Doe Bay Fest a Music-Lovers Success

Festival goers enjoy Doe Bay Resort on Sunday

From the ferry landing to Doe Bay — and beyond — the 2011 Doe Bay Fest was a complete success. This year, in addition to over 30 musical acts and poetry readings, the Fest arranged for a full moon, clear skies, and star showers to boot!

Doe Bay General Manager Jami Mitchell credits the guests, the artists, owners Joe and Maureen Brotherton, the organizers, the staff, the volunteers and the  Doe Bay neighbors for the happy success.  Mitchell  says the resort has 45 regular employees at this time of year, 70 employees work at Doe Bay Fest “plus a whole team of volunteers.”

“Everyone does such a good job and it’s amazing to see everyone working so hard and being the consummate hosts in the midst of all this hard work.”

Tickets were sold at the resort and online to 1,000 guests paying $60 per ticket for the three-day fest. Many camped on the Doe Bay property and in the meadow to the east of the resort.

“The community was very supportive, Doe Bay Fest was well-organized and that paid off for our neighbors and everybody so that it was less of a hassle for our whole Orcas community. We got a lot of positive feedback from our neighbors and people coming through,” said Mitchell.

The rules,written by Doe Bay proprietor Joe Brotherton  in a “Doe Bay Fest Bible” given to each guest, are:

1. Smile! “You can stop again on Monday.”
2. Help where you can “Act like you care, or better yet, actually care and then you can just act naturally. Solve every little problem before it grows
3. Respect each other and this place “Try not to interfere with others’ experience, even if they are wrong and you are right. And leave each place you occupy better than when you found it.”
4. As it gets later, please get quieter. “The one thing that could make this the last Doe Bay Fest would be for us to bother our neighbors, especially after 10 p.m.”
5. Be a little bit careful and have a ton of  fun!

Doe Bay Resort relies on having fun to keep the customers happy, and although the Fest takes in thousands of dollars, it is not the “savings account” for the business year-round.

“It’s  not a money maker because we turn the money back to the bands and the organizers, and the extra staff.  Plus we bring in a lot of infrastructure — trash cans, dumpsters and the like,” says Mitchell.

Profits from the Beer Garden at the fest supports Orcas Montessori.

“We pay the bands about a third of what they ordinarily charge, but they love Doe Bay Fest and it’s their chance to get away for some R & R too. The artist-to-guest ratio is phenomenal, everywhere there’s a jam session or music experience waiting to be happen, on the beach,  at the campsites, in the cabins.

“We can’t afford to pay big bucks and with remaining revenues,  Joe and Maureen turn it back to the staff.”

As Mitchell says, Doe Bay Fest  “introduces Orcas to a younger set who have a little money in their pocket. What Doe Bay Resort really gets out of it is the PR. Word gets out on the street in Seattle and elsewhere and friends become repeat clients.” When tickets went on sale this spring, the online distributor was sold out in three minutes.

Doe Bay Fest popularity benefits the rest of the island as well. Many Doe Bay Fest wristbands were sighted this weekend at the Farmer’s Market, the grocery stores, cafes and restaurants and gas stations. “It does something for the entire island,” says Mitchell.

And when the festival was over, and guests headed for the ferry (where there was at least a three-hour, one-boat wait), musicians kept up the spirit, regaling the ferry parking lot with acoustic music such as John Denver’s “Thank God I’m a Country Boy” from a rocky bluff above the holding lanes.