Festival organizers shoot for the moon 
Michael Lang, who promoted Woodstock more than 40 years ago, had Max Yasgur’s farm. The Rolling Stones, for good or ill, had Altamont Speedway.
The father-and-son team of Barry and Sam Shear have Kennekuk County Park near Danville for Phases Of The Moon, a four-day music and arts festival scheduled for Sept. 11 through Sept. 14.
The festival featuring more than 50 musical acts will be more than a mega-concert for aficionados of jam bands and patchouli, say the Shears, who have never before put on a show. Besides music, the Shears have lined up yoga instructors, massage therapists, mystics, an intuitive body worker and specialists in such things as lucid dreaming techniques and resonance and vibration healing.
“We’re bringing the West Coast vibe to the Midwest,” says Barry Shear, who has run private investment firms in Chicago and is financing the project.
In a nod to the heartland, there will also be a farmers market.
One thing the festival lacks is any sort of lunar event. The full moon will be on Sept. 8, three days before the festival starts.
“We couldn’t time it quite perfect,” Barry Shear says.
The festival about 120 miles east of Springfield is named for the family’s fascination with astronomy, Sam Shear says. He and his father agree that the moon affects people, just as it moves the ocean tide – Sam Shear points out that the human body is mostly water.
“It physically pulls on our bodies and our human emotions,” Sam Shear says.
Sam Shear came up with the idea for a festival on the prairie after graduating two years ago from Sierra Nevada College in Nevada, where he majored in fine arts. He never went to Burning Man – the idea of spending two weeks in the Nevada desert for the celebrated art festival never appealed to him. But he says that he appreciated the sort of do-it-yourself visual art that made Burning Man famous.
“When I graduated from college, it seemed natural to find something that merged my love for art and love for music,” Sam Shear says. “The art will be just as important as the music.”
His father was willing to help make it happen, but only to a point, and moonbeams go only so far.
“I told him we had to look at this like any other business proposition,” Barry Shear recalls.
And so the Shears gathered 60 people between the ages of 15 and 50 at their Chicago home to brainstorm the perfect festival. Clean restrooms were at the top of the list. So was scheduling acts so that there would be no overlapping sets. There should be culinary alternatives to funnel cakes and corn dogs, which explains the farmers market. Camping will be free, a four-day pass costs $250 and the Shears, who are hoping for 20,000 people each day, swear that there will be sufficient showering facilities for everyone.
“We wanted to create an experience not only for the festivalgoer but for the Midwest,” Sam Shear says.
Danville wasn’t their first choice. Barry Shear says that he and his son initially looked at the Galena area, which offers plenty of rural space as well as spectacular views of the Mississippi River, but local authorities weren’t keen on the idea. They wanted a site that would be within 200 miles of major cities. They scouted potential venues in Wisconsin and southern Illinois before landing on Danville, where tourism promoters and local government were supportive, says Barry Shear.
Kennekuk County Park, the Shears say, is perfect. Besides offering 3,000 acres for dancing and camping, the site is close to Interstate 74 and within reasonable driving distance from Chicago, St. Louis, Indianapolis and the University of Illinois. The Shears say that they have signed a long-term lease for the site.
“This is viewed as any other business – our intent is to do this year after year,” Barry Shear says. “Properly done, it’s going to be a nice (economic) shot in the arm for the local community.”
And there are also, the Shears admit, a few stomach butterflies as the inaugural event nears.
“Let’s put it this way: I haven’t slept in a month,” Barry Shear says. “It’s literally building a city for four days. In some ways, it’s almost like an army campaign.”
Contact Bruce Rushton at [email protected].
