Behind the Scenes of Dark Star Jubilee, All Good Now & 4848 Festival

In episode 34 of Music Festivals Podcast, we go behind the scenes with Tim Walther and Janice Hurley of All Good Presents to to explore the Trifesta — a trio of legendary music festivals. Plus, you'll have a chance to enter to win tickets to all three events this summer valued at over $1500.

I sat down with two absolute legends in the live music and festival scene — Tim Walther, founder of All Good Presents, and Janice Hurley, who is the VIP Coordinator for the All Good Presents Trifesta — three back-to-back unique summer  festivals that include Dark Star Jubilee, 4848 Festival, and the reimagined All Good Now.

If you’ve ever been to one of these, you’ve already felt the vibe — community, kindness, and celebration. That’s not by accident. Tim’s been building this culture for decades, starting out by working doors at God Street Wine shows and literally handing out 2 million flyers in the 1990s. No joke. He even maxed out 14 credit cards to keep his dream alive in the early days. When you hear the conversation, you'll understand the passion that these two have for their events. 

If you’ve ever wondered what it really takes to build a festival brand that people trust and love year after year, this episode is full of gems. And if you’re already a fan of these events, you’ll love the behind-the-scenes stories from Tim and Janice — including a few about tattoo-worthy posters, all-night flyering missions, and the moments that make it all worth it.

Watch the episode on YouTube for some great visuals that will show you the scene at each festival, or just listen in on our conversation on Spotify or Apple Music.  This story is really cool...

Enter to Win the Trifesta Ticket Package

I’m teaming up with All Good Presents to give YOU 🫵 the chance to experience all 3 of these unforgettable gatherings in one summer — a ticket package worth $1500!

You have until midnight on Friday, April 25th to enter the drawing. Each neighbor who enters can earn extra entries by liking, following and subscribing to all the social media accounts listed below. The winner will be randomly selected and announced during the podcast episode on Friday, May 2nd, 2025.

• Dark Star Jubilee — May 23-25, 2025
  Legend Valley, Thornville, OH
  
• All Good Now — June 14-15, 2025
  Merriweather Post Pavilion , Columbia, MD
  
• 4848 Festival — July 17-19, 2025
  Snowshoe Mountain Resort , Snowshoe, WV

Don't miss out—enter now for your chance to win this amazing All Good Presents Trifesta ticket package!  While you are there, you can also enter to win ticket packages to great festivals like the Sunshine Get Down, Hookahville 60, CaveJam 2025, and the 2025 Inkcarceration Music & Tattoo Festival!

Good luck, Neighbors! 😎

Coming Next Week: So Many Stories to Tell — Hookahville Memories with Ed McGee 

Next week on the Music Festivals Podcast, I am so excited to welcome my friend Ed McGee back to the show. 

As our first installment in a series of episodes that will lead up to Hookahville 60, Ed and I are going to dig into his history with the band and a ton of stories from his experiences with this long-standing Ohio-grown music festival.  If you haven't watched my first interview with Ed leading up to last year's Lazy Jam Music Festival in Hartsville, IN, make sure to check that out this week.

Ed joined Hookah in 1996 after playing in a Grateful Dead cover band called Local Color, which mostly performed in and around central Ohio. He described joining Hookah as a major leap in his musical career, likening it to asking for car keys and being handed a keys to a space shuttle.

As a songwriter, Ed contributed significantly to Hookah’s catalog. He described the band as giving his songs a kind of powerful musical life that elevated them to a “stratospheric” level, and performed at Hookahville multiple times during the early 2000s — notably in Spring 2001 alongside major acts like Willie Nelson and Dr. John. His time with the band sunsetted in 2006, but in recent years, he's returned to multiple Hookahville's to play with the band as part of what has become know among Hookaheads as the "Hookah 2.0" era.  Ed is also an incredibly kind and thoughtful guy and I am so excited to get to talk with him and dig into stories of Hookavilles past.

At Hookahville 60, neighbors will have the chance to see performances from all eras of the band, as well as a solo set from Ed, and performances from Zoo Trippin', The Whiskey Drinks, KrisB's Midnight Railroad, Apostle Jones and The Groovy Roots.

Photocredit: @neighborN8 - Music Festivals Podcast Ep.34

Win 2025 Festival Passes for You and a Neighbor

If you found this website for the first time on a Google Search, I’d love to have you join The Neighborhood. That's our official email newsletter

Neighborhood subscribes get exclusive content that's not published on the website or channels as well as chances to enter drawings for ticket giveaways to festivals all over the U.S. Subscribers also get access to discount codes and deals from our growing list of supporting partners.  

Make sure to visit the homepage and sign up to Join the Neighborhood with your email address. You'll get no more than one email each week as we roll into the spring and summer festival seasons. See you on the inside. 👋

Festival Performance of the Week 

This weeks festival performance of the week is another personal one.

I'm so excited for the upcoming Hookahville 60 — that festival will always be my favorite music festival because of all the friends I have made over the last 20 years who are part of the Ekoostik Hookah family and in the Hookaheads Group on Facebook.  If you're curious about the band, this is the best place you can start your journey. It's full of kind people who love the band and the music we share together.

So when I had the chance to join JSGLive owner, Jim Garabaldi (JSGLive), his right hand man Matt "Cat" Ertle and hookah maestro Dave Katz on a visit to Hookahville's new home for 2025 this past week, I was more than stoked.  What I didn't know was that there would be one hell of a cool story about the venue.

Roost on the River Music Centre, located in Newark, Ohio, has been around since 2018. Owners Sheri Mertz and Devon White have a passion for local bands, so much so that they decided purchase an old stage from the folks at the historic Legend Valley Concert Venue, and tap into their network of friends to work out sound and lighting.  The bands followed and today Roost is on the map as one of the most interesting and intamenint up and coming camping festival venues  in Ohio.  

Like a good majority of my fellow Hookaheads, I had no idea what to expect, so I was delighted when Jim, Cat and Devon allowed me to fly the venue and put together this aerial overview to one of my favorite Ekoostik Hookah songs that stands as the official anthem for this iconic music festival that has run consistently for 30 years.