Festival maestro takes a bow

Published 5:58 am Wednesday, November 25, 2015

The man behind two of Wallowa County’s premier summer events — the Oregon Mountain Cruise and the Bronze, Blues and Brews festival — is taking a break after more than two decades at the helm.

Moonlight Graphics Co. owner Chuck Garrett founded and served as director of the Cruise, a June classic car cruise and show entering its 27th year, and the BBB festival, an August event focusing on music, art and beer that will celebrate its 20th year next summer.

Garrett’s daughter will be graduating from the University of Oregon on the same weekend as the 2016 Oregon Mountain Cruise, and he decided it was a good time to step down.

“We’ve been wanting to pass that off and we found somebody (Andy Osborne) to take it over,” Garrett said. “We’ll help him get going on it, but we won’t be here for the car show this year,” though he still intends to produce T-shirts for the event.

“We started the car show with one other couple. Part of the plan was just to sell T-shirts. I was making T-shirts for the National Hudson Terraplane Club and met this guy from Lewiston who was into old cars and we decided we’d do a little car show. It was something to do.”

Garrett’s transition away from the blues festival will be more gradual. This year he’ll serve as co-director with Wendy McDaniel, who previously served as secretary/treasurer.

“I’m still doing the graphics and all that, but I’ve already made my decision to step away and limit my role,” Garrett said. “I’m trying to leave slowly, so we can keep these events going.”

Garrett credited Marty Hamilton for coming up with the idea for the Bronze, Blues and Brews festival.

“We’d had the Jazz at the Lake festival, which had already quit, but we needed another music festival. We were into blues music, so we said, ‘Let’s put on a blues fest.’”

Regarding the festival’s 20th year, he said: “I can’t really say who, but we’re working with two big-name performers who have been here and want to come back. Our usual band and lodging budget is $16,000, but we’re hoping to get enough sponsors to increase that to $22,000 to $25,000.”

The festival board is planning a media/sponsor blitz for the holiday season.

The festival won the 2015 “Muddy” award for best Northwest blues event from the Cascade Blues Association.

“That CBA award should help bring people in. It’s a pretty big deal.”

Garrett has no regrets about taking a step back from the festival.

“We’ve brought a lot of good times and music to this county, and money, too. We’ve done some good things.”

The only negative experience Garrett can recall also was among his fondest memories. One year blues guitarist and festival headliner Joe Louis Walker failed to show for the gig.

“We had (Blues Brothers inspiration) Curtis Salgado, who was the fourth act, come up and play another set, and the audience loved it,” Garrett said.

As much as Garrett enjoys the events, he said he looks forward to allowing others to handle the responsibilities.

“It’s getting to be a lot of work and takes time away from my business,” he said, “I still want to be involved with the graphics, the website, posters and that kind of work. It’s been a great run.”