As the eagerly anticipated debut of Solshine: A Music & Arts Reverie approaches, the excitement continues to build with the recent announcement of set times, additional stages, late-night performances, a mobile app, workshops, vendors, and sustainability initiatives. The festival, taking place at Three Sisters Park in Chillicothe, Illinois from May 24 to May 26, promises an unforgettable experience for attendees. The debut edition of Solshine: A Music & Arts Reverie will feature headliners such as Goose, John Summit, The Disco Biscuits, The String Cheese Incident, Umphrey’s McGee, moe., STS9, Big Gigantic, deadmau5, and SLANDER.
Transitioning from the long-standing Summer Camp Music Festival to Solshine Reverie marks a significant evolution for the event. The organizers have rebranded to reflect a refreshed identity, aimed at providing a novel experience while maintaining the cherished atmosphere of the original festival. With an emphasis on community, creativity, and sustainability, Solshine Reverie is set to offer a harmonious blend of familiar vibes and new adventures.
One of Solshine Reverie’s standout features is its extended main stage curfew, now running until 4 a.m. This change allows for uninterrupted performances by top-tier headliners and enhances the festival’s atmosphere. Additionally, sustainability remains a core focus, with comprehensive recycling and composting efforts, eco-friendly vendor practices, and educational workshops on environmental responsibility.
We had a chance to sit down with Summer Camp/Solshine Reverie Founder and President Ian Goldberg and the Solshine/Summer Camp Marketing Director Ian Strasser to ask some of the biggest questions on everyone’s mind leading up to the event this weekend, so let’s dive into what they had to say about new closing times, a conscious push towards more eco-friendly festivals, and booking the talented that they did.
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Can you explain the inspiration behind transitioning from Summer Camp to Solshine Reverie and what new experiences attendees can expect?
Changing times and changing market dynamics have made it harder to produce an event of Summer Camp’s magnitude in small-town Illinois. As such, we felt significant changes had to be made to the layout and design of the venue. Rather than trying to explain to people why so much was changing on the ground, it was easier to rebrand and invite people to experience it as something new.
So, attendees can expect a similar “vibe” to what they have experienced over the years at Summer Camp, but will also notice that the overall layout of the festival has been adjusted to provide a new and improved experience.
The festival grounds will feature a variety of immersive art installations. Illumination Woods has continued to expand and offer new experiences within, and the programming of music, workshops, and activities has been curated to allow attendees to have a more all-encompassing trip this Memorial Day Weekend. It will be the same music vibe, the same great culture, just a different experience.
What prompted the decision to extend the main stage curfew from 2 a.m. to 4 a.m. at Solshine Reverie, and what impact do you anticipate this will have on the festival atmosphere?
By extending the main stage curfew to 4am, we were able to accommodate all of our top-tier headliners on the one main stage instead of dividing it in two as we have in past years.
This year, all of the stages will be open until 4 a.m., which allows for a more immersive weekend filled with live music at almost all times of the day. It also allows us to have all of our headlining acts on the iconic Moonshine Stage, a permanent structure within Three Sisters Park that serves as a landmark to the yearly event.
Those who have attended the Summer Camp Music Festival in the past will feel a very familiar atmosphere as the festival transitions from day into night and into the late hours.
Solshine Reverie emphasizes sustainability. Could you detail the specific practices and workshops being introduced this year to promote environmental responsibility?
The primary component of our sustainability program is our own recycling and composting efforts to reduce the waste generated by the festival.
All vendors, including our on-site catering for artists and staff, must use compostable products, and we do indeed compost all of that waste with a local composting company. In addition, our SOULPATCH Garden space, located within Three Sisters Park year-round, becomes the “heart” of sustainability throughout Solshine Reverie by offering workshops, activities, and more experiences for attendees throughout the weekend.
Not to mention that various structures and areas built within the SOULPATCH use sustainable building practices to showcase the various ways we could be using sustainable practices in our daily lives. Stay tuned to our website, social media, and mobile app for more information on all workshops offered in the SOULPATCH Garden, Movement Space, and newly added Creation Dome.
What initial factors make you consider a smaller act for your festival lineup, and how have these factors changed as your brand and festival’s size has grown?
Basically, if they have created any kind of buzz for themselves and seem like they are good at self-promotion, and in turn, promotion of the events they are on.
Ultimately we are looking for acts that will develop a following and then bring that following to (or back to) our event. That has remained consistently the criteria for booking the smaller artists since the beginning and we have been blessed to work with a lot of artists who were just getting started and then went on to become big stars.
The Lumineers, Big Gigantic, Tyler Childers, Goose, and the Avett Brothers, just to name a few, started on our smaller stages and then went on to become huge headliners.
How has the festival’s promotional strategy evolved with the rebranding to Solshine Reverie?
Overall a lot has remained the same, but we have tried to put an additional focus on the ‘soul’ of our event. The word Reverie means, “a state of being pleasantly lost in one’s thoughts; a daydream.”
We thought that was a perfect fit to direct our intentions for the event and let our fans know that we see this as more than a music-centered event. We host workshops and activities and provide information people can take home to do good worldwide.
So, while we are focussing on the music in a lot of our promotions, we want to highlight the experience of being within the festival itself, surrounded by immersive art, taking part in workshops, and being a part of a community that keeps growing year after year.
What strategies are in place to manage the environmental impact of such a large-scale event?
First, we actively encourage all of our fans to get involved in keeping the scene cleaner and greener with social media posts ahead of the festival, signage at the event, and incentives to do green deeds!
One example is our “Leave No Trace Contest” where we have people take a photograph of their campsite during the festival, and then once again after they have cleaned up and left no trace of their campsite. We randomly select a winner from this effort to be the first to receive tickets to the following year’s event.
We have also partnered with Zero Waste Event Productions to provide sustainability at Solshine with a professional waste sorting center and many sorted waste collection stations. As mentioned, we compost and recycle all materials that can be diverted from landfill waste.
You can find more info on Sustainability at Solshine here: https://solshinereverie.com/sustainability/
With various artists across different genres, how do you balance the lineup to cater to new audiences and long-time fans of the original Summer Camp?
Over the years, Summer Camp has evolved from a primarily jam band and adjacent genres (bluegrass, americana, etc) event, to something more all-inclusive with electronic music and a variety of other genres being presented on stage throughout the weekend. When it comes down to it, it’s all music that you can dance to.
We curate multiple stages throughout the day to provide a well-rounded sonic experience to our attendees. We always try to balance artists who have become part of our ‘family’ over the years with some of the hottest new acts around to keep things fresh while also still familiar.
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