The sixth annual Music on the Mountaintop has been postponed until 2014, according to a statement made on the event’s Facebook page.
MOTM is “the premiere music festival in Boone, North Carolina, and is one of the nation’s first Green Festivals,” according to the music and art festival’s Facebook page.
Part of the delay is due, in part, to “tireless efforts to exhaust every resource” and that it is “best to step away for one year and gain perspective and insight,” according to a statement on the festival’s Facebook page.
“The last five years have been nothing short of a spectacular dream,” according to the statement. “We’ve learned more than ever imaginable. We set out to bring the best quality of music to Boone, create an event the local community could be proud of and help non-profits along the way.”
The Boone-based band Naked Gods performed at the festival in previous years and was included in the lineup for the festival in 2013.
“To be honest, our involvement with MOTM this past year was not a great experience,” according to a statement from the band. “MOTM’s level of disorganization, the inexplicably higher ticket prices to see less bands and the disregard for local, diverse and interesting music was alarming.”
The cause of the band’s frustration was a bad check they received for their performance and the four months it took to correct it.
“We had a good time at previous MOTM’s and were always kept in the know about money, but this year things seemed a bit more unhinged and we were left feeling confused and wronged,” the statement said.
The statement said like many other college towns, people of Boone are excited about new music and it would be nice to have a festival “more centered around interesting music, cheaper tickets and an overall better understanding of what people want from a festival experience.”
Senior health promotion major Emily Williams said that she is upset that the festival won’t be back for her senior year and her experience with the festival last summer was one of the best she had in 2012.
“It has been a tradition that we have all come to love and cherish and look forward to at the end of the summer,” Williams said. “Nothing compares to the crowds at the end of the night, the pickin’ stage after hours, camping, the vendors and the festival food.”
Williams said she hopes when the festival returns it will be as memorable as it has been in years past.
Story: STEPHANIE SANSOUCY, Senior News Reporter