Band members may have outnumbered fans Saturday afternoon at the Harvest Moon Blues Festival.
Chuck Baker didn't have to listen to the music on the stage to get in the mood to sing the blues on Saturday. A quick scan of the mostly bare expanse of grass in front of the stage at Baker's Harvest Moon Blues Festival at Clinton State Park told the story.
"I was hoping over 1,000 people would come out to this," Baker said on Saturday afternoon, as about two dozen people in chairs and on blankets waited for another band to take the stage.
"I wasn't expecting a lot, but I was expecting 1,000 people," he said.
Baker lowered his prices from $7 for parking and $8 for tickets to $5 for parking and $7 for a ticket, but only about 50 people came through the gates by 6 p.m. Saturday. A slight wind ruffled food tents, but the sun was shining as temperatures topped out in the high 70s.
"I think this is a beautiful place and a beautiful day," said Connie Mittrucker of Belton, Mo., who attended the festival with her son, Michael Fast, and his 5-year-old daughter, Michaela.
"I think they should have had the whole Spirit Fest out here," Mittrucker said. "This was advertised a lot. I was really surprised there were not more people here."
Mittrucker heard about the festival from KKFI-FM 90.1 in Kansas City and plans to call the station soon to chastise Kansas City-area blues fans who snubbed the festival.
"They show up when the bands are in (Kansas City)," Fast said. "More people should have taken the time to drive here."
Linda Draper, the wife of Paul Draper, a keyboardist with festival act Jimmy Lewin, said everything was just right on Saturday, including the band line-up, the weather and the location.
"I don't quite understand why they don't have the people," she said. "It's a great setting. I know there's a lot of other things going on."
The bands at the festival, besides Jimmy Lewin, included the Kelley Hunt Band, Mudslinger, Chill Factor, Glenn Townsend and The Blues Notions.
Several band members didn't let the small turnout phase them.
"That doesn't bother us," said Annetta Washington, who performs on stage as Cotton Candy with her band, So Many Men. "We enjoy playing for ourselves."
Sherry Oswald, alto saxophone and tambourine player and vocalist for the Shawnee-based band "4 Fryed Chickens and a Coke," said the festival still gave the band some exposure.
"We typically feed off the energy of the crowd, but this is such a nice day, we don't mind (about the low turnout)," Oswald said.
Baker, who has sponsored the Omega Festivals in the past, said he paid expenses before the show, but is resigned to just breaking even. That doesn't mean he plans to quit promoting music festivals.
"I'm going to continue doing this until people wake up," he said. " I'm not going to give up on this. ... I have such a love for music and such a love for seeing something like this happen in this area. But I'm not going to let this stop me.
"I definitely haven't made any money on this."
-- Chris Koger's phone message number is 832-7126. His e-mail address is ckoger@ljworld.com.
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