You just played the Rothbury festival in Michigan. How was it?
Amazing. For a first-year festival, it went off without a hitch. It was like it’s been around for 10 years. Rothbury was clearly focused on environmental awareness. . . . That stood it apart from other festivals. Bonnaroo [has] more of the old-school, Bill Graham carnival feeling to it. Then you’ve got others like the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, which has a flavor all its own — a very spicy flavor. I would think the economic situation would help foster the notion of putting on festivals. You’ve got folks who really want to keep live music as part of our lives, but they can’t afford to be making trips all around the state or all around the country as easily as they could afford it 10 years ago. So here with a single destination . . . boom! You get to descend on an area for three days and get to see a lot of different bands, all kinds of different genres. We were on the same bill [at Rothbury] with Snoop Dogg. Q: Widespread Panic is such a live beast. How do you conjure the
