When the creators of Winterland stood up their live music and arts festival in downtown Jacksonville, Florida starting in 2018, it was a very do-it-yourself affair. “The first couple of years, I was running sound,” Winterland co-founder Glenn Michael Van Dyke tells PureHoney.
Winterland collaborators Van Dyke, Lena Simon and Matthew Shaw — who also play together in the adventurous Kairos Creature Club — can now delegate a good chunk of the technical labor. Their focus is more on assembling the varied musical lineups — a kind of record collector’s dream — and the other attractions that have turned this northern Florida city into an annual cultural destination. Winterland Six takes place over three days in late February with performers including Blonde Redhead, Caroline Rose, Osees, Wombo and Thelma and the Sleaze.
Where the festival has really evolved, Van Dyke says, is in the audience experience. The first years saw Van Dyke, Simon and Shaw applying their knowledge as touring musicians to making Winterland attractive to their peers. From live audio to creature comforts, “We really built it from the back of the house forward,” Van Dyke says.
With the band-pleasing elements firmly in place, Winterland can conceive of more ways to delight audiences and tickle the senses with total immersion into “a little universe of art and music,” Van Dyke says. Art exhibitions, photo booths (a new addition), enclosed lounge space and more will fill the lawn at downtown Jacksonville’s James Weldon Johnson Park alongside the band stages.
Music remains Winterland’s heart. “We’re kind of a music discovery platform,” Van Dyke says. “We decidedly don’t subscribe to one genre. We actively seek out a diverse lineup.” The talent hails from near and far, and spans psych-rock, punk, jazz, hip-hop and experimental for an occasion that also helps to fund Jacksonville-area arts and music activities year round. (Winterland operates as a nonprofit venture.)
As always, Kairos Creature Club will perform their own slyly genre-hopping music at the festival. “That’s a selfish thing that we do,” Van Dyke quips, adding that the band’s 45 minutes on stage is sweet release for the months of work that make Winterland go.
Winterland Six runs February 23-25 at James Weldon Johnson Park in Jacksonville. winterlandpresents.org ~ Sean Piccoli
