Update: Apple Jam Music Festival canceled

1.) We were planning on doing the event at our usual “Moon Barn” location for the 10th year. Jackson County has worked with us at this location for previous years and they have our information/previously approved mass gathering permits on file for this venue. Unfortunately, the Moon Barn property had undergone an ownership change and this winter we were informed it would not be available to us. The venue search began; however, we have been working in the community for a long time and we were quickly offered a number of other options.

2.) We approached various landowners and event centers to pursue a larger or more developed event location, such as the Jackson County Expo and and Josephine County Fairgrounds, Evans Valley Community Center in Wimer, and many more. Each had some interesting appeal but the option we went with was a property on Thompson Creek Rd. It was a spot we knew we could develop/lay out effectively for the scope of our event. It was located in Applegate right down the road from the Moon Barn, conveniently still near a store, and easily accessed. We developed the plans necessary to submit to Jackson County in order to move forward with the permitting process and continue our pre-production preparations.

3.) Despite the fact the no one had reached out to us directly to communicate concern, we were made aware that residents on Thompson Creek Rd. had been circulating a petition to stop the county’s approval of Apple Jam. After consulting the community and some of our trusted staff, we realized it would be best course of action to secure a back-up venue and to potentially offer to withdraw our permit application; however, we were now past the deadline of Jackson County’s 60 day window for a new permit review process. At the Jackson County hearing, we went before the county commissioners and explained the situation (and neighbors expressed their input).

4.) Prior to this hearing we had been researching Josephine County mass gathering permit process and we had been offered a property by a community member. According to our research, consult, and communication with County planning department, we only needed outdoor mass gathering permitting in Josephine County if we were going to have above 3000 people at the event, so we established a cap on the festival in our plans. The Mail Tribune published an article immediately after the hearing in Jackson County, the bulk of which was quotations from misinformed neighbors and random folks in attendance of the hearing. They misappropriate the size and scope of Apple Jam, make accusatory statements about the event that simply aren’t true, cite past occurrences that can be directly linked to other events in the area not affiliated with AJMF, and they inform the community of our intention to move to Josephine County. Based on this article and an overwhelming amount of misinformation, various community members begin to attack our event for “trying to jump county lines and hold the event illegally”, which was absolutely not and never will be our intention.

5.) We receive a cordial letter from the county informing us that they had read The Mail Tribune article, and if our event exceeds 3000 people, a public hearing would be necessary. At this point in time we are expecting 2000 persons or less in attendance. We contact the county with our new location and our plans. The county then informs us of an obscure rural land development code that defines the threshold for a mass gathering in Josephine County as a gathering of 100 persons or more in attendance. They inform us that we would be required to obtain a permit after all (contrary to what we were previously led to believe).

6.) We hastily compiled all necessary plans, documents, and insurance (nearly all of which we have already prepared weeks ago for our permit application in Jackson County). To our dismay, we receive an email about a decision at the county level that Josephine County would not be issuing a permit for Apple Jam because they have insufficient time to process the mass gathering permit application.

We intend to regroup in full force next year and we deeply apologize that this is the reality for Apple Jam 2018. We very much recognize that this is not what we have been planning for and promising all year; however, we have exhausted countless hours and we have done everything we could possibly do. Over the course of the last few months, our team has quite literally bled, sweated, cried, not to mention lost plenty of sleep. We are sad to say that bias, close-mindedness, and misinformation seem to have won this time.
We will work with anyone to recompense/amend any financial hardships caused by our cancellation. If you are a vendor, band member, or current ticket holder check your email as we will be reaching out to you individually. All others please email us directly at [email protected] with any questions you have, and we will do our best to address all your concerns.