Though waterlogged, tired and even snake-bitten, concert-goers at the first Wakarusa Music and Camping Festival continue to jam at Clinton State Park.

About 7,500 people had arrived for the festival by Friday afternoon, which was good news for state park officials eager for their cut of the gate to help fund park operations.

Park officials said despite the rain and wind that struck festival encampments overnight Thursday, there was little damage inflicted by the crowd that “a little grass seed won’t fix.”

The storm prompted some vendors to pull up stakes, but most hung out their losses to dry and continued selling.

“Other than the challenges of the weather, this has been so smooth,” said Brett Mosiman, owner of Pipeline Productions, one of the festival’s four promoters. “In a first-year event, this just doesn’t ever happen.”

Mishaps through Friday night included a possible snake bite about 9:15 p.m. Friday, a 17-year-old Iowa boy bitten by a copperhead Wednesday, a woman who broke her foot Thursday, another woman who suffered a gash on her foot Thursday, a man who apparently suffered food poisoning Thursday and an early Friday arrest of a 21-year-old Minnesota man for possession with the intent to sell marijuana.

The victim of the copperhead bite sought treatment at Lawrence Memorial Hospital and rode home Friday with his father, who drove from Iowa to retrieve the teen.

“He’d probably never seen a copperhead before and decided to tease it,” said Jerry Schecher, manager of Clinton State Park.

• Saturday-Sunday 06.19-06.20Wakarusa Music & Camping Festival 2004
• more info

The Minnesota man was detained at the Douglas County Jail from 2 a.m. to 2:47 a.m., when he was released on $7,500 bail.

Relatively smooth-going

Those incidents, and the storm, too, have proved minor for the fledgling festival, in which 80 bands will play 100 sets, Thursday through Sunday.

Concertgoers, vendors and park officials credit the success so far to the organization and pleasantry of the promoters.

As promised, portable toilets have been hosed several times a day, security officers have been polite, shows have started on time and traffic on the lone artery to the festival hasn’t backed up once.

And if Schecher’s informal tally of license plates from 34 states is right, the festival could serve as a brochure for the city of Lawrence itself.

“This is great for Lawrence,” said Chris Koeberle, a Lawrence resident who was waiting for a band to play Friday afternoon. “This is perfect Lawrence: funky-cool.”

Festival promoters gauged for a crowd of 10,000 to 15,000 fans through the weekend, and Mosiman still thinks they’ll hit the goal despite rumbling in the skies Friday morning.

That’s a treat for the state park, whose take is $2 per ticket for the first 10,000 sold and $4 per ticket after that.

Other state parks have battled tight budgets by playing host to similar festivals. Country Stampede, a music and camping festival at Tuttle Creek State Park near Manhattan, is expected to draw 130,000 fans June 24-27.

Stormy weather

No one was hurt, but there was plenty to see during the early-morning storm that dumped more than an inch of rain in a downpour that flooded rows upon rows of tents and swept the Lawrence area with wind gusts approaching 40 mph and.

The storm struck about 3 a.m., cutting short the set of one of the night’s most anticipated acts, Sound Tribe Sector 9 of San Francisco and Santa Cruz, Calif.

After fans gawked at nature’s light show, they forged on foot back to their tent cities.

“It was scary,” said Michael Usdrowski, 22, Fayetteville, Ark.

The group he was with hung clothes and blankets to dry in their car. And after spending the night in a two-man tent with five others, one friend, Rachel Carlton, was fed up.

“If it storms again, we’ll probably go home tomorrow,” she said Friday afternoon.

Victoria Hendrickson and Terri Henges, of Kansas City, Kan., held strong at their campsite when the storm hit.

“We are staked in,” Hendrickson said. “No ‘Wizard of Oz’ happening here. We’re not blowing away.”

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Bad for business

Vendors faced cleanup duties Friday morning, as well.

Water destroyed signs and paper cups at the Coffee Girls, which sells coffee drinks and food around the clock. It had to shut down temporarily during the storm.

“We tried to keep open, but we eventually gave up. It trashed our place,” said Robin Krause, one of the Coffee Girls owners.

At New World Imports, the dyes in the business’ Guatemalan clothing bled together when the hut collapsed, ruining hundreds of dollars of merchandise.

“We had to do laundry,” said Jeroma Sexton, displaying ink-stained hands.

Sexton said she planned to sell the damaged clothing for 60 percent off.

Signs posted around the festival decried the use of aluminum and glass drinking containers, but staff handed out trash bags for recycling aluminum cans and glass bottles. Full bags could be exchanged for a chance to win backstage passes for next year’s festival.

Few people were hanging around stages listening to bands Friday afternoon. More could be found lounging or sleeping at campsites recovering from the storm.

Around dusk, though, crowds at all three stages boomed.

Bands were scheduled to play through 3 this morning before resuming at 11:45 a.m. today with the Hackensaw Boys on the Sun-up stage.

Tickets are still available at The Bottleneck, 737 N.H., and the festival’s on-site box office. Single-day tickets are $50.

For a complete concert schedule, check www.wakarusafestival.com.

Wakarusa Music and Camping Festival schedule

• Descriptions of all the bands at the festival here on our even listings
• Saturday, June 19
• Revival Tent
• 2:30 p.m. — Four Fried Chickens & A Coke3:30 p.m. — Exit Clov4:30 p.m. — Bockman’s Euphio5:30 p.m. — Motet6:35 p.m. — Tea Leaf Green7:40 p.m. — Greyhounds9 p.m. — Shanti Groove10:20 p.m. — Indigenous11:40 p.m. — Leftover Salmon1:30 a.m. — Galactic
• Sun Up Stage
• 11:45 a.m. — Hackensaw Boys12:50 p.m. — BR5491:55 p.m. — Robert Bradley’s Blackwater Surprise3:05 p.m. — Bob Schneider4:15 p.m. — Mofro5:25 p.m. — Robert Walter’s 20th Congress6:45 p.m. — Hairy Apes BMX7:55 p.m. — Pomeroy9:05 p.m. — Spoon10:25 p.m. — Guided by Voices
• Sun Down Stage
• Noon — Kaki King1 p.m. — James McMurtry2 p.m. — Monte Montgomery3:05 p.m. — Signal Path4:10 p.m. — Garaj Mahal5:20 p.m. — Big Wu6:35 p.m. — Jazz Mandolin Project7:55 p.m. — Particle9:15 p.m. — Derek Trucks Band10:35 p.m. — O.A.R.
• Sunday, June 20
• Revival Tent
• Noon — Mission 191 p.m. — Dewayn Brothers2 p.m. — Weary Boys3 p.m. — Hello Superworld4 p.m. — Tea Leaf Green5:20 p.m. — Mountain of Venus6:40 p.m. — Barefoot Manner8 p.m. — Robert Bradley’s Blackwater Surprise9:20 p.m. — Lost Trailers10:40 p.m. — Hot Buttered Rum String BandMidnight — Split Lip Rayfield
• Sun Down Stage
• 10 a.m. — Steve Poltz11 a.m. — Jennifer Hartswick BandNoon — The Samples1:40 p.m. — Big Wu3 p.m. — Donna the Buffalo4:10 p.m. — Chris Duarte5:20 p.m. — Indigenous6:30 p.m. — Los Lonely Boys7:50 p.m. — Drive By Truckers9:10 p.m. — Dirty Dozen Brass Band10:30 p.m. — North Mississippi Allstars