Three day music fest set for Springville

“Summer Sanctuary” is being billed as a free three-day outdoor music and camping festival. It is scheduled to start on Friday, Aug. 6, at noon, and run nonstop until 5 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 8.

The concert is set to be held on the Forkal property along SR 3013, about a mile south of downtown Springville.

“This could be a lucrative thing for Springville,” said promoter Richard Morykon.

Morykon, who operates an event promotion agency called G7 Productions, said he is holding the free event as a way to thank those who have supported his business for the past year.

While Morykon sees the event as helping the community, there are those who aren’t so sure.

They include township supervisor Ed Wood, who, while admitting the township has no legal way to prevent it, expressed his displeasure.

“We don’t want it,” Wood said Monday afternoon.

According to Morykon, the event will feature music being performed on three stages set up in a large hayfield. One stage will have live bands, while the other two will have disc jockeys playing recorded music.

So far, about 25 bands and 100 DJs have been booked, Morykon said.

The musical genres will be varied, Morykon said. There will be some jam music, techno pop, rock, jazz and other styles being played.

The bands and the DJs are primarily from northeast and central Pennsylvania and upstate New York, Morykon said, with a few coming from as far away as Baltimore.

“It’s a really wide range of dance music,” he said.

Admission to the concert is free, Morykon said. He added that he is charging $10 for parking in order to reimburse the landowner for the space.

Morykon said he has been promoting small concerts and club performances for the past three years. Within the last year, he began taking on bigger shows and outdoor venues.

The largest concert Morykon has presented until now was last month, when he did a show with a band and 20 DJs in the Stroudsburg area. That event attracted about 400 people, he said.

Morykon said he plans to limit attendance at the Springville event to 1,000 people.

Morykon stated that he has been in contact with township officials and is making sure all their concerns are answered.

Wood noted that the supervisors only learned of the concert on Tuesday, July 6, when they received an e-mail from Morykon just a few hours before their most recent township meeting.

The supervisors did meet with Morykon on Friday to discuss the event and state their requirements. There are still some things Morykon must do before the concert can actually be held, Wood said.

“It’s not OK yet because there’s some paperwork he has to show us,” Wood stated.

“We just need copies of the contracts,” said supervisor Jerry Ainey.

They were referring to documentation that Morykon has made arrangements for security, clean-up and other necessities.

Aside from those requirements, the supervisors said current township laws do not address performances like this.

“It’s new to us. We have no ordinance against it,” Ainey said.

That may change in the future, however.

“We’re going to be working on an ordinance after this,” said Wood.

Wood said his fears are based on the type of crowd he believes the concert will attract.

“That’s a good place for drugs. It’s a lot like Woodstock,” he said.

Morykon said the supervisors’ concerns are unfounded.

“I think a lot of it comes from misunderstanding what we’re doing out there,” he said.

For example, he said although people will be on site for the entire time, there will be a lull in the music during the evening in deference to nearby residents.

Morykon also stated that he has hired a professional security force, and also has about 50 volunteers who will patrol the grounds. He added that an ambulance and paramedics will be on site the entire time.

In addition, Morykon said no alcohol will be permitted at the concert.

Morykon, a 2001 Elk Lake High School graduate, said the nature of his business has most of his concerts in more populated areas.

He decided on Springville for the thank-you show because he wanted to do something near where he grew up.

“There’s nobody doing what I’m doing in that area,” he said.