Angry Orchard Festival preparations underway

DOVER - Mount Snow events manager Tim Dolan was at Tuesday’s Dover Selectboard meeting to discuss the upcoming Angry Orchard Rock the Roots Music Tour, which will happen at Mount Snow on July 7. Following a discussion with Dolan, the board approved a motion to submit a letter of support for the festival’s public assembly permit.
The festival, which is for ages 21 and over, will feature music performances from 2 to 11 pm and will end with a fireworks display. Dolan said he and his team have met with the fire, police, rescue, and liquor control departments and have received letters of support from each department. 
Dolan said Mount Snow expects between 5,000 and 10,000 people to come to town for the festival, which is slated to feature music from Sublime with Rome, Dirty Heads, Lupe Fiasco, Pepper, and Matisyahu. He said that given Mount Snow’s recent undertaking of the Minus Zero festival, which was a three-day event, they feel prepared with protocol. 
“We have a good plan put together based on what we did at Minus Zero,” said Dolan. “We’re going to use that as a template and move forward.” 
Fire chief Rich Werner asked the board for its input on the fireworks display, which will take place at 11 pm.  “If it was at a normal time when normal people go to bed, like 9 pm, it would be fine,” said Werner. “But since it’s at 11 pm, I thought it would be important to run it by you guys.” 
A similar request was entertained for Minus Zero. Chair Josh Cohen said that although the board received a couple of complaints about the Minus Zero festival, it was his understanding that the concerns were about the music during the day, not the fireworks at the end of the day. “Maybe the music was so loud it numbed everyone so they couldn’t hear the fireworks,” said Cohen.
Werner said he may request that the festival hire firefighters and a fire truck for the fireworks since dry summer conditions can pose a threat. “When they do fireworks up there in the winter it’s over snow,” said Werner. “If it is a particularly damp day, I’ll be much less concerned.” 
Dolan said the festival’s VIP BBQ tickets, which for $150 a ticket grant access to a barbecue with the bands who will be performing, are sold out. In his discussion with the board, Dolan said 500 of the festival’s regular VIP tickets, which grant access to special viewing areas, a VIP area with hammocks, and upgraded food and bathroom options, had been sold. But by Wednesday morning, the ticketing website for the festival said those too were sold out.
General admission tickets, which are $55, can be purchased online. 
“We’re very excited, and the social media buzz is insane about it,” said Dolan. “I think we will have a really busy day here.”