The Wakarusa music festival hosted annually on Mulberry Mountain in Ozark will not return in 2016. The festival's Facebook page released a statement Thursday around 3 p.m. that cites sour business relations among the organizing partners as the principal reason behind what the post calls "a hiatus."
In its seventh year on Mulberry Mountain and 12th year on the festival circuit, Wakarusa is the largest music and camping festival in Northwest Arkansas and has hosted acts like Of Monsters and Men, The Avett Brothers, The Flaming Lips and The Roots. Known as much for its weirdness as for its musical acts, the four-day festival attracted an estimated 20,000 people to Franklin County this year.
The festival's statement offers only a vague description of the partnership's breakup.
Festivalgoers speculated that Wakarusa might be canceled when Pipeline Productions, the company that organizes the festival, unexpectedly canceled two of its other festivals earlier this year: June's Thunder on the Mountain and October's Phases of the Moon, both at the same location.
It was revealed in June after the cancellation of Thunder on the Mountain that Pipeline was involved in lawsuits with Backwoods Enterprises against The Madison Cos. and Horsepower Entertainment, two organizations that had entered into agreements with Pipeline and Backwoods to help fund the festival.
An article published in the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette June 17 stated that, "One lawsuit alleges ... Pipeline made an agreement with Madison and Horsepower through a letter of intent, but Madison backed out after it appeared the music festival wouldn't make a profit this year," and claims a "breach of contract and breach of fiduciary duty." According to the article, the counterlawsuit "contends Backwoods and Pipeline haven't contributed any money to the festival and have, instead, used money from ticket sales and money borrowed from Madison to cover the talent deposits."
Whether these lawsuits over the Thunder festival are part of the issues alluded to in Thursday's statement is unclear at this time. Messages left at the Pipeline offices and with Wakarusa festival organizer Brett Mosiman were not returned Thursday.
Mulberry Mountain won't be completely devoid of music during summer 2016 though, as the Highberry Festival website announced the music festival organized by Deadhead Productions will be moving to the mountain for its seventh annual event June 30-July 3. The statement came only two hours after the Wakarusa announcement.
Metro on 12/18/2015