Music festivals should be completely walkable.
That, at least, was the consensus of the Troika Music Festival’s coordinators, and with this year’s iteration the said goal will be achieved. In a change from previous years—which featured farther-flung venues like the Duke Coffeehouse—2010’s Troika will be held entirely in the downtown Durham area, with shows spread throughout Central Park, Motorco Music Hall, Fullsteam Brewery, 618 Foster, The Pinhook, the Trotter Building, West End Wine Bar and Bull McCabe’s Irish Pub. The festival gets going with a free show tonight at 7 p.m. in Central Park and runs through Saturday night.
This intimate model marks a return to the days of the Durham Music Festival, Troika’s first identity, which kicked off in 2002. Since then, Troika has been an annual occurrence, mostly serving to highlight Triangle talent but varying year-to-year in the percentage of national bands versus local acts taking part.
“Always in my mind and in my heart, because of my first experience with this festival, that idea of walking—just hanging out for three days, not really driving—I’ve always kind of pined to go back to that,” Troika Director Melissa Thomas said. “Every year we look [for new spaces], because we always need seven to eight venues every night, if we’re truly going to stick to a 60- to 70-band festival.”
With the openings of Casbah and Motorco on the horizon at the beginning of 2010, Thomas and other organizers kept watch on the situation with the potential of a concentrated festival in mind. But it wasn’t until mid-summer, when the two venues were confirmed, that they could be confident in the feasibility of such a Troika.
At least for Motorco, Troika was on its radar from the very beginning.
“Pretty much once we figured out we were even going to open... we definitely knew that [Troika] would be one of our bigger events each year,” said Chris Tamplin, a co-founder of Motorco. “Since the size of the venue we were planning on doing was something that wasn’t really here [before], to make Troika bigger and better you need bigger and better venues.”
Tamplin is also looking forward to the festival because of the attention and patronage that it’ll bring to Motorco, including people seeking out certain bands and others just wandering the event at large.
Having the venues centrally located means that showgoers aren’t driving between the 20 or so live bands a night. This also likely increases the value of each ticket and the accessibility of each act for those who may not be familiar with some of the programming. Beyond these practical aspects, John Harrison of the Chapel Hill psych-pop group North Elementary—scheduled to play Motorco on Friday—said there’s a certain feel that comes with enjoying a festival all by foot.
“I think it’s ideal, I think that’s what you want to happen: People come, they park wherever they park, and they don’t have to deal with their cars,” Harrison said. “I think there’s an energy to communities and people outside of their vehicles. It’s a real human element, walking around this downtown area.”
One of the first non-Durham bands to play the Durham Music Festival, North Elementary embodies the ethos of Troika. They’re a fitting example of the bands that Thomas “remembers seeing [at the festival] eight years ago, and they’ve just gotten better.” And much to Harrison’s excitement, they’re on the bill with ’80s/’90s-bridging Triangle rockers Dillon Fence.
“They were one of the first bands I ever went to see when I was in high school,” Harrison said. “The impact they had on me as a kid was huge, and it’s one of the reasons why I play music.”
Thomas said this diversity within each line-up is something Troika aims for deliberately.
“There are bills that you’ve seen in the past and you’ll see this year that you might not see on any given weekend in the Triangle,” Thomas said. “We do that because I want some of those bands to have opportunities with bands they might not get to play with, circles that come together that normally wouldn’t. That’s really key—so that’s your super-new talent, and those are your veterans.”
Another distinguishing characteristic of this year’s Troika is its percentage of local talent, high even for the Durham-centric festival. Thomas said there were about 90 percent local and 10 percent national bands—a ratio made possible due to a new maturity she sees in the Triangle scene. And thanks to the Independent Weekly’s hybrid national-local Hopscotch Music Festival—which had its inaugural event this September in Raleigh—Troika can shift its focus even more to the Triangle. In the spirit of collaboration, Troika hosted a day party for Hopscotch, and Hopscotch is presenting a show Saturday night at the Trotter Building
“What I like about [Troika] is it’s almost like a reunion sort of—getting everybody together in this concentrated area, some of your favorite people that you don’t get to hang out with a lot, that you don’t get to see a lot, “ said Maria Albani, whose project Organos is playing the Trotter Building Saturday afternoon. “It’s like a big celebration.”
Troika Music Festival takes place Nov. 4 to 6. 3-day passes are $25, and one-day passes are $10. For more information about the line-up, visit www.troikamusicfestival.org.
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