This Save Was an American Beauty

THE SHOW GOES ON: The Ventura Theater was rocking after Skull & Roses festival went kaput, as an angel stepped in to make the best of a tough situation. (Joshua Hitchens photo)

Makeshift festival makes best of last-minute cancellation

Organizing a music festival in Ventura, California, isn’t easy. Just ask Skull & Roses founder Chris Mitrovich, who abruptly canceled the multi-day, Dead-centered festival’s sixth edition ten days before its April 19-21 run at the Ventura County Fairgrounds and Event Center.

Or ask Laina Cohn, the woman behind the boutique Golden Road Festival, who in short order teamed with the Ventura Theater and managed to salvage a day of music, fun and some commerce after Skull & Roses decomposed.

Cohn organized a makeshift mini-festival to support the local community— the 30-year entertainment industry veteran lives in nearby Ojai, California — the hotel connected to the fest and the vendors who were all impacted by the cancellation.

She booked bands who had all been on the Skull & Roses bill: local act No Simple Highway, regional band The Alligators, Reed Mathis and Rob Barracco (who did a duet),  Grisman Garcia Revisited (now known as Jerry and Dawg Revisited).

“Then, there was a mashup of the three headlining bands was called Saviors, Spirits and Wingmen (consisting of John Kadlecik, Rob Eaton, Jay Lane, Barracco, Mathis and Jake Wolf),” said Cohn, who worked with the city to close down Main Street and allow more than 30 vendors to set up a version of what’s called “Shakedown Street,” a flea market-like arrangement of crafts, foods, merchandise and more, outside the theater.

Cohn also arranged for the theater to allow the audience, who were charged $75-$150 admission, to come and go freely during the day-long event.

She even added a personal touch, purchasing 600 roses from a local vendor to hand out to attendees.

So, while there was no saving what had become a tradition along the SoCal seaside, Cohn stepped up, parlaying her local arts community relationships to create an alternative event.

Relationships and supporting local arts and culture are top of Cohn’s mind.

Cohn grew up in South Bend, Indiana, and studied theater at Beloit College.

She lived in Los Angeles, working in the entertainment business for 30-plus years. Her first Grateful Dead show was in 1987 when she was 15. About 12 years ago, she bought a home in Ojai, a hip Ventura County community of mostly large parcels nestled below the peaks of Los Padres National Forest.

Skull & Rose took place on or near Cohn’s birthday and she would invite 20 or more friends to crash at her place.

“We’d rent an RV and go down (to Ventura),” Cohn said. “It was always a great celebration for me, and I always said, ‘I have a Dead festival in my backyard.”

Cohn had some information regarding the festival’s straits, “but I had no desire whatsoever to save it.”

“That wasn’t in the cards for me,” she said, explaining that Golden Road “takes all my energy and all of my stamina to stay in it.”

At the time, Cohn was prepping for the on-sale and closing contracts with musicians.

“It’s a really busy time for me,” and nothing to do with not wanting to help out,” she said. “It just had to do with, did I have the bandwidth, right? And I went to bed one night, I guess it was the night after they canceled, and I laid in bed and I thought, ‘Wow, my poor Dead community, my Ventura County community. I’m the only person who actually lives here who actually, that I know, is willing to do something.’ The Crown Plaza had an entirely booked hotel, and then they had nothing. What does that do to my community? What does it do to that hotel? What does it do to all the workers there? That’s a massive loss for a hotel like that. So, I started thinking about all the vendors and all the PAs and everybody else. I thought to myself, ‘Well, I know all these (performers). How do I get them to Ventura?'”

How well does she know them? Cohn said Stu Allen has played at her house.

“John Kadlecik has played at my house,” she said. “I had a 50th birthday party here, two days before Skull & Roses, so, everyone came for those two days here at my house, and then we all went down to the fairgrounds together for the five days (of the festival). I knew these guys. I knew their manager, I’m in the business. I’ve been talking to them. Some of them are booked for Golden Road already.  Some of them were there last year. ”

On the broader subject of sustaining festivals like Skull & Roses or Golden Road, subscriptions and early ticket purchases are essential, Cohn says.

Many festivals are canceled at the last minute due to a lack of understanding on the part of fans, she said.

The Golden Road Festival, held last year in Tonto National Forest in Arizona, is scheduled for Nov. 8-10, 2024, at Wonder Valley Ranch Resort in Sanger, California. It aims to bring about 200 like-minded fans together for an all-inclusive experience. Acts include Jason Crosby’s Golden Road Festival All-Stars, with Dead & Co. bassist Oteil Burbridge, guitarists Kadlecik and Quinn Sullivan, singer Lamar Williams Jr., Dave Ellis on sax and John Morgan Kimock on drums.

Packages start at $2,400 to take part in what Cohn describes as a 21-and-over event for Deadhead-types with workshops, bonding activities, gourmet meals and cocktails and, of course, music.

“We have a killer lineup,” said Cohn. “We have lots of special guests who come and do presentations. Last year, we had Betty Cantor Jackson and Rhoney Stanley do a presentation moderated by Gary Lambert and we had Jay Blakesburg do one. We had “Tales from the Golden Road.” They broadcast from there each time. This year, we’ll have the same sort of thing. People get up in the morning and do fun activities and then we join together for some of these presentations, and we have communal meals with our artists. Then, we have music into the night.”