Glens Falls Chronicle Serving the Glens Falls/Lake George region; Warren, Washington and northern Saratoga counties since 1980
By Cathy DeDe, Chronicle Managing Editor
More than 3,000 people jammed the Lake George Steamboat Company’s Steer Pier Saturday for the 7th annual Rock the Dock festival, organizer Luke Dow said.
He said they maxed out all 3,100 tickets — not including staff, bands and vendors. “Obviously, selling out is awesome,” Mr. Dow told The Chronicle Tuesday morning, still recovering he said after the seven-hour, six band festival.
“That said, there were some issues with the lines. I’m going to make a video post addressing that. I know a lot of people were upset and missed the first part of the festival. We never had a line before.”
“Once I apologized to folks, they were like, No, no, no, it’s fine.”
“I didn’t realize the popularity of Dark Star Orchestra,” Mr. Dow said. They’re a premium Grateful Dead-inspired band out of Chicago.
“But it was on us. There’s just a lot of factors that I didn’t consider because we’ve never had to consider it before.”
“I was out there for two hours putting wristbands on people, trying to speed the line up. It didn’t dissipate until 7:30.”
Mr. Dow said incidents were fewer than in some past years. “It was an older crowd, a chiller crowd, a more stoned crowd.” He said he’d hired additional security and medical staff, who mostly went unused.
Vendors, he said, all sold out. “They were exhausted but all smiles.”
“I’m kicking around a couple of ideas” for next year, Mr. Dow said. One is “getting Dark Star back and having them do a longer set. I think we found our limit with this year. Any larger, like the next echelon up of bands, and that would cost double. But everything’s on the table.”
“My dad wanted to bring in Willie Nelson,” which turned out to be far too pricey, at a certain dollar amount plus a certain poundage of weed, he laughs.
Instead, the headliners were his friends in the (now former) band Formula 5.
“And then we kind of established it as a jam band, funk, bluegrass theme. It works with the crowds. You know, hippies, God bless them, they love to party, love to have fun, love to drink, and they don’t like fighting.”
“Someone suggested moving it to the festival space across the way,” he said. “But that defeats the whole purpose of the specialty of the festival, on the boats.”
He says, once receipts are all in, he expects to donate at least $15,000 to the Lake George American Legion, the event beneficiary.
Cathy’s take: What a vibe, Rock-Dock
Chronicle Managing Editor Cathy DeDe writes: To my eye, the vibe at this year’s Rock the Dock festival Saturday was as picture-perfect as the weather.
The “amphitheatre effect” of the three cruise boats arrayed around the dock works well — visually appealing, and a great way to back away if the music gets loud (or too redundantly jammy, in my case, sorry).
It’s just fun to move around, get up on the top deck of the Lac or the Minne, watch the bands or vibe out on the lake and mountain view. Plus, it’s elegant, and provides more places for refreshments, more rest rooms, protected space to sit with your food, even relax with some air conditioning.
It puts me in mind of Wild Adriatic’s former Summit Festival at the Queensbury Hotel. Not just the audience, but the bands themselves and their crews clearly loved the unique space, playing under the sparkling chandeliers in the Ballroom.
Dark Star said they’d questioned how the Steamboat Company expected to accommodate more than 200 people. “Then that big boat pulled in,” they said, indicating the Lac du Saint Sacrement, and the massive numbers now lining the decks for the show. “Now we get it.”
