Just do what they did, Chris Dutton thought.
Jamboree in the Hills goes away in what Live Nation initially called a “hiatus,” so why not mimic? Why not get some country music “names,” let the fans drink their coolers full of beer, and welcome country music fans back to Belmont County?
It worked for 40 years, right? So, what could go wrong with Trace Adkins, Joe Diffie, and a solid group of up-and-coming talent?
“Our goal when we started Blame My Roots was to do exactly what Jamboree did,” Dutton explained. “So, we wanted it to be a BYOB festival. That was the goal. We knew Jamboree attracted between 25,000-30,000 fans per day, and we believed we could draw as many as 5,000 each day for Blame My Roots.
“We believed that if we brought in the talent from Nashville, enough people would buy tickets for the two days, and that would be OK. We really thought people would buy tickets for a BYOB festival because the BYOB part was just as important as the talent on the stage, but we found out that it wasn’t true,” he said. “But we did not see that in 2019, and we got hammered, and we didn’t see it in 2020 in ticket sales before the pandemic began, and the event had to be canceled.”
Lesson learned, the co-founder insisted, and this year’s lineup is proof.
“What we have learned, as far as Blame My Roots is concerned, is that the headliners really do matter to the fans,” Dutton said. “You have to have enough talent to draw the fans? So, that is what we decided to do, and that is why we will be bringing bigger headliners for this year, but it has caused us to make several other decisions because of how these kinds of events work now.
“When you are bringing in a headliner like Miranda Lambert, you need to sell what you need to sell in order to pay for the artists and for the production,” he said. “In order do that, you have to get sponsors, you have to sell merchandise, you have to charge for parking, and you have to sell beer. Selling all of those things is how these events work these days, so there have been changes that have been made.”
Tents, Trucks, and Cabanas
A variety of beverages will be available during the two-day event, including several different beers and seltzers thanks to the festival’s partnership with Muxie Distributing in Bellaire.
Coolers full of similar beverages, however, will not be permitted inside the venue.
“There will be two, large beer tents with one on both sides of the main stage,” Dutton detailed. “Each one of those tents will have at least 10 lanes for quick service, and for Saturday night’s show, we will add several beer stations around the show. Trust me; it was a tough decision we had to make, but the industry has changed, and that’s one of the reasons why the Jamboree went away.
“For those who are purchasing the VIP passes, there will be full-service bars in those areas each night, and we are almost sold out of the cabana seating areas which are pretty much like box seats,” he said. “Concentrating on the headliners and offering all of these other features have made a difference with our ticket sales so far, so the reaction has been very good.”
Technically, the co-founder does not know what kind of food will be served, but that’s only because Blame My Roots will feature something of a food truck competition during this year’s event.
“We are hoping to attract as many as 10 food trucks that will be a part of a food truck rally that is sponsored by Republic Service, and we are doing that so the fans can have another experience while they are there,” Dutton said. “It’ll be a competition, so I’m sure those folks are going to have some great items on their menus, and the voting will take place both Friday and Saturday.
“We planning to have several awards to give out like best overall, the most unique, and the best food item, and there will be cash prizes for the winning vendors,” he said. “I think the fans are going to really enjoy that aspect to the festival because the people in the Upper Ohio Valley like a lot of different kinds of food.”
The Great Outdoors
For many years, the Valley View Campground opened for just one week a year, and that was the third week of July while country music fans were preparing for and attending the annual Jamboree in the Hills.
“We had a lot of fun during those years,” Dutton recalled. “We even had after-shows that became very popular, too, and the campers always told us they had a lot of fun.”
This summer, the founders of Blame My Roots will welcome campers beginning July 14.
“We will open the campgrounds on Wednesday, so fans can come to Blame My Roots a couple of days before the show, and there are several options for the campers to choose from during their stay,” Dutton said. “There will be the primitive sites, but there are also sites with electric only and sites with full service offered. Plus, we will be selling day passes for the campgrounds, and that way the people who aren’t camping can still visit their friends at their campsites.
“There will be a lot of other activities that will be taking place in the camping areas, so we wanted to offer the non-campers the option of going to those functions even though they didn’t plan on camping,” he explained. “When Jamboree was still taking place, the fans had a lot of different options for after the show, but now there is only one, so we wanted to do what we could to include everyone.”
