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Performer Heather Morgan

Taylor's 2003 bash was to some a turning point in the Texas Music festival scene. Fans heckled bands and threw beer bottles on stage and at one another. Overwhelmed Erath County sheriff's deputies called on police officers from surrounding cities to help monitor the event, and more than 70 arrests were made, although most occurred during vehicle stops on roads leading to and from the event, for offenses like drunk driving, narcotics, and minors in possession of alcohol.

Inside the festival a handful of police officers were trying to monitor the mass of revelers. "It went over amazingly well for the amount of people there over a four-day period and the amount of uniformed officers we had at the time working security," said Erath County Sheriff Tommy Bryant. "We're going to probably have to double the amount of police officers working the next concert. Nothing major happened; nobody was severely injured or killed, but the thefts and some of the things occurred because there weren't enough uniformed officers being seen."

There were drunken fights, including a knife fight in which a guy's ear was partially lopped off after he confronted someone stealing his ice chest. Paramedics slapped a bandage on the guy's ear, but he refused further treatment -- he wanted to stay and party.

Patrons fond of sitting around campfires and playing guitar were battered by the dust and clamor of pickups filled with people cruising around unpaved ranch roads playing their stereos at full tilt. A ban on night-time cruising will take effect next year. "There will be absolutely none of that next time," Bryant said. "We had some who fell out of the moving trucks, and it's not safe for people in the campgrounds wanting to mix and mingle and walk around. We're also going to try to stop people from bringing in beer bottles."

Some of Taylor's early devotees are now looking at Alverson's as the favored festival. Taylor and Alverson are friends and don't consider themselves competitors, but their different approaches have some patrons choosing one or the other. After a couple of soggy and under-attended years in Hico, Alverson moved his festival in 2002 to Tres Rios. Many people retain fond memories of Taylor's mid-1990s festivals in the same campground, with its 5,000-person limit. Tres Rios, as the name implies, is a beautiful spot where three rivers converge. The site is small enough to accommodate campfire strolling and a warm intimacy, while the rolling hills, river sounds, and mild fall weather make for blissful tent living. "This was always my favorite place to go for Larry Joe's deal," Alverson said. "Down on the river is so awesome."

This year's success indicated that his future festivals will soon start reaching the 5,000-person limit, but Alverson isn't worried about outgrowing the layout. He doesn't plan on leaving, doesn't want to get much bigger, and said he can control the event's size and attitude by the acts he puts onstage and the amount he charges at the gate. Of the 35 acts at this year's event, only a couple were known for their intense following of college students, a faction that is now regularly dissed by older patrons.

"Cooder Graw, Cross Canadian Ragweed, and Jason Boland draw these college girls, and they bring their big shaved-headed, bull-necked college boyfriends," said Jug Reed, 41, of Breckenridge. "They're not there for the music. They're there to see how big their pecker is, and they start to fighting."

Reed is a burly airplane mechanic who once attended biker festivals but was drawn to Texas Music festivals several years ago because of the music and the friendly people. "At biker festivals, you look at somebody for a half second too long and they want to kick ass," he said. "You look at somebody here and they offer you a beer and a bowl of chili."

The loss of intimacy is why he is considering skipping Taylor's 2004 festival or any other large festival in the future. He likes to sit close to the stage and get a good view of the entertainers and then see them later hobnobbing in the crowd or picking around campfires. "I'm still deciding whether to go back to Larry Joe's," he said. "The crowd was so big I couldn't get close enough to see the acts. There were people camped two miles from the stage. And now there's thievery. Last year I had an ice chest stolen out of the back of my pickup."

Almost every person over 40 who was interviewed for this story mentioned Taylor's 2003 bash and lamented that festivals stop being fun when they get that big and unruly. Alverson feels the same way. "It broke my heart at Larry Joe's when the kids were driving around in their trucks yelling instead of listening at the campfires," he said. "When you get that big, you get the undesirables."

Meanwhile, the teen-agers and 20-somethings interviewed for this story raved about Taylor's festival and said they can't wait until next year. Most were unaware or didn't care that they were being roundly criticized for altering the atmosphere. Cody Burris, a 24-year-old college student who attended Alverson's recent festival, said he became hooked after going to Taylor's bash in April. It was his first. "I loved it," he said. "I'll be back, I promise you. The music was absolutely great. You got to meet new people."

He doesn't understand the complaints about kids. Older folks need to chill out or jump off the train, he said. "The people they consider kids are in college," he said. "I don't call them kids. There has to be a sense of respect, but we paid our money just like they did. If they want rules, they should put a big sign up front. If it becomes a problem where they don't want to come watch, that's their choice. These festivals are going to keep growing and growing. Texas Music is the new thing."

He noted that, as he was speaking, a couple of middle-aged guys drove by in a pickup listening to loud music and doing 15 mph on a road marked 5 mph. In a camp behind him, older patrons had tied a dog -- pets are supposedly prohibited -- to a tent pole and wandered off, leaving the critter barking for hours to the annoyance of those around. And one thing is certain -- it's easy to find older folks who are boozing and acting the fool. "There are not only 20-year-old adolescents, there are 30- and 40-year-old adolescents," he said. "If they want respect, maybe they should be role models."

The young crowd enjoys the friendly setting and focuses on the music as much as the older crowd does, he said. Festivals are safer than clubs, since there is no need to drive or risk a DWI. You can see multiple bands for the price of one, minors can pretty much drink without being hassled, and anytime two people meet and are attracted to each other, there is a decent chance of hooking up.

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