Editor’s note: This interview was first published in Path Finders, an e-newsletter of the Daily Yonder. Each week, Path Finders offers a Q&A consultation with a rural thinker, author or actor. Like what you see here? You can subscribe to the mailing list at the back of this article and get more conversations like this in your inbox every week.
Shane Wade is the manager and co-owner of the Shawnee Cave Amphitheater in Murphysboro, Illinois. A music called Weekend at the Cave begins there in June.
Enjoy our verbal exchange about the magic of bluegrass, the price of intimacy at a festival, and rebuilding the reputation of a local venue, below.
Olivia Weeks, The Daily Yonder: OK, I need to start with the basics. What is your relationship with the community where the festival takes place?
Shane Wade: I grew up there. I grew up in southern Illinois and live in Marion now. I attended Carterville High School and grew up in Herrin. In fact, the cave itself has had many other faces over the years and when I was in college, it was opened to the public to make a stop. through the pedal boat. So it’s probably my first treat with the cave.
DY: Can you describe the cave itself in detail?
SW: The cave has evidently existed for millions of years. It is said that Native Americans used it as a refuge for thousands of years. It was originally called Saltpeter Cave. There are theories that it was used to extract saltpeter, which was used to make black powder in the Civil War. And then, in the 1960s, a guy from Murphysboro actually created a concert corridor there. Throughout the 60s, 70s and 80s, massive bands played there. She was 15
And then, in the 2000s, it became an underground EDM scene that, to be fair to you, got out of hand with some of the parties that schoolchildren did. In 2008 or 2009, it probably closed. My husband acquired it in 2012 or 2013 and then we let it sit for a while, letting the smoke of some of the things that happened there in the end be transparent. The village leaders had a bad taste in their mouths because of that. And when covid came, it was one of the best storms. We’ve been talking for a long time about doing something there, and then the pandemic, we fully accelerated in construction. We have invested a lot of time and money in infrastructure, and they have created a really wonderful area for other people to come and enjoy other music festivals.
DY: What did that include? If other people haven’t been there, it’s the whole nature surrounding the property. So what kind of paint needs to be done to make it operational?
SW: So, it’s on 70 acres adjacent to the Shawnee National Forest. The domain of the scene is a rocky grass cliff, which has a grass overhang. or closed domain, it is more of a rocky grass-based cliff. What we did was the drainage formula because it had been sitting with runoff water for so long and it was actually shabby. We put a lot of substructure under the floor to evacuate water from the site domain. We pour a lot of concrete just so the excursion trailers can move. And we have done many more paintings in the domain in 2020. But the total domain is surrounded by the national forest. It is in the middle of nature. You can see many hikes, trails and lakes. If you’ve ever been to Shawnee Forest, we’re less than a mile from Natural Bridge.
DY: What has been the dating between these assets and the city of Murphysboro over the years?You argued that when you were a kid, you would go pedal boats and everything. But I’m curious to know if this has been a big part of public life at other times.
SW: You know, I think so. During my time there, many other people stopped me to say, “I was married here” or “My husband proposed to me and here” or “I came here when I was in the best school. “the locals, not only in Murphysboro but also in Carbondale. And I have many other people from Chicago, California, Colorado and other parts of the country who went to Southern Illinois University (SIU) and while they were at SIU, they had attended occasions here. Therefore, it has been a kind of collection place.
DY: Outside of the business perspective, what is your purpose for the position in the long run, in terms of what you hope to offer the community?
SW: Our purpose is to have a destination domain in southern Illinois, anything that’s not just for the local community, but also for other people in other markets so they can come and they can feel the nature, they can feel the environment of a music festival. in an intimate setting. We’re not going to be like Bonnaroo or Electric Forest or some of those bigger events where you have 15 or 20,000 other people and, for lack of a better phrase, it’s like herding cattle. There’s no Privacity. You know, my events are less than 3 thousand people. There might be a day when it goes to five thousand and, in fairness to you, I like it to go to 3. I just don’t need the upheavals that come with more than that. And I think our visitor at 3 is worth enjoying. There is no bad position in the house. It’s just a much bigger delight. During the day, participants can hike trails, head over to Cedar Lake, which is two miles away, and paddle board or canoe. Whatever their tastes, they can get out and enjoy the great outdoors. And I saw that other people were looking at what this domain had to offer. During Covid I was looking on Airbnb every single weekend just to see what was going on and every single weekend the full domain there had just been booked. And you’ve seen a lot of locals come to enjoy it, but there’s also a lot of other people from Chicapass, Nashville, St. Louis who come to get away from the city, get away from the noise, and hang out where their phones don’t work. Peace and tranquility.
DY: A few summers ago, I worked at a bait shop and bar that my circle of family owns near Lake Egypt and it was a pleasure to meet other people from Chicago who came to southern Illinois as tourists. Although I completely understood why they were looking after being here in the lakes and forests in the summer, I was upside down.
SW: yes, I mean, they can come here and they can disconnect. I don’t know if you’ve ever been to a music festival. But you know, there’s a network feel to our events. We have many other people who need to volunteer and be a part of it. And many of those other people are not from southern Illinois. We have ticket buyers from 30 states, across the country, from California to Maine.
DY: Can you tell me a little bit more about the music?What kind of niche are you targeting?
SW: It’s kind of a hippie crowd, lots of jam bands. There’s a little bit of electronica but not too much, and then we had Greensky Bluegrass headlining. We have this jam band called Twiddle in their last year of touring. We have a local guy across the road called Jeremy Todd from Benton who is just terrific. I saw him in a vineyard and I thought, “You know what, this guy is going to have to be on the big stage. ” Therefore, he will open the screen on Saturday. And then we have the Steeldrivers, which many other people know as Chris Stapleton’s band when he started, before he went solo. And then we have Sam Bush, who is a bluegrass legend. We had it on the first occasion and other people enjoyed it. He brings a bunch of old bluegrass fans. And then, to wrap up our showcase, there’s a band called Elephant Revival. They sold Red Rocks, like, 8 years ago, and haven’t hiked since. They played a few small shows last year, sold out the Mission Ballroom in Colorado in February, and now they’re back on tour. We are going to be his first time in the Midwest. And then we’re going to have a lot of local acts on our daylight hour scene.
DY: Is that the kind of music you like?How did you know what kinds of acts were appropriate?
SW: I didn’t know anything about it until the summer of 2020. The first year we did this, I was figuring everything out and somebody said, “You’re going to have Billy Strings here,” so I heard Billy Strings and I was like, “Wow, I have to bring Billy Strings here. “That’s when I became interested in the genre. I’m probably more of a country guy at heart. I like to move on to a concert that almost feels like a rock concert. screen. You know, fast pace, top speed, max energy. It’s not that, but it captivates the audience. I went to the Greensky exhibition in January at The Pageant, it was so relaxed that my son got bored because he just didn’t understand. But when I step into an exhibition, I look a lot more than the other people on stage.
I look from a business attitude and those bluegrass jam bands have a lot of fan engagement. And they actually attract a smart crowd. I mean, there’s always an exception, but I’ll never be my first event. We rented a lot for off-site parking to a large local circle of relatives and as of Monday morning I still hadn’t been on site because I was very busy. I was afraid to go all morning because I knew it was going to be full of garbage. We had a few thousand other people there over the weekend. So I knew it was a mess. But I made it and I swear there wasn’t a single waste.
This interview first appeared in Path Finders, a weekly newsletter of the Daily Yonder. Every Monday, Path Finders provides a Q&A consultation with a rural thinker, author, or actor. Join the mailing list today to receive those insightful conversations straight to your inbox.
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