Equifunk: The Birth of an Anti-Festival

[All remaining photos by Dino Perrucci]

Equifunk is a weekend built brick for brick on top of funk, a genre steeped in rhythm sections stronger than galvanized steel. Now what could be more dependable than that? Equifunk boasts sets from funk/jazz-fusion icon Karl Denson as well as a one-off supergroup performance featuring members of Lettuce, The Greyboy Allstars and The New Mastersounds. The absolute highlight will almost definitely be The New Deal, playing what is listed as the band’s last East Coast show ever. As anyone who has seen The New Deal mature over the years can tell you, this will truly be something to witness, let alone to witness 10 feet from the stage. The lineup goes on from there but never strays too far from funk.

Funk music has been the soundtrack of a good party since the late ’60s and that’s exactly what Equifunk is: a party. Two days full of bands by the pool, libations that follow you around on golf carts, amazing views, plenty of activities, intimate night time sets from legendary talents and a comfortable place to sleep when it’s all over. It’s a weekend built for music lovers, by music lovers with pure intentions. In fact, due to the block scheduling, there is no reason to miss a note of any performer’s set. Equifunk is miles away from the litany of summer festivals springing up like whack-a-moles, and this is the year it will become etched in stone as an annual retreat for funk fanatics within earshot. The timing is right, the bands are huge, the demand is present and the location is perfect.

Camp Equinunk sits on a 75-acre lake, and yes, it is exactly like Salute Your Shorts, Meatballs, Heavyweights and every other all-American camp farce you own on VHS. It’s a place where people grow up. Every summer, friendships are forged, bugjuice is consumed by the barrel and boobs are clumsily pawed. As Equifunk organizers, Brett Weinberg and Eric Welles, recalled their camp days to us, it became clear that Equinunk is unique because it breeds music lovers, generation after generation.

Every June, campers come with an open ear, and in August they leave with a degree in another era of rock history. Between the standard canoe outings and popsicle stick crafts, the Equinunk camp-goers are being schooled by their counselors on the “woman tone” of Clapton’s guitar, the social conscience of Springsteen and the intricate compositions of Yes. When Jerry Garcia died in the summer of 1995, Brett remembers camp shutting down for the day. People retired to their bunks and Workingman’s Dead was played over the loudspeaker. Phish was always a camp favorite as well. Welles recalls stuffing laundry happily into a bag as his counselor led a chorus of “Bag it! Tag it! Sell it to the butcher in the store…” This is clearly no ordinary camp experience, and as a result, Equifunk is unlike any festival.

It’s no accident that from this summer community came an equally organic catalyst to begin an annual getaway centered around music. In 2007, Eric Kamen, the creator of Equifunk and son of the Camp Equinunk family, decided to use the camp grounds to celebrate a friend’s bachelor party. Through various music industry contacts, he was able to book Zen Tricksters to play in the field and the party began. At one point, Kamen looked around at all his friends gathered there, and realized that he had to create something bigger with the opportunity he had. Since then, it has become a yearly tradition.

Even with big names, such as The Radiators, New Mastersounds, George Porter Jr. and Anders Osborne, the scene at Equifunk remains a personable one. Many of the bands on the bill are there thanks to relationships with the camp organizers themselves. In fact, one band, the Frank Stalloners, worked as security at Equifunk Express – a Phish afterparty this year – and then played a five-hour set that lasted until sunrise. Musicians working security at their own concerts – that’s an idea we can get on-board with. Maybe the ’60s wouldn’t have ended so abruptly if The Rolling Stones had donned billy clubs at Altamont.

It’s true, hiring a smattering of buzz bands to play muddy fields, while charging $9.00 for Aquafinas, is the world’s fastest growing business model, but that doesn’t mean that Equifunk is losing its organic vibe. In fact, capping the number of ticket sales within the hundreds is not due to a space issue, rather, it’s to avoid the overcrowding of the festival gold rush. “It’s a small pond, you’ll know where you’re going,” organizer Zach Sklaver told us.

There will be an opportunity to talk to the organizers, to party with them like old buddies, and perhaps best of all, to eat your meals with the bands you came to see.  In essence, the point of this weekend is to engage with your fellow concertgoers and surround yourself with the energy of live music. And that’s where organizers aim to keep it – in that sweet spot between being large enough to break even fiscally, and being so big that the scene they’ve created is ruined.

“People who called me a ‘weirdo camp kid’ and came to Equifunk are now believers,” Weinberg told us when we asked if outsiders to Camp Equinunk will feel out of place. Equifunk is simply a group of folks who love a certain corner of the earth, and want to share it with like-minded people for a weekend every year. The sense of community is strong for that one weekend – so strong, in fact, that you might find yourself in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania every August until you’re eating scrambled eggs with Bootsy Collins and playing Marco Polo with Maceo Parker.