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Beaver Island Music Festival, 2009

Draft — sources verified, prose evolving

TypeEvent
Dates2009-07-16 – 2009-07-18
WithinBeaver Island
ErasModern era
On this page
Event
Dates
2009-07-16 – 2009-07-18
Kind
Music festival
Followed by
Beaver Island Music Festival, 2010
Eras
Modern era
Concepts
music-folklorecelebrationtourismcommunity
Within
Beaver Island

Summary

The Beaver Island Music Festival’s seventh held edition ran July 16-18, 2009 – a Thursday “General Admission Kick Off Event” ahead of the main Friday-Saturday festival. A multi-page BIMF newsletter published in the March 2009 Beaver Beacon gives the fullest surviving lineup, ticket-pricing, and logistics detail of any year known.12

Program

Thursday, July 16 (General Admission Kick Off): gates open 7 p.m., music 8 p.m. to 1 a.m., with “at least four performing groups” not yet named at publication time.1

Friday-Saturday, July 17-18 (main festival): MC Ernie Douglas, “returning for his 8th year,” joined by newcomers comedian Janet Day and musician Dave Boutette. Returning acts: The Ragbirds, Rootstand, Whitey Morgan, Lake Effect. New acts: Black Jake and the Carnies, Ultraviolet Hippopotamus, The Mossy Mountain Band, Squeaky Clean Cretins, and Strings n’ Things, the last of which was also billed for a special “Kids Time” children’s performance.1

The newsletter prints an itemized ticket-pricing table: Thursday July 16 general admission (also valid as a weekend pass for July 17-18), $10.00; weekend pass, adult, $55.00; weekend pass, adult, with camping pass for July 17-18, $55.00; a “buy 2 adult weekend passes, get a 3rd at half price” bundle, $137.50; weekend pass, teen (13-17) or senior (65+), $50.00; camping pass (July 17-18), $15.00; a second camping-pass tier (ages “15-19” as printed) at $25.00; unlimited-ride shuttle pass, $5.00 (“please take the shuttle, be safe & save gas”); and round-trip ferry travel tickets, adult $44.00 (child 5-12 pricing continues past the portion of the table read for this article). A March-only ticket special offered a free weekend camping pass with an adult weekend-pass purchase, through March 31, 2009. Checks were payable to “BIMF,” mailed to PO Box 23, Beaver Island, MI 49782, with online ordering via PayPal at bimf.net.1

The newsletter also states festival organizers were “working on ways to improve campsites and add more restroom facilities” for 2009, and that the festival website had been updated with photos from 2008 and archives of past festivals, crediting webmaster Jeff Cashman.1

A May 2009 ad adds a “Music on the Ferry Schedule”: musicians performed aboard the Beaver Island Boat Company ferry itself on the trip over and back – Mossy Mountain Band & David Boutette on the Thursday, July 16, 2:30 p.m. departure from Charlevoix; For Heaven’s Sake on the Friday, July 17, 2:30 p.m. departure from Charlevoix; and Pinky Lee on the Sunday, July 19, 11:30 a.m. return departure from Beaver Island. The same ad confirms “Kids Time” as Saturday, July 18, 3-4 p.m., with Strings N Things performing and children 12 and under (accompanied by an adult) admitted free.3

A June 2009 item gives an updated, longer lineup that both overlaps with and extends the March newsletter’s list: Black Jake & the Carnies, Lake Effect, the Ragbirds, the Mossy Mountain Band, P-A-U-L, Pinky Lee, Rootstand, Ultraviolet Hippopotamus, Dave Boutette, Squeaky Clean Cretins, For Heaven’s Sake, Ernie Douglas, Whitey Morgan, Strings n’ Things, comedian billed as “Jan Day/Doris Schlockman” (compare the March newsletter’s “Janet Day”), Sowa Bros, and Shifting Souls.2

Evidence limits

The held newsletter is a pre-season announcement (dated March 2009, four months before the festival), not a post-event report; no later 2009 issue read for this article confirms which acts performed, attendance, or whether the announced Thursday kick-off event and full ticket-pricing plan were carried out as printed. The camping-pass age tier printed as “15-19” appears to be a typographical or OCR error next to the “13-17” teen ticket tier above it, but is quoted here as printed rather than silently corrected.

Open questions

  • Did a 2009 post-event recap survive in the Beacon corpus, comparable to the October 2007 or August 2010 retrospectives? None was found for this article.
  • What does the “15-19” camping-pass age tier actually mean, given the adjacent teen ticket tier is printed as “13-17”?
  • Was the planned Thursday “Kick Off Event” lineup (at least four groups, unnamed at publication) ever announced by name?
  • Is the comedian named “Janet Day” (March) the same person billed as “Jan Day/Doris Schlockman” (June)? Both are quoted as printed rather than reconciled.

See also

Footnotes

  1. Beaver Beacon, March 2009, “Beaver Island Music Festival Newsletter.” ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  2. Beaver Beacon, June 2009, “Music Festival” item and community calendar. ↩ ↩2

  3. Beaver Beacon, May 2009, “Beaver Island Music Festival” advertisement. ↩

Sources

  1. "Beaver Island Music Festival Newsletter," Beaver Beacon, March 2009.
    Multi-page newsletter insert. Announces "General Admission Kick Off Event, July 16, 2009" (gates open 7 p.m., music 8 p.m.-1 a.m., at least four groups) ahead of the main festival on July 17-18. MC Ernie Douglas is "returning for his 8th year," joined by newcomers comedian Janet Day and musician Dave Boutette. Returning acts: The Ragbirds, Rootstand, Whitey Morgan, Lake Effect. New acts: Black Jake and the Carnies, Ultraviolet Hippopotamus, The Mossy Mountain Band, Squeaky Clean Cretins, and Strings n' Things (also billed for a special "Kids Time" performance). Credits webmaster Jeff Cashman. Gives a full ticket-pricing table (see Program) and states camping-facility improvements are underway. The non-profit Beaver Island Cultural Arts Association is named as a co-planner of unrelated community-school events in the same period, but BICAA is not stated to be BIMF's sponsor -- this newsletter is issued directly under the "BIMF" name with a PO Box 23 return address, not under BICAA. No public copy of this file is known; the archive holds one and can provide it on request.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 2009-03_Beaver-Beacon
  2. The held forty-four-page issue scan is paired with the OCR source and confirms the published notice or report; it does not expand the source-specific identity, event, or outcome claims.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · scans · beaver_beacon · issues · 2009-03_Beaver-Beacon
  3. "Beaver Island Music Festival" advertisement, Beaver Beacon, May 2009.
    Ad gives a "Music on the Ferry Schedule": Thursday July 16, 2:30 p.m. departure from Charlevoix, "Mossy Mountain Band & David Boutette"; Friday July 17, 2:30 p.m. departure from Charlevoix, "For Heaven's Sake"; Sunday July 19, 11:30 a.m. departure from Beaver Island, "Pinky Lee" -- musicians performing aboard the ferry to and from the festival. Confirms "Kids Time" as Saturday July 18, 3-4 p.m., with Strings N Things performing and children 12 and under (with an adult) admitted free. States tickets available starting May 1 at McDonough's Market and urges advance ferry vehicle reservations. No public copy of this file is known; the archive holds one and can provide it on request.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 2009-05_Beaver-Beacon
  4. The held forty-page issue scan is paired with the OCR source and confirms the published notice or report; it does not expand the source-specific identity, event, or outcome claims.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · scans · beaver_beacon · issues · 2009-05_Beaver-Beacon
  5. "Music Festival," Beaver Beacon, June 2009.
    Short item: "Mark your calendars for the Beaver Island Music Festival July 16th, 17th, and 18th. The festival continues to grow, with this year's lineup including Black Jake & the Carnies, Lake Effect, the Ragbirds, the Mossy Mountain Band, P-A-U-L, Pinky Lee, Rootstand, Ultra-violet Hippopotamus, Dave Boutette, Squeaky Clean Cretins, For Heaven's Sake, Ernie Douglas, Whitey Morgan, Strings n' Things, Jan Day/Doris Schlockman, Sowa Bros, and Shifting Souls. Also in the works is music on the ferry ride over." This item names several acts (P-A-U-L, For Heaven's Sake, Sowa Bros, Shifting Souls) not present in the March newsletter's list, and gives the comedian's billing as "Jan Day/Doris Schlockman" rather than the March newsletter's "Janet Day." The same issue's community calendar repeats "July 16-18 - Beaver Island Music Festival," alongside Museum Week (July 20-25) and Baroque on Beaver (July 30-August 2). No public copy of this file is known; the archive holds one and can provide it on request.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 2009-06_Beaver-Beacon
  6. The held forty-eight-page issue scan is paired with the OCR source and confirms the published notice or report; it does not expand the source-specific identity, event, or outcome claims.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · scans · beaver_beacon · issues · 2009-06_Beaver-Beacon

Added 3 August 2026. Recent changes

Cite this article

Beaver Island Archive, “Beaver Island Music Festival, 2009”, https://beaverislandarchive.org/events/beaver-island-music-festival-2009/, accessed [date], citing "Beaver Island Music Festival Newsletter," Beaver Beacon, March 2009. (and 5 further sources listed on the page).

Last revised 2026-08-03. Fill in [date] with the date you read it — this page is static and cannot know that.

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