Mill Valley Living ::: June 2022

JUNE 2022

Photo by Stefanie Atkinson Schwartz

MILL VALLEY AND POPULAR MUSIC HAVE HAD A SYMBIOTIC RELATIONSHIP FOR AN EXTENDED PERIOD OF TIME. OUR COMMUNITY HAS SPAWNED AN ENORMOUS AMOUNT OF LEGENDARY HOMEGROWN TALENT, IN ADDITION TO BECOMING THE PREFERRED NEW HOMETOWN TO A SLEW OF MUSICIANS WHO DECIDED TO MAKE MILL VALLEY THEIR HOME. The history of well-known music runs deep in Mill Valley. The Kingston Trio sank its roots here in the late 60s at the peak of its commercial success. George Duke, Bill Champlin, Huey Lewis, Tupac Shakur, John Cippolina, and Alex Call of Clover were all born and raised in Mill Valley, and except for Call, attended Tam High.

Mill Valley wasn’t just blessed, musically speaking, with those born here. The list of musicians that were drawn to the Northern California music scene and landed in Mill Valley, for at least a period long enough worth mentioning, is staggering and includes: Bonnie Raitt, Todd Rundgren, Jerry Garcia, Marty Balin, David Crosby, John Lennon, Michael Bloomfield, Booker T. Jones, Craig Chaquico, David Grisman, Bob Weir, Sammy Hagar, Janis Joplin, Van Morrison, Chris Robinson, and Carlos Santana. This abundance of musicians fueled an appreciation of live music that exists today, exemplified by the iconic Sweetwater Music Hall.

With its entrenched musical history, proximity to San Francisco, and Mount Tamalpais providing an unmatched, ideal stage backdrop, it would seem Mill Valley would lend itself to hosting a music festival, as other cities know for such, like Telluride, CO Newport. RI, etc.

Yet until last month, seemingly the perfect location to celebrate music, Mill Valley, did not have an annual event to commemorate its musical heritage. Not until three individuals with a perfect combination of skill sets, tremendous respect for one another, and mutual love of our community, were fused together by an unlikely pandemic - creating the time necessary to devise a plan they would stay fiercely committed to from the onset through the end.

ALL ABOARD THE MusicFest Express

by Tami Larson photos by Stefanie Atkinson Schwartz and Paige K. Parsons/Mill Valley Music Festival

With the die-hard backing of long time Mill Valley resident and philanthropist, Gabe Burczyk, Jim Welte, Executive Director of the Mill Valley Chamber of Commerce and his longtime, right-hand business partner, Paula Reynolds, Director of Operations, (both known to many as the heart and soul of the community) a team was formed to take on and successfully launch what will surely be an on-going, long-running music festival. They hope their success in this endeavor reminds both residents and visitors of the incredible gems we have in Mill Valley, and throughout all of Marin County.

Burczyk, who is also the CEO and Founder of many organizations focused on helping people with their finances and raising awareness for Non-Profits supporting arts and music in our community, had a great idea in May of 2021. “Let’s have a big street party on Miller Avenue,” he said to Welte and Reynolds. On May 7th, 2022 that initial idea played out in the form of 5,000 people, more than 100 sponsors, a crew of volunteers, and musical talent (including headliner Ben Harper, & The Innocent Criminals; explosive funk-jam, band, Lettuce; Nashville psychedelic-folk rock star, Liz Cooper & The Stampede; Venezuelan, stadium sell-out funk trio, Los Amigos Invisibles; and the Bay Area’s own La Dona-one of California’s most promising new acts), pulling off a nearly perfect, first inaugural, Mill Valley Music Festival at the Community Center.

Mill Valley Living had the distinct honor of sitting down a few days after the event with these three, already well-respected but now

A performer’s view

Main stage

Love was in the air

“community saints” to discuss just how they managed to produce a feat, previously never attempted at such a large scale by other music supporters in the community.

MVL: Wow, you all look pretty refreshed, and it appears still speaking, after working around the clock together since the beginning of Covid. Can we just go around the table and each of you tell us how you’re feeling about pulling off the first music festival of its kind here?

Jim: I’ll start. This was a journey of a lifetime and there’s no way it would have happened without these two sitting next to me. We had nice, broad shoulders to stand on with our production company Noise Pop and their entire team. They are amazing professionals and had everything dialed-in perfectly. We also had some good fortune, as you know, with the weather. But a lot happened in between, and the entire journey was really a roller coaster ride with lots of learning and missteps along the way… but we persevered. I can’t speak for Gabe and Paula, but I wouldn’t have gotten through it without them. Collectively, we just filled in the holes and would take on roles that seemed to naturally fit best with each of our strengths. I somehow ended up with logistics (a sentiment expressed jokingly by Welte) while Gabe chose beverages being the fun guy, but also spearheaded much of the merchandise and beverage strategies

Paula R: And I chose money. (Reynolds chimed in with her own joke!)

Jim W: No, seriously, I felt that it all needed to go just right. I had an utter obsession with everything from the shuttles to and from the event to bike parking, walking, interior shuttles, and everything in between like how long the lines would be at the food and drink booths. All so people would have a good experience. If we didn’t

get it right, we would potentially not be able to do it again.

MVL: Looking back is there anything you would change?

Paula R: We are waiting for all the feedback to come in before we answer that.

Jim W: Yes, of course there are always things we can improve upon. We have an entire spreadsheet filled in with every little silo of the event and will be collecting information from that. All this info is critically important. There’s a lot we didn’t see, such as, what was the experience like for the 60 volunteers? We want to know everything, but I feel pretty good about the way it all went down for sure.

MVL: Paula, rumor has it you managed every single sponsorship getting them all on board. How did that happen?

Paula: How do you get to “YES”, you mean? It started with 3 cocktail parties from May through the summer of 2021. I invited people who are movers and shakers in the community to sit outside with some wine and cheese during Covid. We talked about what would be appropriate to do once we were out of the pandemic. What should it look like? How do you want to

participate? Getting people engaged early on so they would feel as though they were part of creating something special was key, because they were special. But also making sure they understood and felt part of the success of it all. We also knew we didn’t want to lose money the first year. Apparently, first-year festivals often do. I guess for me, because I know and like all these people, I was simply sharing something fun and new, so it wasn’t really an ask. People just said “YES”!

MVL: Did you have a cap in terms of the number of sponsors?

Gabe: We had a number we wanted to reach for sure but just following on what Paula said, I didn’t know a lot of people in the community, so I didn’t know what to expect. But there were people from the Mill Valley Film Festival and other stewards of businesses at those meetings that were so unselfish, and their level of enthusiasm is what really encouraged me the most about this activity.

MVL: When and how exactly did you get involved Gabe?

Paula: This festival was Gabe’s idea. He just wanted a big party and it turned into this huge event.

Gabe Burczyk finally time to REJOICE!

The Heart & Soul of Mill Valley, Jim Welte and Paula Reynolds

MVL: Really? Ok, do tell.

Gabe: Well, there was a gentleman, Andy Breman when I moved my company here from San Francisco that really helped navigate things for me and introduced me to many including the chamber, the City Manager, and the City Police Chief at the time - Alan Piombo. My wife and I really wanted to get involved in our Mil Valley community, so I can remember sitting in the lounge in my office and meeting Paula and Jim for the first time. Of course, they wanted us to join the Chamber and we wanted to join and be a part of the community; but I remember them asking me, “how can we help you?” I can remember that, and I think I said, “I’d like to throw a big street party on Miller avenue.” Later, Jim called and said, “ok let’s see how we can make that happen.” And now, I’ll tell you, I’m a big advocate of this Chamber. It’s very healthy. They are pro-business but understand the politics. They are small but such an efficient operation and not afraid to take on and tackle big things. For instance, before the event, I got

Jim a Mohammed Ali, 2-dollar bill because it symbolizes, “float like a butterfly, sting like a bee’’ and do the rope-a-dope that’s how I see Jim. He can manage just about anything and handles controversy so well. And Paula, I bought her a little blue choo choo train because to me she is like the little engine that could. She just keeps going and has so much hope. She was always there to offer me sound advice. It was good in a way to be somewhat naive coming in because I was able to watch and really learn from both. Their ability to build relationships and then utilize them in such an authentic way is remarkable.

Jim: Right, (laughing) and by the way, Paula and I are about 6’5” combined, so we aren’t that small of an operation!

Gabe: (laughs) That’s true, Jim. And did I mention that humor is also what kept us thriving through all of this. But seriously, I would love for this Chamber’s legacy to have the reputation that they really want to help you succeed and especially if you are having challenges.

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Ben Harper

Liz CooperLa Dona

Los Amiigs Invisibles

Paula: Yeah, that’s what really keeps me going, as well. I like to ask, “how do you get to “yes”. Not, here are 10 things in the way.

MVL: Yes, and we at Mill Valley Living have been the recipients of that philosophy, so thank you!

Jim: Related to that philosophy, I’d add that one of the most critically important elements of this event, aside from making a few nickels and giving our Chamber the chance to grow into the future, is to do right by our neighbors. That has been our mantra from day one. We’re donating a portion of proceeds from MVMF to a number of local institutions including Kiddo!, the Sweetwater Music Hall’s nonprofit music education program and the City of Mill Valley’s Public Art Program, as well as other year-round initiatives spearheaded by the Mill Valley Chamber. Finally, we turned each Community Sponsorship into scholarship tickets for students and artists, which generated more than 350 free tickets to people who might not otherwise be able to attend MVMF.

Gabe: Another interesting thing is that the Chamber has a “New Initiatives Committee” tasked to ask, “what is Mill Valley”? You know, I lived here 14 years and never even knew much about some of the greatest gems until I recently moved my business here. We have Throckmorton, The Sequoia, Sweetwater, and The Marin Theatre Company just to name a few, so shame on me for not getting to all of them sooner, but now I’m all about, “how do we bring more exposure to this great town”? We have this ecosystem where we need to lift each other up and find new ways to broadcast our greatness as a community, and as business owners we all need to find ways to do that.

MVL: People are starting to compare Mill Valley to Aspen, or Park City with all the art galleries, and culture, and with climate change, who knows, maybe even snow soon. How do you feel about that and what about summer? Any plans to get more folks here when many locals are traveling?

Jim: Yes, there’s certainly a lot of energy around galleries and we are on the cusp of some really cool, new news in that area. But I don’t really think we can compare Mill Valley to anywhere, it’s so unique.

Paula: We are really a year-round town. So, getting as much participation from those who live here is paramount. We do have world-class restaurants, incredible retail shops and so much going on here culturally that we remain a destination to a broad swath of people from across the Bay Area.

Jim: Yes, geographically we are set up differently than Sausalito, and other areas, but this music event, for example, was a great way to re-introduce people in the Bay Area to our community. A music festival is a very straightforward way to do that. Our overarching goal is always economic vitality but more so just general vitality –social, inspirational, and equitable! There are many ways to do that but if this festival provided even a slice, that’s a win.

Paula: I’d really love to wrap up by talking about these two. So, one

of Jim’s many, many gifts is he can turn this table we are sitting around into something interesting. He knows how to write and knows how to communicate and as a result, built this amazing subscription base to our blog, who are the residents. They now know what we are doing because they are reading it, because it’s interesting, and because he makes it interesting. That’s the connective tissue I think that’s been at the beginning and core of all of this. And Gabe is a bundle of love and energy and ideas and empathy. Due to the level of respect we have for each other, we were able to build bonds of trust. From there we could just go allout for one another and find where we could individually do our part and become an incredibly high functioning team.

Jim: Yes, we were constantly re-evaluating and recalculating what we were doing, and of course, laughing whenever we could.

Gabe: Let me just say that what these two did for this community is huge. This was no Mickey Mouse operation and as time goes on

This is where

live!

everyone will feel the benefits of it, so let’s get Chamber membership up and keep this train going! And, by the way, we did get a quote from Ben Harper that he will be back to help celebrate our 20th Music Festival.

MVL: Yes, he will, and let’s not forget, Ben Harper got his start in music right here in Mill Valley when Jeannie Patterson invited him to play at the old Sweetwater. This event must have been a nice full circle moment for him.

Thank you all for sitting down with us. I’m sure the community will really appreciate learning more about all of you, what you’ve done and will continue doing to keep this community of ours thriving. We are very fortunate to have such amazing pillars to lean on!

FOR MORE INFORMATION ON HOW TO GET INVOLVED, VISIT: MILLVALLEY.ORG AND ENJOYMILLVALLEY.COM.

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