Wakarusa turns a groovy 11

According to social media users, Wakarusa is a "magical muddy mountain," populated by "hippies + hillbillies = uninhibited mudcreatures" and "festival kids carrying filthy stuffed animals."

June marks the eleventh year of Waka (thus dubbed by aficionados), and the music festival's fifth year at the 650-acre Mulberry Mountain site near Ozark. It's Woodstock meets Burning Man, if Woodstock Man were birthed in the Midwest and raised in the Arkansas hills.

Founded by promoters from Kansas, the first Wakarusa was held at Clinton State Park near Lawrence. It attracted 6,000 attendees and featured about 60 bands. Last year's festival reached near capacity at 20,000 passes and a four-day turnstile figure of about 100,000. Co-founder Brett Mosiman says he expects similar numbers this year.

To put that in perspective -- it's about a tenth the size of Woodstock 1969 and a quarter the size of Tennessee's Bonnaroo, the nation's biggest ongoing camp-on-the-grounds music fest. Riverfest, the state's largest music event, attracts about 250,000 people. But Riverfesters go home to shower, sleep and nurse hangovers. For many people, Waka is five days of sun baking, all-night parties, brief naps in tents, the occasional ambling black bear, showering in waterfalls and cowering in cars to escape violent cloudbursts. It's six stages, 150 bands, countless bare midriffs, glowing art, themed dress-up, giant puppets, darting lasers and, for the fat-of-wallet, something called glamping ("glamorous camping," offering hotel amenities).

"One of the great things about music events, when you get that many bands and artists together, there's once in a lifetime collaborations ... like when JJ Grey from Mofro sits in with Galactic," Mosiman says.

And those who tire of tunes can try hiking, floating, swimming, hooping, fire twirling, stilt walking and slack lining (like tightroping, with slack).

It's the kind of event where organizers feel the need to explicitly forbid both nitrous tanks and Chinese lanterns; where diehards get married (at least one ceremony is planned for this year's festival); and where the amphitheater-packing headliners -- Sound Tribe Sector 9, The Flaming Lips, The String Cheese Incident, Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros, Umphrey's McGee and Bassnectar -- trek familiar ground. (2014 isn't their first Waka.)

The headlining run breaks down like this: spacy electronic grooves, lush layered psychedelia, funky epic jams, bouncy Messianic folk, prog-rock improvisation, and bass-driven dubstep. There's other ear candy, as well: catchy retro-pop (Dr. Dog), sparse, sweet melodies (Wild Child), synth dance-pop (Cherub), Southern rock-tronic (BoomBox), R&B does hip-hop (Air Dubai), instrumental punk-poetry (Mike Dillon), band-nerd virtuoso (Moon Hooch) and post-hippie "soft" rock (Treetop Flyer).

And of course, there will be dozens more bands and DJs, including a few from the Natural State. Conway's American Lions play effects-heavy guitar-rock, while Fayetteville's Foley's Van play progressive bluegrass. Both bands are among two dozen performers who won their spots in a battle of the bands, held in various cities and collectively called Winter Waka Classic. Coyote Union, an alternative group from Mountain Home, will also take its first Waka stage this year.

Mountain Sprout, a nontraditional bluegrass ensemble from Eureka Springs, are Waka veterans. They've played every year since the festival has been in Arkansas.

"Waka is the best thing musically that's happened to Arkansas ever," says Grayson "Sprout" Klauber.

He remembers how, a few years back, when they started playing, only a handful of people were in the audience. Three songs in, "the tent was overflowing, out the sides."

For other artists, it's about the site and the fans.

"You're surrounded by beauty," says Christopher "Crash" Richard with Edward Sharpe, recalling his last stint at Waka. "And I think it was mostly the people that made for a really good time. It kind of rained for a moment that day, and it didn't even really affect things. Everybody seemed willing to go through it all together."

Style on 06/03/2014