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Donna the Buffalo

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One of FloydFest's stalwart acts has a pretty good idea how a festival should work.

Donna the Buffalo, playing its sixth FloydFest, has been hosting its own summer shindig since 1991. The band's Finger Lakes Grass Roots Festival of Music and Dance is going on this weekend at Donna the Buffalo's home base, Trumansburg, N.Y.

Judging from acts on the Finger Lakes bill, it looks pretty familiar. FloydFest veterans the Hackensaw Boys and Cyro Baptista and Beat the Donkey were scheduled to hit Trumansburg this year.

Donna the Buffalo member Jeb Puryear said the Finger Lakes festival started as a way to get local bands together for a big party, and it grew from there.

"It just totally came together, through a lot of hard work, of course, and a couple of nervous breakdowns," Puryear said last week. "Some people jump out of planes. Some people decide to put on a festival."

Band members have handed over responsibility for planning and organizing the festival. Puryear laughed to think of all the energy he used to put into it, "and now it's getting to the point where nobody even calls me."

Until four years ago, band members took on every responsibility, he said. Puryear remembered the first year, when no one thought to rent a truck to carry gear around the festival grounds, and band members were lugging stuff around by hand.

"It's kind of the beauty of not knowing what you're getting into," he said. "If people knew what they were getting into, there'd be a lot less stuff gotten into."

By Thursday, the band will be at the FloydFest site, to headline the main stage at 9 p.m.

The band joined the FloydFest lineup during the festival's second year, and has been there every summer since. FloydFest co-founder Erika Johnson said the band and its fans -- who call themselves the Herd -- are a perfect fit.

"Number 1, they're just so for real, and that's why I think they attract the demographics they do," Johnson said. "They have such a powerful positive message, and once you hear that message, you're hooked.

"Also, they're so down-to-earth. They don't have the rock-star thing going on."

Donna the Buffalo is touring to support its just-released record, "Silverlined."

This time around, the band will have to head out for a show the next day, but in the past, the players have stuck around for a couple of days.

"There's been some interesting weather ... I don't mean that in the typical sense, like it rained, but I think there's some very interesting fog," Puryear said. "That particular location is actually interesting geography, and then being on top of a mountain.

"I think every area has a sort of a particular voice, you know what I mean, of the way it feels and everything. I like that about FloydFest. It's got an interesting vibe."

FloydFest organizers take care of the bands and provide a spot where people can connect with the music and one another, he said.

"You're looking for a few moments, very good times at the festival and a few moments that transcend normal, everyday existence. ... And loads of cops," he said, joking.