big part of our whole weekend. So yeah, there's a lot beyond the music.

Danny (21:29.298)
Cool. Yeah, yeah, I think, yeah, I could definitely see where that would kind of just add to that, you know, that overall mystique and, you know, just thing that sets it apart from so many other music festivals. You know, we started to talk a little bit about the behind the scenes and the logistics and stuff now. And this is a twice a year festival, correct? So you do May and October.

Barnett English (21:49.791)
Yeah.

Barnett English (21:53.921)
Yeah, every May, every May and October. Yeah, we started that first one in spring of 2003. And then in 2006, we had our first fall festival because it was kind of like Christmas. I couldn't wait all year for Santa to come again. So whether it was a great idea or not at the beginning, I was like, well, let's do one in the fall too. So ever since 2006, we've had a fall one. So this will actually be the 41st time we've had a festival.

Danny (22:09.201)
Okay.

Barnett English (22:24.673)
Two of those are virtual and one was a socially distant concert series back in pandemic times. But so yeah, it's a lot. you know, so it's basically a year round kind of thing. And I'm always, you know, like I'm bands now for the May and October Festival of 2025. And so it's a constant thing. Yeah.

Danny (22:29.618)
Right. Yeah. Yeah.

Danny (22:41.17)
Okay, that's kind of what I was gonna, yeah, I was kind of interested to just get a little feedback there on, know, just obviously it's a full -time thing for you, you know, and I think it must be difficult, you know, for people that kind of just have a regular job to think about being in that position where like, you're working every day on something that's going to happen a year from now, you know, or eight months from now, you know, and.

Barnett English (23:06.229)
Yeah, yeah, it's kind of crazy.

Danny (23:10.235)
But I guess we all know how quickly, especially as you get older, that'll seem like the blink of an eye and you'll be having a festival.

Barnett English (23:15.477)
Yeah, no doubt. Yeah, but it is like, you know, with our festival being two weeks away, I am actually, when I get, you know, within two or three weeks of the festival, I become all reinvigorated about it because there's these bands that are playing that I booked like nine months ago and not having, I haven't forgotten about them, but then I'm, now I'm like interacting with them and working out a bunch of the details. And so now I'm getting excited again. I'm going,

damn, these guys are gonna be amazing. it's kind of fun. And when it gets closer to the event, I start getting super, super charged up and have trouble sleeping.

Danny (23:53.337)
Yeah. Tell us a little bit about because like you said, there's an October upcoming event here. Tell us about this October festival.

Barnett English (24:03.044)
Yeah, it's, it's a October 10 through 13 and, and we, we start, the festivities kick off on Thursday evening. So a lot of people actually come on Wednesday night and set up camp and chill out and sit under the stars. And then, but by Thursday evening, we've got music happening and then Friday, Saturday and Sunday, it's all day and night music and workshops and play shops and kids bill activities. So, you know, a lot of people come in on.

on Wednesday and then they leave on Monday. So they've been there for a while, you know? So like it's five days and nights and a lot of meals of camping outside together and hanging out. so it's, you know, it's an investment in time for people. So I'm always really grateful and honored that so many people show up and keep coming back.

Danny (24:50.19)
Yeah, yeah. You know, so you mentioned camping, which is always a huge part of these music festivals. And I don't know how like the European music fans do it, but they they will will camp in a muddy field in its four days of pouring rain. And when I'm playing one of those, just like that you you you couldn't pay me enough.

Barnett English (25:06.391)
Yeah.

Right?

Danny (25:16.132)
to go do, you know, what these people are doing to watch these bands play. is so do you do packages that kind of involve like camping as well as a ticket? Or how do you kind of how does the customer go about?

Barnett English (25:17.612)
Yeah, I

No doubt.

Barnett English (25:27.749)
Yeah, well people come in all shapes and sizes and they camp out in all different ways. Some people come and sleep in their cars and some sleep on the ground, literally on a bed roll and then all types of tents and then the trailers and RVs and then we have some RV hookups and then we have a bunch of, probably close to 40 now, old trailers that we keep.

dragging home and refurbishing them. So they have an air conditioner and a cozy mattress and lights and we paint them up all funky. And so we brought those out to some folks. so yeah, it's all shapes and sizes out there in the campground.

Danny (25:59.691)
my God. Yeah.

Cool.

Danny (26:11.671)
So so somebody who wants to come to the festival, can they do like a package, you know, where they're getting admission, but also maybe renting this camper or just getting a camp spot? Are those all kind of packaged together?

Barnett English (26:17.806)
Mm.

Barnett English (26:24.966)
Well, actually, if you just buy the ticket, you can come in and camp with your tent for free. And then if you want to bring your vehicle in, you just buy a vehicle pass. we keep it pretty simple and pretty straight. Yeah. And if you want to rent the trailer, then that's a different fee. But one thing we do is we don't, know, we're kind of, we're all free range humans. don't have any, we don't have any VIPs because I think we're all VIPs.

Danny (26:35.073)
Okay, people simple, yeah.

Barnett English (26:51.813)
You know, and I go to a lot of festivals and they have a VIP section that's the closest you can get is 40 feet from the stage, you know, and, unless you've paid to be in the VIP section. And I think it kind of kills the whole intention of gum going to a festival as we came to be together and now you're separating us. So we've never done that.

Danny (26:55.939)
sure sure

Danny (27:03.504)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it's yeah. And some of that is, again, a response to bands looking at different ways from a financial standpoint, because we've we've been doing we've been doing a bunch of the final no effects shows. I think we did 10 of 10 of them as like.

Barnett English (27:21.221)
Mm -hmm.

yeah.

Danny (27:32.103)
you know, it'd be like us Pennywise no effects. so no effects there. They're wrapping up. think they have five more shows and then they're, calling it quits. And so, yeah, they were selling like, you know, on stage access and different kinds of things. And I think a lot of that is just like the band figuring out like, okay, how do we, you know, how can we maximize it? You know, so I, I sympathize with the band, but at the same time, again, it's like, yeah, are we.

Barnett English (27:46.805)
yeah.

Barnett English (27:56.037)
Yeah, for sure.

Danny (28:00.857)
taking something away from just kind of the original experience of just going and everybody's in the room and you know, or in that field, right, right. Nobody's special.

Barnett English (28:07.753)
We're all there together, know? Yeah, yeah, we stick with, yeah, yeah, we're all special. We're all special for sure. So yeah, we don't do that because I just feel like it really does kind of, it is a bit of a vibe kill, so to speak. I mean, I just love that, you know, everybody's right up there on the dance floor together and it's really kind of hysterical. I mean, I look around and I kind of crack up. I have a lot of friends that are my age, I'm 61 and they'll go, yeah, man, we're, you know, we're too old. We don't go to music festivals. I'm like.

I've got 80 year old friends that dance circles around my ass out there. So it's really, really refreshing to see folks of all ages at our festival from the kids that are running around to the, it's unique. I don't see that a lot at other festivals.

Danny (28:40.376)
Sure, sure.

Danny (28:53.794)
Well, it sounds amazing. mean, I haven't been to the festival. I'd love to come to one. And the way you describe it, too, it just seems very fitting for the area, you know, for how a lot of things work in, you know, the Morongo Basin, that area out there. It is, you know, a little bit different mindset with some of these things, you know.

Barnett English (29:04.466)
Yeah.

Barnett English (29:14.674)
Yeah, for sure, for sure. And I love the mindset and I love, you know, I was listening to your interview with the folks that are putting on the film festival, the queer film festival. you know, and then you guys were talking about like, wow, when we first moved here, I just didn't realize how many people, how many artisans are out here. And it's true, they're just, it's for per capita, there's so many talented artists out here.

Danny (29:26.194)
yeah, yeah.

Danny (29:36.28)
Yeah.

Barnett English (29:42.921)
I go to a party with 30 people and I feel like I'm the only person that can't play an instrument really well or paint or sculpt or something, you know, like it's that thick. And so that's another really cool thing about, you know, the town that we live in. I love it.

Danny (29:46.67)
Hahaha

Danny (29:55.342)
Yeah, I think on that I think on that episode, I said that that, you know, I was like two or three weeks earlier, like playing a festival in Portland, you know, one of these big no effects festivals. And I'm backstage hanging out with another drummer who lives three blocks from me in 29 Palms. You know, it's just like and yeah, it I yeah, it is an amazing amount of artists out there. And that's part of what just makes as part of the charm for sure.

Barnett English (30:13.112)
that's great. That's so great.

Barnett English (30:24.945)
Yeah, for sure. I love it.

Danny (30:27.094)
Well, I will make sure in the show notes to put the website and just all the information that people need who want to see what the schedule looks like and just get more information and want to come out. But I mean, you know, if you're in the Southern California area and hearing this and you haven't been out to the Joshua Tree area, especially in this kind of like mid -October time frame, like that, that's the golden.

Barnett English (30:35.891)
Yay!

Barnett English (30:52.967)
Yeah.

Danny (30:54.913)
You're hitting the golden months there where it's just unreal, magical, like perfect, unreal weather. You know, come out, watch some great music, bunch of great places to go eat, you know, just I guarantee people are going to have amazing time. So.

Barnett English (30:57.498)
It's pretty sweet, yeah.

Barnett English (31:12.973)
Thank you so much, Danny. I really appreciate it. I love what you're doing and getting a lot of these stories out. You know, like we were talking, there's so many artists up here and for you to be chatting them up and sharing their stories, I think is really, is a great thing. Cause I think people can't really find out, people can't really figure out what's going on up here. I think you could drive up and down highway 62 and go, what's going on here? So these types of things are awesome.

Danny (31:28.194)
Thank you.

Danny (31:37.549)
Yeah. Yeah. You know, when I when I first moved out, my brother, you know, he was talking to, think, somebody in my band. came to see us in Chicago. He saying, yeah, the first time I flew in to see, you know, go to Danny's house at Christmas, I thought, man, this this area is weird, you know? And then the second time I came back, I was like, it's kind of kind of interesting, kind of cool. And the third time I came back, I'm like, man, it is really cool out here, you know? And I think that's the experience that a lot of people.

Barnett English (31:55.371)
Yeah.

Barnett English (32:03.808)
Yeah, yeah, totally.

Danny (32:07.222)
you know, have as they come out and come out more often and just, you know, experience some of the everything that there is to offer out there. So, yeah, I'm trying to do my little part in just highlighting the cool stories and the cool people and and, you know, and just some of the cool history as well that is out in the area. So I really appreciate your time and I hope you have a great successful festival.

Barnett English (32:22.572)
I love it.

Barnett English (32:34.901)
Awesome, thank you so much brother, I really appreciate it. Take care. All right, bye bye. Yeah.

Danny (32:36.949)
My pleasure. All right. Thank you, man. I appreciate it. I think we hit everything important. Okay. Okay, cool.

Barnett English (32:45.397)
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, yeah.

Summary

Graham Kolbeins and Jonathan Andre Culliton, founders of the 29 Queer Film Fest, discuss their backgrounds as filmmakers and the inspiration behind the festival. They talk about the films being showcased, including world premieres and queer horror shorts. The festival is designed to create a space for queer stories and foster the filmmaking community in the high desert area. They also discuss the acceptance of the LGBTQ+ community in the area and the support they have received from local businesses and organizations.

Visit the webiste HERE

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and Background
04:10 Inception of the 29 Queer Film Fest
06:01 Film Highlights and Gala Events
08:35 Festival Schedule and Venues
11:31 Attending the Film Fest: Tips for Newcomers
13:46 Future Plans and Fostering the Filmmaking Community
15:01 Acceptance and Support in the High Desert
17:28 Closing Remarks and Event Details

Danny (00:01.779)
All right, Graham Cole Beans and Jonathan Andre Coliton. Coliton, thanks for being on the Highway 62 podcast. How are you guys today?

Graham Kolbeins & Jonathan Andre Culliton (00:02.208)
Yeah.

Graham Kolbeins & Jonathan Andre Culliton (00:10.902)
Thank you for having us. great. Yeah, we're doing good.

Danny (00:16.915)
Awesome. And you guys are the founders, right, of the first ever inaugural 29 Queer Film Fest that's happening in September the 20th and 22nd. Before we get into a little bit about the actual Film Fest and kind of what it's all about, give me just a brief little background on each of you.

Graham Kolbeins & Jonathan Andre Culliton (00:24.214)
Thank

Graham Kolbeins & Jonathan Andre Culliton (00:40.758)
Sure. So we're both filmmakers and I'll just start talking about myself. I'm mostly a documentary filmmaker though I've recently started doing some narrative filmmaking. I shot a short film here in 29 Palms in June called Outage that I'm currently in post -production on.

Danny (00:50.707)
Ha

Graham Kolbeins & Jonathan Andre Culliton (01:07.688)
I'm pretty deeply involved in film and when we came out here... Can I roll that back a little bit? Okay, great, I just lost my train of thought. Sorry. Yeah, so I'm a filmmaker, a videographer.

Danny (01:20.669)
Sure. I can edit anything too, it's fine.

Graham Kolbeins & Jonathan Andre Culliton (01:33.654)
and I'm a queer person in 29 palms and those all informed co -founding this festival. I'm also... Sorry? Where are you originally from? I was born in Vancouver, Canada.

Danny (01:43.315)
Where are you originally from?

Danny (01:48.648)
Where are you originally from?

Danny (01:53.467)
Okay. Right on. I love Vancouver. I was just, I was just in, I've been to Canada a lot lately. I was in Toronto last weekend and the weekend before I was in Edmonton. So I spent a lot of time in the Kenyatta.

Graham Kolbeins & Jonathan Andre Culliton (01:57.504)
Yeah, that's a great place.

Graham Kolbeins & Jonathan Andre Culliton (02:06.143)
I'm cool.

Graham Kolbeins & Jonathan Andre Culliton (02:10.142)
Nice. What were you doing in Toronto?

Danny (02:13.043)
I play in a band, so we're playing some festivals up there. But yeah, we do a lot of Canadian shows. Graham, what about you?

Graham Kolbeins & Jonathan Andre Culliton (02:16.319)
Awesome.

Graham Kolbeins & Jonathan Andre Culliton (02:21.11)
me? You mean Jonathan, yes. That's okay. No, I'm a born and bred Bostonian with all the details. But yeah, I'm also a filmmaker. Currently I'm rolling out a couple of films.

Danny (02:24.967)
Jonathan, I'm sorry, your buys are both Canadian.

Graham Kolbeins & Jonathan Andre Culliton (02:43.542)
Spookable which played at the Maryland Film Festival in frame 48 and is about to play at Prism 37. And then I have Will It Justice Drag Queen Private Eye which is showing, both of those films are showing actually at the 29 Queer Film Festival and that film stars Lady Shalane who is the premier high desert drag queen of our current timeline.

Danny (03:12.083)
Yeah, Yeah, she was one of my first guests on the podcast, like second or third episode ever. Right on. How did you guys how did you guys end up settling in the 29 Palms area?

Graham Kolbeins & Jonathan Andre Culliton (03:13.462)
Amazing. She's really special.

Yeah, so I moved out here four years ago from Los Angeles. It was during the pandemic. I had lost work and I had always wanted to move to the high desert but never really thought that it was feasible. But in that moment an opportunity became available. A friend said, hey, I have a cabin that just opened up and I moved into that cabin in July 2020. And I've

just loved living here ever since. Yeah, and then I followed Graham because I fell in love with them so I just followed. I just came out here to be closer to them.

Danny (04:01.949)
Right on.

Danny (04:10.449)
Very nice, very nice. So tell me about kind of the inception and the idea and how it came to be that you put this film festival together.

Graham Kolbeins & Jonathan Andre Culliton (04:20.438)
Yeah, well we both were mentees in Workshop 29, which was a program out of PAC, the Arts Council here. And we both were encouraged to do programming. They wanted people to think about all ages programming and

programming for different identities basically. So we were encouraged to do some sort of event which isn't really natural to our filmmaking careers except for film festivals. know, that's sort of the place that Archive gathers. So we thought, you know, this is an opportunity not only to make an event here, which is the first of its kind here.

but also to create a film festival from the perspective of being filmmakers who have been at film festivals and had varying experiences. And as you know, we have such a beautiful place to offer, but no movie theater here. the idea of sharing film...

Danny (05:36.326)
Yeah, right.

Graham Kolbeins & Jonathan Andre Culliton (05:40.678)
and making a place for it, a literal physical place where you can sit in a comfortable chair and watch it in a dark room as it's intended is something we thought was really special that we could give the entire community.

Danny (06:01.023)
on. Sounds great. What tell us a little bit about some of the films maybe I know there's quite a bit on the agenda there I read through the press release but maybe give us what you think is going to be a few of just sort of the highlights of the you know the Cup multi -day event.

Graham Kolbeins & Jonathan Andre Culliton (06:16.182)
Yeah, so we're showing 30 films over three days, including three feature films. Yeah, the features are sort of can't miss. You've got a world premiere of Poppy's Pregnant, which is the story of our friend, trans -MAC non -binary person getting pregnant. Then you've got People's Joker, already an iconic film from Vera Drew.

And then we've got Off Ramp to Cabot Off, which is a film with a trans actor, but it's about juggalos, if you know anything about insane clown posse. So these are unusual queer stories. So the features are really can't miss to me. And then what else do we have? We have a queer horror program full of shorts from around the world. We have

Danny (06:59.955)
Yeah, yeah.

Graham Kolbeins & Jonathan Andre Culliton (07:11.104)
Bears, Lesbians, and Queers, My, which is an eclectic program with all kinds of different representation. And one of our other gala events is the premiere of Willa Justice Drag Queen Private Eye, along with a performance by Lady Shalane and Drag Bingo, which she does all around the high desert. And Free Eye Fall to Pizzas. Pizza.

Danny (07:37.247)
yeah. Give us a little bit of just kind of like the schedule, because I know there's different events. There's a couple different venues involved. I've attended a film festival. went to the Yucca Valley Film Festival this year. you know what, it's something that I'm really enjoying about living out in the area there is, I mean, first of all, when I moved out there,

Graham Kolbeins & Jonathan Andre Culliton (08:04.115)
It was.

Danny (08:06.463)
I just didn't expect there to be so much arts going on. know, even though I knew like other drummers and other musicians that had moved out to the area, but it's been so great to just kind of get involved with, you know, the community. And I think because it's a little bit smaller area, it's easier to attend these different events and, you know, versus like going to like a big film festival in Austin or in L .A. or, you know, any of those kind of things. So I'm really enjoying that. And

Graham Kolbeins & Jonathan Andre Culliton (08:22.602)
you

Danny (08:34.451)
If you've never been to a film festival, I mean, I've been a movie film fanatic ever since my cinema study class in high school in 1984 back in Chicago. And I never went to a film fest until I went to the Yucca Valley one this, this year, you know, so it's a really cool experience. And if you haven't been to one before, I would just really recommend people to, to check something like that out. But anyway, give us kind of a rundown. Where is it happening?

Graham Kolbeins & Jonathan Andre Culliton (08:35.871)
you

Graham Kolbeins & Jonathan Andre Culliton (08:43.722)
Thank you.

Graham Kolbeins & Jonathan Andre Culliton (09:02.186)
Anyway.

Danny (09:04.347)
a little rundown of like the schedule and how it all works.

Graham Kolbeins & Jonathan Andre Culliton (09:07.51)
Sure, yeah, to your point we're making it so it's like everything's within like 10 minutes of each other and that makes a really great film festival experience and in my experience so yeah we have theater 29 as the main hub of the festival 99 % of the programming happens there we have an after dark 18 plus show

on the night of Saturday the 20th, 21st, that is at corner 62 and then out on the patio. And then we have a after party on the 20th at Out There Bar which is totally free and cross event with Tits and Palms. So it's mostly at Theater 29.

and that's a great venue for theater out here. We have a projection situation there that's really comfortable and beautiful. So it's mostly there and the food vendors will be there as well. So the fun will be brought to there and people can kind of hang around there for hours. Yeah, and unlike bigger festivals that have like maybe three or four different screenings happening simultaneously,

Everything's happening like in a linear fashion so you could go to every program if you wanted to and we're trying to make the Theater 29 experience really cool so there's going to be a prop exhibit with props from a bunch of the different movies and themed snacks and all kinds of fun stuff. Yeah, every day has a gala event, a feature, and a shorts block so there's something really big happening every day.

Danny (10:32.935)
Gotcha.

Danny (10:55.717)
Wonderful. All right. And this might seem like almost like a silly question. But again, this is my experience, you know, like when I go to a website to check out a film fest and I think this is something for somebody who's never been to one before, it can be a little confusing, like, OK, what do I pay for? What day should you know, like how is it organized? What day do I go to? You know, obviously this is, as you're explaining, a little bit more condensed.

running linear like you said makes it a lot easier. Give like the simplest explanation to an absolute total film fest newbie and maybe even a recommendation of how they should go about doing it.

Graham Kolbeins & Jonathan Andre Culliton (11:31.414)
We'll right back.

Graham Kolbeins & Jonathan Andre Culliton (11:38.07)
Well, you do want to go to all of the programming, you want to buy the pass and you want to wait for the pass because we have a little small town glitch that made the passes not go up immediately. So I'd say wait for the pass. The passes are limited because we have a limited capacity venue. So we have to limit the amount that we can block out for that.

Danny (11:51.377)
Hahaha

Graham Kolbeins & Jonathan Andre Culliton (12:03.26)
So if you don't want to go to quite all of them, would say go on the website and choose those four programs. It's going to be less than the past, but you'll only be paying for what you're actually seeing. Yeah, check out 29qff .com for the full event listing and links to buy tickets to each of the programs.

Danny (12:31.677)
sounds good. Ali will make sure that I put in the show notes here on the podcast, all those kind of links and everything for people to check it out. It sounds like it's going to be a fun event. What do you guys got planned in the future? Are you thinking that far down the road yet with this stuff?

Graham Kolbeins & Jonathan Andre Culliton (12:38.336)
Thank you.

Graham Kolbeins & Jonathan Andre Culliton (12:48.212)
Yeah, we all, yeah, they really encouraged us to do that at the mentorship to really think about this as a start of more programming. we envisioned that not only will the film festival be a banner for more filmmaking programming, for film, more film going programming, but also filmmaking, because that's what we sort of started doing out here anyway.

You know, we walked out to all these beautiful, like, mountains and stuff, and we were like, why aren't we shooting? Why are we finding excuses for stories to happen here more and more? So as we work through the festival and as we, you know, get more youth programming going in the high desert, I think it's an invaluable thing for us to bring filmmaking into that, to give people a great skill if they want to leave the area to go.

to Los Angeles to make with what is left of the industry there. They have that opportunity too, but there's plenty starting to happen out here and in different communities all over the country with independent filmmaking. So that's my personal vision for it. don't know if you... Yeah, we really want to encourage and foster the filmmaking community here in the high desert.

Danny (14:02.983)
Yeah. Yeah.

Graham Kolbeins & Jonathan Andre Culliton (14:15.67)
Hopefully we'll be doing this festival every year. We were really grateful to receive a grant from the T -Bid, the Tourism Bureau here in 29 Palms. Hopefully they'll continue to support our efforts. We've received a number of amazing sponsorships from local businesses, including Son of the Desert.

Danny (14:28.401)
Mmm

Graham Kolbeins & Jonathan Andre Culliton (14:43.562)
We've got Ace Desert Hardware, Maso Menos, The Station. So it's been really just encouraging to see the amount of support in the community.

Danny (14:49.554)
Woohoo!

Danny (15:01.083)
Wonderful. You know, I wanted to ask you guys just as a personal note for you, you know, from your perspective, moving out to, you know, the high desert area, Murongo Basin, how do you find the area as it relates to, you know, being queer or, you know, the LGBTQ plus community, the acceptance level and just because it's an interesting, wide ranging mix of people, right? There is, you know, like

filmmaker and then the next, you know, plot of land over could be like, you know, a guy with a prepping bunker, you know, with Trump flags out or whatever, you know, which is fine. But it's a wide mix of people.

Graham Kolbeins & Jonathan Andre Culliton (15:40.042)
Yeah, that was a great one. Yeah. Yeah. There's definitely, there is a strong, perhaps underserved queer community in this area. We've met so many incredible people and we try to support all the events that we can that happen locally. Out There Bar does,

a number of queer events like Tits and Palms. So we try to go out and just be in community with the other queer people whenever we get a chance. And we're really lucky to have some best friends living next door who are a queer couple. So it feels like we have... It's like a sitcom vibe where it's like, you know, there's all these cookie cutter houses around us and then we both have the weird houses.

Danny (16:28.211)
Ha

Graham Kolbeins & Jonathan Andre Culliton (16:38.304)
There's like, you know, a couple of non -binary people, couple of trans -masse people, four queer people total on the end of this street. know, so that's been a unique experience for me to have our neighbor be a fellow trans man. Like, it's not something that I had in Los Angeles. I'd have to go to meet all my trans man friends, you know, someplace in Silver Lake, so.

Danny (16:39.612)
Ha ha ha ha.

Graham Kolbeins & Jonathan Andre Culliton (17:06.238)
I feel like out here I have way more of a community in some ways because you reach for it more. But you're right, we have the people with the flags down the street. It is right around the corner. So yeah, safety in numbers and community always.

Danny (17:08.262)
Right, right.

Danny (17:28.467)
Awesome. Guys, thank you so much for being on the show with me here. I look forward to hearing all about the event. I don't know. I think I'm going to be out of town during that weekend, unfortunately. But I will make sure for all the listeners, I put everything in the show notes where they can buy tickets, get more information, go to the website, read more about all the different films and everything that's happening on the weekend program.

And again, if you've never been to a film festival, I highly recommend the experience. It's super fun. I love it. So, yeah, I hope you guys have a really successful event and I'll be looking forward to future projects.

Graham Kolbeins & Jonathan Andre Culliton (18:10.016)
Thank you so much for your time. Thanks, Danny. We really appreciate it. Have a good one. See you around the desert.

Danny (18:13.949)
Thank you. My pleasure.

In this episode i went to visit Seth Zaharias at his house , " Sethspool" out in Joshua Tree California. Seth runs Cliffhanger Guide services along with his wife, Sabra. What started out as 10k and a dream has turned into the largest climbing guide service in what as known as one of the worlds top rock climbing destinations. Along with running the guide service, Seth promotes emersive events in the Morongo Basin area. He is an old school Joshua Tree OG having moved here 24 years ago. He has a great take on the exponential growth that the area has seen as well as the health of the tourism market. 

VIDEO VERSION of this episode is available on youtube HERE

Visit Cliffhanger Guide Services HERE

Luke Basulto is all things desert. In this episode we talk about his journey to working in the desert conservation world, the meeting of conservation and development and, his work with the Saving Slowpoke Project.

Luke's Instagram

Saving Slowpoke Project

In This episode we talk to Patrick Zuchowiki, founder of the inagural 20 Palms Book Festival

Website to the 29 Palms Book Festival HERE

Blake Hadges has taken his skill as a filmaker and advertising exec and turned it into a super cool card game called Invasion and his wild Heart Ranch, imersive short term rental, might be the coolest air b&b you could ever stay at. He's got some other cool things up his sleeve comong to 20 palms soon.

Blake Instagram Here

Wild Heart Ranch HERE

Website for Wild Heart Ranch HERE

In this episode I sit down with Chris Waldhause fron The Cascade Trails Mustang Sanctuary in Joshua Tree. Chris tells his story from growing up on a Ute reservation in Colorado, to doing security in Hollywood, to eventually bringing his dream to life and opening a mustang sanctuary. 

Dontae to The Mustang Sactuary Here

Instagram for Cascade Trails HERE

Instagram for Chris HERE

Odelia Rubin is a Joshua Tree based podcast producer who is currently working on the podcast series, " Betrayal On The Bayou", The true story of DEA Agent gone bad, Chad Scott. 

Betrayal On The Bayou is part of the " Smoke Screen" series and is presented by Sony Music. You can find Betrayal On The Bayou on your favorite podcast apps and platforms. 

In this episode I sit down to chat with documentary film maker, Casey Kiernan. We discuss his new film " I Thought They Were Protected" which highlights the struggle to protect the Joshua Tree. 

Instagram HERE

In this episode we chat with Stephen Przybyloski from White Label Vinyl. WLB is super rad record and denim store in downtown twentynine palms. 

White Label Instagram HERE

White Label Vinyl Website HERE