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Beaver Island Music Festival, 2010

Draft — sources verified, prose evolving

TypeEvent
Dates2010-07-15 – 2010-07-17
WithinBeaver Island
ErasModern era
On this page
Event
Dates
2010-07-15 – 2010-07-17
Kind
Music festival
Followed by
Beaver Island Music Festival, 2011
Eras
Modern era
Concepts
music-folklorecelebrationtourismcommunity
Within
Beaver Island

Summary

The Beaver Island Music Festival’s eighth held edition ran July 15-17, 2010 (a Thursday-Saturday span, following the Thursday-opening pattern seen in 2009). An August 2010 recap byline Carol Burton is the most descriptive post-event account of any year known, giving reported attendance, a named lineup, and a rare description of the physical setup of the festival grounds.12

Program

Named performers, per the recap: Red Tail Ring (“a delightful duo singing Appalachian folk”), Blue Water Ramblers, Black Jake and the Carnies (“energetic, lively bluegrass”), The Afternoon Round, Kung Fu Rodeo, Dave Boutette (billed as “the Campfire Kid”), Black Rose, Four Finger Five, Midtown Underground, Sowa Brothers (described as “a rock band from Beaver Island”), Prisoners of Paradise (described as “Beaver Island’s best”), Burton’s Garden, and the Fundubmentals. Ernie Douglas and Dave Boutette are named as “Masters of Festival” handling between-set entertainment, alongside a running bit from “Hardware Jeff” with festival-themed top-ten lists.1

A May 2010 advance ad gives a mostly overlapping lineup with fuller act names: Black Jake and the Carnies (rendered “Black Take…” in the ad, an apparent OCR error), Midtown Underground, Black Rose & the Disciples of Funk, Burton’s Garden & Four Finger Five, The Afternoon Round & Red Tail Ring, Prisoners of Paradise, the Iowa Brothers & the Fun Dub Mentals, Blue Water Ramblers, and Kung Fu Rodeo, with MCs Dave Boutette and Ernie Douglas. This ad does not name a “Sowa Brothers,” instead listing “the Iowa Brothers” – possibly the same act under a garbled OCR reading, but not confirmed against a source scan for this article.3

Evidence limits and site description

The recap is unusually descriptive about logistics and setting rather than just naming acts: it describes pre-festival preparation (“last-minute additions from camping areas, new restrooms, and trails,” stage and tent setup) that “transforms what was just a place in the woods into a festive wonderland,” and describes arriving visitors being ferried to the dock and then “loaded into shuttles and transported to the festival grounds.” It reports attendance of about 500 on Thursday and 700-800 on Friday and Saturday, and closes by announcing next year’s dates – “the 9th annual music festival July 14, 15, and 16, 2011” – an ordinal consistent with the 2003 founding year recorded on the festival hub article.1

The recap is a single first-person account rather than a program or ticket record, so it does not establish exact set times, a complete roster (it is introduced as covering “an all-star line-up,” not a full schedule), or ticket prices for 2010.

Open questions

  • Is there a surviving 2010 ticket-pricing table or schedule ad, comparable to those held for 2008 and 2009? None was found in the issues read for this article.
  • The recap’s closing anecdote about musicians playing at a Sunday-night birthday party (PJ Niehouse’s 80th) after the festival is included here as descriptive color; it is not treated as part of the festival program itself.
  • Is “the Iowa Brothers” in the May ad the same act as “Sowa Brothers” in the August recap?

See also

Footnotes

  1. Beaver Beacon, August 2010, “This Year’s BIMF” (Carol Burton). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  2. Beaver Beacon, February-July 2010, community calendar. ↩

  3. Beaver Beacon, May 2010, “Beaver Island Music Festival” advertisement. ↩

Sources

  1. "This Year's BIMF," Beaver Beacon, August 2010 (byline Carol Burton).
    Post-event recap describing setup ("camping areas, new restrooms, and trails"; "transforms what was just a place in the woods into a festive wonderland"), ferry-to-shuttle arrival logistics ("loaded into shuttles and transported to the festival grounds"), and performances by MCs Ernie Douglas and Dave Boutette and named acts Red Tail Ring, Blue Water Ramblers, Black Jake and the Carnies, The Afternoon Round, Kung Fu Rodeo, Dave Boutette, Black Rose, Four Finger Five, Midtown Underground, Sowa Brothers, Prisoners of Paradise, Burton's Garden, and the Fundubmentals. States attendance of "500 people on Thursday, 700 to 800 on Friday and Saturday." Mentions a surprise appearance by musicians at PJ Niehouse's 80th birthday party on the Sunday night after the festival. Announces "the 9th annual music festival July 14, 15, and 16, 2011" -- an ordinal consistent with a 2003 founding. No public copy of this file is known; the archive holds one and can provide it on request.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 2010-08_Beaver-Beacon
  2. The held fifty-two-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 · 2010-08_Beaver-Beacon
  3. "Beaver Island Music Festival" advertisement, Beaver Beacon, May 2010.
    Ad headed "July 15-16-17, 2010" lists: Black Take and the Carnies (an apparent OCR misreading of "Black Jake and the Carnies," per the same act's name in the August recap), Midtown Underground, Black Rose & the Disciples of Funk, Burton's Garden & Four Finger Five, The Afternoon Round & Red Tail Ring, Prisoners of Paradise, the Iowa Brothers & the Fun Dub Mentals, Blue Water Ramblers, Kung Fu Rodeo; MCs Dave Boutette & Ernie Douglas. "The Iowa Brothers" does not appear in the August recap, which instead names "Sowa Brothers" -- possibly the same OCR-garbled act name, but not confirmed here. No public copy of this file is known; the archive holds one and can provide it on request.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 2010-05_Beaver-Beacon
  4. 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 · 2010-05_Beaver-Beacon
  5. Beaver Beacon, March 2010, "Music Fest."
    Advance feature lists the July 15–17 festival date and describes The Afternoon Round, Black Jake & the Carnies, Burton’s Garden, the Sowa Brothers, and other planned performers. No public copy of this file is known; the archive holds one and can provide it on request.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 2010-03_Beaver-Beacon
  6. The held issue scan confirms the advance music-festival feature.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · scans · beaver_beacon · issues · 2010-03_Beaver-Beacon
  7. "Beaver Island Music Festival" community calendar entries, Beaver Beacon, February-July 2010.
    Recurring calendar line gives dates as "July 15-17, 2010," alongside Museum Week, Baroque on Beaver, and Homecoming. No public copy of this file is known; the archive holds one and can provide it on request.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 2010-07_Beaver-Beacon
  8. The held fifty-two-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 · 2010-07_Beaver-Beacon

Added 3 August 2026. Recent changes

Cite this article

Beaver Island Archive, “Beaver Island Music Festival, 2010”, https://beaverislandarchive.org/events/beaver-island-music-festival-2010/, accessed [date], citing "This Year's BIMF," Beaver Beacon, August 2010 (byline Carol Burton). (and 7 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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