The 2012 Festival Season was 'The Best'

December 30, 2012

Even before it started, town leaders pushed forward with a “Best Summer Ever” marketing campaign, with more hope than actual promise.

And yet when it was over, no one could argue with it.

From the Fourth of July and Jazz Jubilee all the way to the end, Mammoth’s festival season was vibrant, well-attended, and loads of fun.

We recall one evening at the four-day Bluesapalooza and Festival of Beers event at Sam’s Wood Site on Minaret Boulevard.

While vainly trying to find a parking space close by the entrance, one visitor looked at the cars and the crowd and said to a local denizen, “Bankruptcy? What bankruptcy?”

New events, like the Margarita Festival and the Bluegrass Festival, popped up from out of nowhere, while the standby events, such as Jazz Jubilee and “Blueza,” were off the charts. Familiar events such as the Food & Wine Experience added new twists to make them seem new again. 

Gosh, we almost forgot: Kenny Loggins, Johnny and Edgar Winter, and the musicians of the Sierra Summer Music Festival graced our stages.

Depleted town coffers got a needed jolt from the Transient Occupancy Tax revenues as a direct result of the Festival Season’s week-after-week successes and no one we could find was disappointed in the least.

If it wasn’t the “Best Summer Ever,” it was at least the best in recent memory.

Robbin Ford. Photo/Jesse Barlet