We had the absolute pleasure of chatting to Long Road organiser Baylen ahead of this year’s edition of the festival. Check out as we chat about the highs and lows of it below!
We’re just a couple of days out [at the time of recording] from Long Road, are you more excited or nervous?
What’s really exciting about it is when you see everybody who’s coming start posting about it online and start excited about packing and doing a trial run of setting their tent up in their garden. The crew is already on-site now building it so I’ve been getting loads of pictures and videos all week of the stages going up and everything going. It becomes a big machine at this point, it’s like a train you can’t stop! I’m really excited to get there and see it with my eyes!
Have they been there since Monday, then?
There’s been some people on site since last week. Most of the crew have been there since the weekend. I will get down there tomorrow, and not freak out at all. I’ve learned by now that every year I get there and so much is done, I think ‘oh my god, what about that?’ and I’ve learnt that it always comes together. There’s always a lot of running about and mayhem right before the gates open, but then it’s all perfect!
How do you find the time to do all of this alongside your radio work as well?
I don’t do it alone, there’s no way! There’s a big team and we work on it year round. Then as we get closer to the event the teams within the teams start adding people to their teams so it becomes quite a big operation by the time we get here.
I always kinda see it as one thing, doing radio and all the other stuff I do in country music. It almost just feels like it’s one thing. If I’m playing someone on the radio that I really love I’ll think about trying to get them on the festival. Or if I’m seeing someone in a live setting that I’m considering for the festival, I might think they’d sound great for the radio. I kinda get to do all the things I do all at the same time!
What inspired you to start the festival? C2C has been going a while but it feels like you guys were the next ones to do the country thing over here!
I’m originally from Tennessee. I’ve lived in the UK for a really long time, and country music has been my thing for a really long time, so for years I was always wanting to do something like this and had lots of different ideas about it. I met up with somebody else who also wanted to do this. She’s Irish so she grew up going to Irish music festivals and wanted to bring that. So between her and that background and me, we thought what could we do that’s authentic and brings the best of both of those worlds together, but makes it very much a UK festival. So we started it! Our first was in 2018 and it seems crazy that it was that long ago! It’s really nice that we seem to have found out spot within what is a really exciting time for country music.
People have really taken The Long Road under their wing and those who come to it feel a sense of ownership over it as well which is exactly what we want! We want it to feel like home for everyone who’s into country, Americana and Roots. Even people who don’t like country, maybe there’s something in there for them! Then they come along and find some country that they actually love. It really comes from a love of the genre and wanting to bring this authentic country experience to the UK, and to help it grow too!
It’s our fourth year now and just the atmosphere is amazing, it’s really become a favourite of ours. Seeing familiar faces there every year is great!
That’s really something we wanted to bake into it from the beginning, to be a friendly, warm festival where everyone felt welcome! And as we grow to try and retain those things. We’re bigger this year than we’ve ever been, but I hope it still feels like the same festival!
You’ve added the Hitching Post this year, right?
Oh, I’m so excited about the Hitching Post! I named it after a venue from back home when I was growing up. A lot of towns in the South, The Hitching Post is quite a popular name for a honkytonk. This venue back home was a real stop for artists that were touring and coming up so like Darius Rucker and Garth Brooks played it before anyone knew them. I found all this out after I moved away, of course!
The point of the Hitching Post at the Long Road is that it’s a hardwood floor. We really wanted somewhere where people could dance. We’ll have dance classes and the music in there really lends itself to people doing line dances or swing dances. We’ll have people there to teach you how to do that. We’re also using it for sit-down conversations with people like Drake Milligan. It’s just another venue where people can hang out, make their own, meet their friends. I think it’s gonna be a really good vibe! I can’t wait to get there and see it!
I imagine it’s a bit of a logistical nightmare to get so many international bands to play. Do you approach a band and they arrange a tour after, or do you see who’s touring first?
It’s both of those things! Some artists we approach and say “we’d love to have you at The Long Road”. Sometimes we’ll book them and they book a tour around it, sometimes they’ll just come and do it UK exclusive, like Drake Milligan this year. Some will come and do TLR and then go to Europe and do some shows. Some of them will already will be planning to come so will approach us, or will be planning on doing something nearby. Sometimes we’ll talk to people and they’ll go “it’s not going to work this year but let’s talk next year”. It really is just a case of all of those things!
Is it sometimes a struggle to decide what artists to book? There’s been a little backlash online from the James Bay booking.
I think that one of the goals of TLR was to get as many people into country music as we could and to celebrate all types of country, Americana and roots. If you look at our lineups from year one we’ve always had artists sit a little bit outside of those core genres but that aren’t completely different. James Bay is a great example. I know a lot of people don’t think of him as fitting in, but he really does. He’s made music in all of those genres. He’s recorded in Nashville and just made his Grand Ole Opry debut, the absolutely approval stamp for any artist in country music. I think because he’s so big and so well known, it’s actually easy to forget he’s actually in these genres. If it means James Bay fans who don’t count themselves as country fans but find some country artists that they do love, I think that’s a great thing! I actually think a lot of country fans are going to have a really great time watching him!
Also, with a festival like TLR, as big as it is and with as many artists as it has, there’s always going to be artists that you love and those you don’t, or that you haven’t heard of. We have six stages, there’s always something going on somewhere that you’re gonna love! He’s a great get for us and a fantastic live artist! But it goes back to what I said about people feeling ownership of the festival; it’s so much better they have an opinion about it than no opinion at all!
You’ve got a couple of new stage takeovers at Buddy’s this year, right?
Yeah! We have Loose Music which is a UK label that we’ve worked with since the beginning, and then Spinefarm, a really big UK label. The thing about doing that is we want those people to bring their sensibilities to the festival. Colour me Country, we want Rissi to bring artists that maybe we don’t know or artists that wouldn’t be able to come to the UK at this stage in their careers. The same thing with all the other takeovers we have, it’s people I’ve known from the industry for years and years, I’ve always liked their taste and what they do. It’s great to give them the freedom to show their side of country.
Do you have any hand in booking for them, or do you let them get whoever they think will fit?
We work together. We kinda go “hey, here’s your takeover, these are the slots, what are you thinking?”. They come to us with a list, we go to the, with a list, sometimes we have people we can’t fit in elsewhere. It works both ways, but for the most part they’re people we trust, we don’t get in their way too much!
Have you got some stuff in the pipeline for next year already?
Oh, we work so far ahead it’s unbelievable. Even before the lineup is complete each year we’re already having conversations about the next year and even the year after that! Conversations about next year are already happening!
Do you have a dream get for The Long Road? Anyone you’re really wanting to book over the next few years?
Yeah, absolutely. There’s always a dream list. And that list changes every week, at least! But I couldn’t tell you, because we might just get ‘em!
I imagine you’re happy to keep the festival growing, there’s more room on site for it to expand?
Yeah, part of the reason we picked the sight… it just felt right. It reminded me of the geography of back home so it looked really great. It’s easy to get to. And also because there’s room there for there to grow. We’re happy for it to grow but we want to maintain the vibe of the festival, so that’s why we’ve been doing it little by little! We really think about how it’s going to impact everything, how it fits in with what we’re doing already, how it will affect the layout and the capacity. Make sure that it all makes sense for the people who come to the festival!