High & Dry fest returns to Bend

When High & Dry Bluegrass co-founder John Hancock died at age 67 from bone marrow cancer in February, there was never any question as to whether the festival would continue.

“No doubt whatsoever,” Nancy Hancock, his wife, said last week at Runway Ranch. The annual festival begins today at the 40-acre spread on Nelson Road just east of Bend Municipal Airport.

Nancy and two of the festival’s volunteers, Verda Hinkle and Becky Brown, reminisced last week about John and the festival he loved. His spirit was as much in the air as the light aircraft buzzing overhead.

Hosting a festival is why they bought the ranch in the first place, Nancy said.

“John always loved bluegrass music,” she said. Originally from the East Coast, the two were married 47 years. They raised two children, a son and daughter.

They moved to Portland in 1972, and to Bend in ’85, where John ran Tired Iron Auto Wrecking before retiring.

“When John and I saw this property, we said, ‘What a great place to have a bluegrass festival,’” she said. “From there, it was born. The bluegrass festival lived here before we did. We had the festival here the year before we actually moved in.”

That was 2007, when it was 10 bands for 10 bucks. The price is still more than reasonable: $15 for an entire weekend of live music, workshops and jams.

“John grew up in a large family, and he always knew how tough it was to go to events if you had a lot of kids. Part of our philosophy as a board was (to) keep it inexpensive so families can come,” Hancock said.

At 1:20 p.m. today, 10 minutes before the Bitterbrush Band takes the stage, the first of two planned tributes to John will be held. The festival continues through Sunday.

To accommodate the festival, the Hancocks and volunteers cleared rocky fields and put down the lush green lawn that festival patrons enjoy. The nearby deck partly serves as a stage, and the living room of the old house that was on the ranch is now a gazebo and serves as a greenroom for acts when they’re not on stage.

“John (loved) to cook,” Hancock said, and started a festival tradition in the gazebo: Sing for your breakfast.

“On Sunday morning, he was there at the stove, and if you wanted breakfast, you had to sing for it,” Hancock said.

“You had to stand on this little stage here and sing a song. People would make up songs and all kinds of stuff,” Hinkle said.

“We had some people that were members of bands, but when they had to get up there and sing by themselves, they were so nervous. It was so fun to see that,” Hancock said.

“It seemed to me that when he first saw this place, his journey was to build a place that could be shared with the music community, where there would always be people coming here to play music,” Brown said.

The breakfast tradition will also continue. One of John’s surviving brothers will work the stove.

The festival has a good relationship with its neighbors, Hancock said. Some of them attend the festival, and the nearby airport even changes flight plans during the weekend so planes won’t fly over during band’s sets. Some 80 volunteers working in shifts help keep things running smoothly for the nearly 500 visitors that come to the ranch.

The tributes to John will be brief, Hancock said, and will address “the essence of the vision that he had; how it’s just going to keep going,” she said.

The Hancocks played together in Runway Ranch, the band — John on guitar and Nancy on bass.

Like the festival and the breakfast tradition, the band will continue on in slightly different form, with the Hancocks’ daughter, Jennifer, playing fiddle. They play Sunday at 1:30 p.m.

“I think the essence of what I want … to say is how generous John was,” Hancock said. “He lived a jam-packed life.”

“He just had a great sense of community and music. He would drop anything he was doing just to go pick with somebody. That was just who he was. He was just like, ‘Yeah, come on over!’” she said.

The music community that John so ardently supported has lately held her up, Hancock said.

“It’s been the music community that’s kept me standing,” she said.

— Reporter: 541-383-0349, djasper@bendbulletin.com