The ninth annual Northwest String Summit festival featuring three days of music and camping returns to Horning's Hideout near Portland, Ore. from Friday, July 16 through Sunday, July 18, 2010. Considered the Pacific Northwest’s premier boutique music festival, the Northwest String Summit provides three days of mostly acoustic music and camping in a family-fun atmosphere nestled in one of the most gorgeous festival sites on the west coast, Horning's Hideout, a beautiful forested site located just 20 minutes from Portland in North Plains, Ore. at the edge of Horning Reservoir.

Featured artists include Yonder Mountain String Band for three days, Rhythm Devils with Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart of The Grateful Dead, and moe. with a special 20th anniversary acoustic/electric set. The live music schedule also features Danny Barnes and Friends; The Infamous Stringdusters; Republic of Strings with Darol Anger; Crooked Still; Great American Taxi with Vince Herman of Leftover Salmon; 2010 Band Contest and many others.

A kid’s tent will provide activities for young folks, including arts and crafts, use of Horning’s Hideout playground equipment, volunteer chaperones and a kid’s parade featuring giant hand-crafted puppets.

All ages advance 3-day passes are available now at all Ticketswest outlets and online for $145 if purchased through July 15; and $155 if purchased day of show. Ticket price includes three days of music and camping. Children ages 10 and under are admitted free with a paying adult. Two-day passes for Saturday and Sunday only are available for $100 and includes two days of music and camping.

The gates will open to the public beginning at 12 p.m. on Friday, July 16, 2010. Gates will close Monday, July 19, 2010 at 12 p.m. The camping areas will be separate from the parking areas. Early arrival camping is available Thursday night for additional fee. RV parking is sold out.

For more information about the Northwest String Summit, please visit www.stringsummit.com | For more information about Horning's Hideout, please visit www.horningshideout.com.

Last year after Horning's Hideout was closed to all but one concert a year, and the NWWR moved to a new setting on a large farm 5 miles from Woodburn, OR. Not too far from Eugene or Portland, the NWWR had all the potential of being a great small festival. Big name acts like Anthony B., KRS-ONE, Barrington Levy, Junior Reid, as well as local favorites Luminous Fog, and Bay area favorites Luna Angel and Wisdom.

A gentle not-too-steep slope made for a user friendly amphitheater (I can't stand steep hills). This was an extremely hot weekend - 100+. Just existing was lots of work - definitely not the time for medicinal brownies. I attended Saturday. Once the sun went down, I watched Luminous Fog play a short set. Then Anthony B. got the place rocking. Mika Holtzinger, performance painter, was on stage creating beautiful artwork to go along with the music. Wisdom had a long set until about 12:30AM. Then, it was time for KRS-ONE. But Johnny the Po-Po showed up in the bubblegum and shut down the music.

And now for the part II:

OK, I've never been to a festival where the main stage had a headliner come on at 1AM. Evidently the sheriff had been there the night before with noise complaints - I can't see why you'd do it. Even the rave kids I know go around to all the neighbors and give everyone 50 or 100 bucks, tell neighbors you will be having a party and making noise and to go have a good night out - it's an old trick but a good one.

Fortunately KRS-ONE agreed to stay till Sunday to play a set rather than being like f-u pay me. Pretty righteous and way above the call of duty.

Speaking of duty (or doody) the port-a-pots were pretty out of hand by Sat - needed service badly - with toilet paper strewn all over in front of them. Also, there was apparently not enough trash pickup as cans and bags were in big piles overflowing. Infrastructure is not a just a picture of a festival - at a camping event this stuff is critical to health and safety.

Also, Oregon Liquor Control is a big drag. I would far rather see a festival not try to sell 14oz cups of beer for 4 bucks and not searching vehicles looking for beer. Putting that much focus on alcohol, particularly at a reggae event seems very out of place and very much not worth the effort. In short, good music and stage - if you don't want to end up as Hornings Part II, you need better planning for noise management, more infrastructure support and no beer tent!