Remote Sounds: The Beaver Island Music Festival

July 9, 2015

You can only get to this music festival by boat or plane, no exceptions. You won’t find fancy VIP viewing areas, WiFi lounges or late-night discos. You’re more likely to run into a downto-earth yoga instructor, itinerant farmhand or banjo player than a Hollywood celebrity.

This is the ambiance of the Beaver Island Music Festival (BIMF), an off-the-grid, non-scenester fest held in a remote location amidst vegetable gardens, campsites and stands of beech trees.

To get there, you take a two-hour ferry ride (or a 20-minute flight) from Charlevoix to what’s nicknamed “America’s Emerald Isle,” and then make the 15-minute drive to the festival site, usually via a friendly local shuttle. You might even be surprised on your trip over, as several of the musicians are scheduled to perform on the ferries (Wednesday, July 15) to welcome people arriving to the island. Once you arrive, be prepared to camp, as there are only a few lodges/ hotels on the island and they’re likely to have been booked far in advance.

Don’t be fooled by the casual atmosphere, though; it may not be in competition with the likes of Bonnaroo or Electric Forest, but the lineup of musical performers is more than solid, the audience appreciative, and the quiet atmosphere free of distractions. It’s just you, nature, a few food vendors and — during what’s now the largest visitor week for the island — around 1,000 of your fellow music fans per day. You’ll get more than one chance to see your favorite band, as they each typically play multiple sets over the weekend (once you’re on the island, it makes sense to stay for a while).

This year’s BIMF offers their customary wideranging lineup. In the soul-funk department, you’ll find Metro Detroit’s Third Coast Kings, a gritty, horn-driven collective with an authentic ’70s sound. G-Snacks adds electronic sounds to their funk recipe for a trance/groove mix perfect for some island dancing.

If you enjoy eclectic, quirky sounds, look no further than The Claudettes, the Chicago band featuring Johnny Iguana on piano. Mixing Chicago blues with rockabilly and vaudeville, their idiosyncratic versions of French pop and old jazz tunes are definitely unique. Similar, but with a darker edge, is Black Jake and the Carnies. They combine vintage old-timey music with punk, for a noise that wouldn’t be out of place on a real carnival midway. Rock runs the gamut from the Celtic-American energetic mix of Ghost City Searchlight to the garage-rock of Roosevelt Diggs to the southern roots rock of North Country Flyers to the three-piece Grand Rapids original band Bennett and, finally, to the diverse mash-up sounds of Blake Elliott and the Robinson Affair, which finds Traverse City singer-songwriter Elliott mixing blues, hip-hop and slam poetry.

The island is also the perfect setting for folk music. The indie-folk duo of Alex Mendenall and Rachel Curtis offers rich harmonies and dual guitars. Michigan Americana folk legends Ruth and Max Bloomquist add Bloomquist’s abilities on upright bass. Under the Willow infuses complex instrumentation into their soulful folk-grass sound.

Finally, it wouldn’t be a Beaver Island Music Festival without local legend Ed Palmer who’s been entertaining folks on the island with vintage tunes from the ’30s to the ’50s for more than half a century.

The 2015 Beaver Island Music Festival will take place July 16-18. For a complete schedule, as well as ferry and plane links, visit bimf.net.