The Summer Meltdown has grown up.
Once a word-of-mouth event slapped up in a hurry each summer somewhere out in the woods, the music festival is celebrating its 15th production season and its 10th summer at Darrington’s amphitheater in the shadow of Whitehorse Mountain.
Today, the festival is advertised nationwide and expects to attract 4,500 festival-goers at the music park.
Many of those who will attend have made the festival a summertime tradition since 2000. Some are second- or even third-generation fans.
For guitarist/singer/composer Josh Clauson, 37, who with the band Flowmotion has been with the festival from its inception, Summer Meltdown now is his full-time, year-round job.
And he has a formidable partner in his wife, Genevieve Hayton Clauson.
Genevieve, who grew up on her family’s farm near Conway where the Clausons now live, is on leave from her job as an immigration lawyer helping low-income clients.
To say that Genevieve has made a difference in Josh’s life could be an understatement. On a recent morning they sat beneath a pear tree in their front garden to reminisce.
The youngest of seven children, Josh grew up in the Trafton area near Arlington.
Josh went to Trafton Elementary School and played drums in a combo with his dad Ray Clauson on Sunday mornings at Arlington Assembly of God.
“Music has always been important in our family,” he said.
When Josh was at Arlington High School, music teacher Lyle Forde needed a guitarist for the swing choir Jazzmine.
“My dad rented me a pink electric guitar,” Josh said with a laugh. “At the audition, I was terrified. But I got the gig.”
Clauson, who graduated from Arlington in 1996, loved learning to play the guitar.
With friends, he performed for parties around the region and then at the Love Israel family’s (now defunct) Garlic Festival at their former communal homestead off Jordan Road near Arlington.
“I was friends and went to school with a lot of the kids from the family,” he said. “It was a blast to play at the Garlic Festival. We were having so much fun, they pretty much had to grab my guitar to get me to stop.
“That’s what gave me the taste for festivals.”
The first and second years of the Meltdown (“a melting pot of sounds”) were on San Juan Island, followed by the third festival at the south Camano Island ranch of the vaudeville legend known as the Rev. Chumleigh.
“In 2003 we needed a bigger place, so we moved the festival to some land on the South Skagit Highway,” Clauson said. “It was very much a renegade party. After two years there we had maxed out the place and had to take a summer off to find a new location.”
The year 2006 was a rough one for Darrington music amphitheater owners, the Bluegrass Association. After a successful Bluegrass Festival that summer, the association rented the grounds to a man who put on a rock festival that tanked. The man wrote bad checks, didn’t pay people, failed to get some of the bands to show and then took off for China. Concert fans were angry and the festival grounds were left a mess.
“We showed up, saw what had happened and jumped in to help clean up,” Clauson said. “That place is so special. We have always been respectful of what the Darrington community provides.”
Until 2012, the festival headliner was Flowmotion. While the earliest fans will travel to Darrington this week to hear Clauson and the band, the draw is now much more broad.
Along with renowned guitarist Bill Frisell in 2006, the Meltdown brought in the March Fourth Marching Band, Vince Herman from Leftover Salmon and Michael Travis from String Cheese Incident.
From 2007 through 2014, the line-ups included Sky Cries Mary, Blake Lewis, Jason Webley, 20 Riverside, The Presidents of the United States of America, Polecat, Ivan Neville’s Dumpstaphunk, Moondoggies, Blitzen Trapper, Fruition, Manatee Commune, Pepper Proud, Mts. and Tunnels, Sir Mix-A-Lot, Seattle Rock Orchestra, Motopony, Rabbit Wilde, Kris Orlowski, Allen Stone and Preacher’s Wife, among many others.
“The Bluegrass Festival gives us big shoes to fill each year, but we are getting there,” Clauson said. “Being in Darrington has been all about learning to do a safe event while keeping the Meltdown magic going.”
After the landslide in 2014 that killed 43 people near Oso, the meaning of the festival changed for Clauson.
As a product of the Stillaguamish River Valley, Clauson focused the Meltdown’s attention on remembering the people who died and helping the economy of Darrington.
“The slide brought us together,” Clauson said. “A lot of our friends were involved in the rescue and recovery efforts, high school buddies in the fire departments. My dad goes to the Oso Chapel now and they were very involved.”
In 2014, festival gave free passes to first-responders and survivors.
This year, the festival has taken economic recovery a step further. Partnerships have been established with local outdoor recreation companies such as Adventures Cascade, which offers rafting trips; Northwest Mountain School, which will take people rock climbing; and The PackStation, which offers horseback riding and trail trips.
“We want people to get outdoors during the day and then come back to celebrate with festival concerts in the evening,” Clauson said.
The focus on the festival’s location is a natural one, Genevieve Clauson said. “Its awesome beauty is the enduring aspect.”
Josh and Genevieve were married two weeks after the Meltdown in 2013.
“I fell in love with his solo album before I ever met him,” Genevieve said.
The poster child for 1988 Skagit Valley Tulip Festival, the beautiful Genevieve graduated in 2001 from Mount Vernon High School and from the University of Washington School of Law in 2009.
In the partnership with Josh, Genevieve has helped bring the festival closer to financial sustainability and has contributed to the economic health of the community. It takes a lot of work and the overhead costs are high, she said.
“I am glad we like working together,” Genevieve said. “And that we like keeping the festival in that state of transition.”
Josh agreed.
“The Meltdown is still in an evolutionary phase as a festival,” he said. “It’s becoming a fixture in part because of its long-standing fan base, but it will continue to evolve.”
What bands the Clausons are looking forward to hearing this week?
Genevieve wants to hear Tycho as the sun sets on the amphitheater and Josh is eager to see Greensky Bluegrass.
“It’s all about that melting pot,” he said.
Gale Fiege: 425-339-3427; gfiege@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @galefiege.
If you go
The 15th Summer Meltdown Music Festival is Aug. 6 through 9 in Darrington. For more information, go to summermeltdownfest.com.
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