New Festival is born from the ashes of Mysteryland USA
With the recent announcement of the Mysteryland Music Festival being canceled, many “Nomads” (loyal fans) & anticipating new comers believed the “Woodstock” magic was officially dead and gone. Luckily, a nearby team decided that the spirit & soul, embedded within lush green hills of Bethel Woods, would never die. Like a Phoenix, from the ashes of one incredible event, rises another.
On April 15th, after a leak of information & rumors, it was made official that this much-anticipated event would be canceled. Amazingly, only 4 days later, Mystery Landers Mini-Fest, was born. A nearby property to the main festival which for the past 3 years, would take in additional campers & music lovers, was known as “Landers Camping”. The team that hosted this worked harder and harder every year to provide more than just camping, but more so, a full-service festival experience. Beyond camping, they would host after parties & events on their own site, provide transportation to & from the event, and so much more. Well now, without a Mysteryland to support, this team decided take matters into their own hands once more.
“Creating a boutique style Festival. Music, Arts, Entertainment and our spin on what a festival can be. Paying homage to what Mysteryland started, while finding our own identity as a festival”
A team lead by Philip Montgomery, grinded night & day for four days and announced Mystery Landers Mini Fest. A continuation to the past 3 years of their festival contribution, they took the news of the cancellation with grace decided to create their own festival identity by adding a spin, a twist, and a whole lot of creativity. As a Mysteryland lover myself, I had to find out more, so we went straight to Philip to find out more!
MYSTERY LANDERS EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW
Tell me about Landers camping the past few years, it’s impact on the Festival and neighboring lands. Also, in a few sentences, brief me on what you guys are doing this year.
Landers was offered as an auxiliary camping site for the festival. Everyone kinda went in blind to the first festival and Landers. Year two we knew what we were getting into and a group of us who all met year one used our resources to produce a pre-party, and that kinda gave Landers a draw/identity of its own. Year three we drew some attention from the actual festival. Now, our group created a party within a party that’s now, our own party.
Tag lining it as… “Creating a boutique style Festival. Music, Arts, Entertainment and our spin on what a festival can be. Paying homage to what Mysteryland started, while finding our own identity as a festival”
From the moment you heard about Mysteryland being cancelled (leak or official news), to launching the recent flyers, how long did it take to put this idea together?
I won’t lie, we were caught off guard with everyone else too. Luckily, we had some advantages. We were already set to handle that volume of people, and our staging and production aspect was already there from our pre party. I am a full time event coordinator, and am use to working on Projects with short time lines. I have an AMAZING team in place we are all very good at what we do and we work quick. From finding out Monday, to having a plan, a flyer, a web site and a promo video ready to go in just over 4 days. We made a commitment.
The buzz so far, although small, is incredibly positive and well received. But I’m sure a handful of hurdles await ahead. What are your biggest challenges you foresee?
The buzz we have is AMAZING and we are so thankful for that. To the point where artists are approaching us! Luckily a lot of hurdles were already jumped, this isn’t something we were pulling together from scratch. The production and camping was already in place like I said. Our main hurdles are expending on the infrastructure we already have and providing a fun and safe experience for our guests, but I’m confident we can handle it.
What does the city & neighboring properties think of your team hosting this event?
I don’t want to speak for the town, but I think a lot of them were bummed Mysteryland isn’t coming, it’s a cool event, and it does have a positive economic impact on such a close knit community. As far as our campground and immediate surrounding neighbors, we’re not bringing any more people or any more equipment then what was already going to be there anyways, I think that’s important that they understand that we’re not doing anything new as far as noise, just what they have already embraced in past years.
What genre’s of music & vibes are you hoping to bring to Mystery Landers? Any names you’d like to tease the expecting fans with?
We want a wide range of music. House, Hard, Techno, Bass, Dance, Trap, Psychedelic, Hip-hop, and more. But we want to focus on the culture of the festival as much as we are on the music.
For those looking to experience Mysteryland for their first year, would you recommend them to travel to Mystery Landers, and if so, why?
To phrase it like tenacious D, “We are not the greatest festival in the world, this is just a tribute” obviously we don’t have a multi million dollar budget , but for someone who is looking for the smaller festival experience of good vibes and meeting new people…Give us a try!
What is your estimated capacity for the land & event?
We are capping our ticket sales at 1500, then we will also have our staff and talent.
Any one message you want to let everyone know about this event?
I’m a full time event coordinator with a focus on theme Decor. I’ve done a lot in this industry, but being the lead coordinator of a festival was a huge goal of mine. This will be my baby and I’m going to go full Kanye on it till it’s the best possible product it can be for our guests.
But in a nut shell, someone just gave me their camp and a bunch of money…I’m throwing a fucking party.
For more information, check out the Mystery Landers website & teaser video below!
OFFICIAL WEBSITE
