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Assassin, aka Agent Sasco, headlined the 2017 Reggae on the River festival. Photo by Erica Botkin
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16 NORTH COAST JOURNAL • Thursday, Oct. 12, 2017 • northcoastjournal.com
The litigation ultimately assigned ownership of Reggae on the River to the Mateel but denied it use of the festival’s Conditional Use Permit, which was in the landowner’s name, so Reggae was scaled back to a one-day festival at Benbow State Park. It grew to a two-day festival there and then returned to French’s Camp in 2013 as a full weekend event. While “baby reggae” at Benbow was not the free-wheeling blowout the French’s Camp version had become, many locals preferred the smaller, calmer, family friendly event. And Crellin admitted the Benbow version met the Mateel’s fundraising goals, and did so with much less financial investment on the front end. But he also said the Mateel felt Benbow’s lack of camping was “a matter of diminishing returns” because it dispersed volunteers, artists and attendees to widely scattered campgrounds, creating liability and logistical dilemmas. When Reggae returned to French’s Camp, the challenging workload of the festival returned with a fourth day added as a permit condition to appease the California Highway Patrol, which wanted
to better distribute incoming traffic. The fourth day added to the commitment required by everyone involved. Another change occurred after the 2014 shortfall. The Mateel’s Reggae management team pragmatically focused on income streams and budget cuts to improve the show’s bottom line. Prices for vendor booths, including those for local nonprofits, rose substantially while the number of wristbands given to those vendor booths was reduced. Local nonprofits began to look elsewhere for fundraising opportunities The Mateel also introduced ticket and camping upgrades as a way to increase revenue without increasing attendance, which was an important permitting issue. But this meant the viewing stands became divided, with artists and special guests on one side and the crew on the other. Meanwhile, the Mateel also favored a “working backstage” atmosphere, so the hibiscus tea went to a segregated volunteer lounge. The camping upgrades favored the VIPs instead of families for shady campsites. It’s only in hindsight that the cumulative impact of these changes on the spirit of