Catskill Chill Artist Spotlight: Co-founder, Dave Marzollo

Dave Marzollo is an up and coming festival king taking over the music scene one event at a time. Here we talk about what makes Catskill Chill special and why you don’t want to miss out this year. Find out how he balances two kids and a wife with his musical endeavors that keep him busy 365 days a year.

Kaylee: How is the weather at Catskill?

Dave: Amazing. It’s fall, New York mountain weather. You will probably wear jeans and maybe a sweatshirt at night and then shorts and t-shirt during the day. It is ideal weather. It really is the perfect time to throw a festival.

Yeah, I think September is a wonderful time to host a festival. Not only because of the weather aspect, but everything is sort of winding down from the hot summer festivities.

Exactly, you want something that is pleasant and doesn’t put any stress on you in any way. That is the festival we strive to be: user friendly, enjoyable, easy and generally just chill!

What sets Catskill apart from other festivals and what made you choose this location?

I could go on all day. For starters, the site is a really remarkable and unique place. The festival takes place on the grounds of a very large performing arts summer camp. We have enormous, beautiful grounds to host the festival. I actually went to summer camp there when I was a kid and even more ironic, my friend father is the site owner. We went to camp there together when we were 12 years old. We’ve been going there our whole lives and his father still works there as a director. In fact, I just picked my daughter up who goes to camp there as well. It’s a real family place. They have a really amazing program in dance, theatre, and music along with all kinds of sports and boating. An infrastructure like this is the ideal place for what we do. We have enormous covered venues, our main stage is the camps circus pavilion, they have the largest indoor circus program in the world. It has no walls but this giant roof – so in the pouring rain we can still keep the shows going. We have cabins that we can rent to our patrons attending the festival. Essentially, you can go back after the show to a cabin with a shower, a roof, hot water, electricity. It really changes the game in attending a festival. Also, the site is on a lake so that makes a beautiful backdrop. All in all, the site itself is an absolute gem. I really believe that anyone who comes to experience a festival here will come back next year and bring their 5 best friends.

It sounds really impressive. I’m excited to see it firsthand.

You are gonna love it!

What are you most excited for this year?

I get excited for overall improvement. For someone who does a lot of self promotion, I believe in going to hand out my own flyers. I want to be out there. My marketing director and I go to every event and we stand right out there and do it ourselves because we don’t believe anyone is going to do it with the gusto and vigor like we do. Having gone through that and going to all these other events, I really get to see what it is like as an attendee and see what I like and what I don’t like. From the bottom of my heart, I want to strive for a user friendly festival where attendee’s feel like we make decisions based on what will give them a better experience. Last year, we had a small third stage that just ran DJ’s at night and this year we are running a full schedule of music that is close to the other stages and easier to find. This will give our fans more options for what they want to see at any given time. Even something as trivial as the new parking plan. We made extensive improvements to our parking situation by opening a new field close to the sites. I want to try to find little ways to make everyone really feel like we care. In terms of music, I am eager for every single one of the artists’ sets.

What is the most stressful part of throwing the festival?

Well, so far it has been the weather. We had some pretty tricky weather last year. I honestly can’t really think of anything too stressful because the whole thing is very enjoyable and fun for me.

Well you have made it, my friend – work that is actually enjoyed. I only hope that will be me one day. What is left to do with talent this late in the game?

I do have something VERY big up my sleeve. I’m not gonna lie to you. One band I have yet to talk about that I will be releasing any day. It is something you have never seen before. That is tough to claim but I’m gonna say it.

Man! My mind is going crazy thinking of who it could be! I’m so anxious.

We really wanted to announce all the bands at once this year sort of hit the marker with a splash with our lineup. We are really proud of the amount talent that we’ve been able gather for this year’s festival. But then knowing we weren’t going to add any bands and something came along, it’s like a desert after an amazing meal: you know you are full but you just cannot resist.

[[ Interviewers Note: The band, Kick Rocks was added to the Catskill Chill lineup following this interview]]

That’s a great metaphor, I couldn’t have thought of a more perfect way to say it.

Haha, thank you!

Who chooses the artists and musicians, is there a special process?

We try to go to as many shows as we possibly can during the winter to see what is really out there. For the most part, the bands are chosen by me with a heavy influence by my marketing director and vending coordinator, Josh Cohen. He is one of the top guys in the festival scene. He is always, always scouting bands and we discuss in length what we want. There are a few other people who I get opinions from and we talk about who we like the best.

Do you have a favorite artist or musician you are listening to at the moment?

Oh gosh, a favorite. I am a guy who loves the classics, you know. A lot of Grateful Dead and Bob Marley. My taste ranges all over the place, I get into any genre. A lot of jazz, a fair amount of blue grass.

I am really looking forward to Yonder Mountain String Band and Yarn, especially their Dead set.

We don’t want to be a bluegrass festival. We don’t want to be a electro festival. That’s why our top two headliners are pretty far in the spectrum of their sound – YMSB and Lotus. We don’t want to pigeon hole ourselves to any one specific genre. We want you to know that if you are an electronic music fan we are gonna give you tons of electronic music to dance to but also other stuff you may not be interested in but there will be something for you.

I love that you aren’t excluding anyone from the festival. We have a similar mission statement for our magazine. We don’t talk about religion or politics or anything that might make people feel that they can’t be a part of this.

One thing that I really dislike personally is when fans of opposing genres, of music, oppose each another. I wanna see that everyone is up to hang out and have a good time and enjoy each other even if you don’t necessarily like the exact same sounds.

We are all coming together for the music so lets bridge that gap of what is bad or what is good or who likes what and let’s all come together for this universal love of music.

Yeah and let’s have a good time!

How do you balance festival life with your personal life?

That is by far the hardest part. I have a two-year-old son, a thirteen-year-old step daughter, my wife – we balance it by making sure we get a lot accomplished. We do a lot of things after the festival – we go to the zoo and aquarium. We take vacations in the winter because in the summertime I go to a lot of different events.

I can imagine that must be hard to put altogether. How soon after Catskill do you start planning next year?

Immediately. It starts with sponsors, you have to have them lined up before the year begins. Then as I get a chance, we start looking for headliners and then there really is no end.

Are you a musician or artist yourself?

I have a pretty long history with performance and acting as well. I am a bad guitar player but I have done a lot of lighting and sound. I was a stage hand in the mid 90’s in Arizona. I have worked running the box office, too. I like the idea of performance; I like to put on a production for a crowd and I really feel like being a promoter is the right niche for me.

You definitely get your hands involved in lots of different departments, you must be so busy. Is there a point when you can sit back and enjoy the fruits of your labor?

I really don’t get to see that much music but I come down to the stage when I can. I want to make sure that everything is running well and everyone is on top of what they are doing. Usually on Sunday I will come and watch a fair amount of music. For the most part I am in the trailer or in the parking lot, riding around from one place to another.

Tell me one last thing about Catskill.

You know, this is a homegrown festival. We have learned from our past mistakes and we wouldn’t be doing this if we didn’t have the absolute best festival that you could have. For the most part, when we talk about it, we talk about what will make our attendee’s the happiest. That is the basis of all our decisions.

That is all we really can want as patrons of a festival, is to have someone there for us and making sure we have the best experience possible. Well, I can’t thank you enough for spending some time with me today, Dave. I am now more excited than ever to check out Catskill Chill first hand.