Old Settler’s festival may face new rival

Conflict arises between Old Settler’s festival and new Driftwood fest.

News last month that the long-running Old Settler’s Music Festival would move from Driftwood to the Lockhart area in 2018 got a new wrinkle on Tuesday when a website appeared showing a new festival is in the works at the former Old Settler’s location.

The Driftwood Music Festival website indicated a plan to use the same Salt Lick Pavilion and Camp Ben McCulloch property where Old Settler’s was held for the past 16 years. The dates listed were for the same 2018 window of April 19-22 as the first Old Settler’s event set to be held in Dale just outside Lockhart.

In early August, Salt Lick Pavilion owner Scott Roberts informed Old Settler’s staff that the prop- erty wouldn’t host the 2018 Old Settler’s festival. Old Settler’s then accelerated its plans to move to the Dale site for 2018, ahead of its original 2019 plan.

Old Settler’s festival director Jean Spivey said Tuesday that when the announcement of the move to the new site was made Aug. 10, she wasn’t aware the Salt Lick Pavilion had plans for another festival. Spivey said she learned of it shortly thereafter from volunteers who’d been contacted by the new festival. She said she also began to hear from artists’ agents that another festival might be in the works. conservatives in ty-based district that favorite to replace state Sen. Van Taylor, a Plano Republican who will run for Congress.

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