After at least a dozen unreturned calls and emails over the course of a month it looks like Yonder Field may be no more.
The Bowman, S.C. outdoor event site launched last year promising to deliver A-list artists and show at the 30,000-capacity space. The venue got off to a rocky start, however, after two canceled festivals this summer. First the Bowman Bound Memorial Day weekend event got nixed followed by the Agrisonic Festival scheduled for Oct. 21.
In a statement regarding the cancellation, Yonder Field president and general manager Stacie Darr White said:
“As with any first year venue, we have had our share of challenges and today is no different. We worked hard to build out two major festivals in October to bring great music and experiences to South Carolina. Unfortunately, the festival we had last weekend took substantial losses due to low attendance. Because of this, it has impacted our ability to proceed with this weekend’s Agrisonic Festival. We have worked tirelessly the past few days to try to move forward given our current situation. It is with a very heavy heart that we have to cancel the Agrisonic Festival this weekend.”
The weekend before the Agrisonic Festival, the site faced pushback from area residents who complained about the noise to the Orangeburg County Council according to the T&D.
Yonder Field came up again in Orangeburg County Council this past December about the handling of the launch of the venue, with some council members saying it could have been handled better.
“I think the concept was good,” Councilman Harry Wimberly said, according to T&D. “It would’ve worked a lot better had they initially contacted Orangeburg County.”
Chairman Johnnie Wright added that “because of public perception, the public should’ve been more in tune with it before it got to the level of all the controversial situations that we went through.”
White responded by saying that the venue would “continue to be a functioning and viable resource for South Carolina and within the live music industry.”
Today, however, the venue’s social media, Facebook, and website are all defunct. Calls to White have not been returned. Nor have those made to Robert Darr, the executive president and director of operations for Yonder Field’s parent company Toes in the Grass ProductionsLLC, although his LLC did show up on the list of applicants for South Carolina’s new Industrial Hemp Pilot Program, which CP obtained through a FOIA request.
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