Josh Meltzer | The Roanoke Times

Alina Ever, and Erin Hill, (left to right) from Floyd, dance to the sounds of Kusun Ensemble at the start of the first Floyd World Music Festival in 2002.

Josh Meltzer | The Roanoke Times

Festivalgoers dance to the tunes of the Celtic and African band Baka Beyond at the first FloydFest in 2002.

Josh Meltzer | The Roanoke Times

A cool breeze keeps a large crowd cool at the 5th annual Floydfest.

Josh Meltzer | The Roanoke Times

Paul Tescher from Athens, Ohio, wakes up from an afternoon nap at the 5th annual Floydfest.

FloydFest Lineup

FloydFest Facts

If you go

• FloydFest 6
• Milepost 170.5, Blue Ridge Parkway, Floyd
• Thursday through Sunday
• Tickets are $33-$54 for single days, $123-$133 for weekend passes. Children’s tickets $6.50-$13.
• (540) 745-3378; Floydfest.com.

FloydFest was born and nearly died on Sept. 27, 2002.

That was the day Kris Hodges and Erika Johnson collapsed into each other’s arms, sobbing. They fell to the floor of the tiny bathroom in back of the cramped mobile home that served as FloydFest headquarters. Gale-force winds and sheets of rain battered the trailer like it was a lost fishing boat caught in a storm.

It sounded as if everything they had worked for was crashing down around them. The couple had spent a year planning FloydFest, then called the Floyd World Music Festival, named after the town of Floyd, which serves as the event’s planning headquarters. The event was  envisioned as  a weekend celebration of peace, love and roots music unfold ing on a grassy plateau off the Blue Ridge Parkway in Patrick County.

Except that it was now a muddy plateau. One thing Hodges and Johnson hadn’t considered was that late September is  hurricane season. They realized it when the remnants of a hurricane named Isidore tromped its  muddy feet all over their party.

Hundreds of people showed up instead of thousands. Poor Stacey Earle got absolutely soaked on the main stage during her first set. A woman danced in the rain shouting, “These are the birth waters!” A portable toilet was toppled by the wind. A parking lot had to be closed because of  the mud.

FloydFest appeared finished before it started.

“We knew if it didn’t kill us, we’d be stronger,” Johnson said.

“It was all a test,” Hodges added, “to see what we were made of.”

This week, FloydFest VI occurs in that same lovely field, five years after its debut. The festival survived because of the perseverance, vision and adaptability of its founders. It didn’t hurt that hundreds of volunteers kept showing up year after year to help.

And let’s not forget the anonymous angels who wrote checks to keep Hodges and Johnson afloat as bills mounted and their production company that operates FloydFest — Across The Way Productions — floundered.

This year, FloydFest expects to operate in the black, erasing years of deficits that reached $300,000 at one point. The festival, always an artistic success, appears on firm financial footing. Across The Way now organizes and promotes other lucrative events, including Wine Down the Music Trail and the prestigious Vintage Virginia wine festival in Northern Virginia.

FloydFest VI begins its four-day run on Thursday and includes performances by Sam Bush, Donna the Buffalo, the Duhks, Carolina Chocolate Drops, the North Mississippi All-Stars and dozens of rootsy musical acts. The festival showcases a bevy of local performers, too.

Blue Ridge Outdoors magazine recently included FloydFest and Wine Down the Music Trail among its top 50 festivals in the Southeast.

“Here’s the festival to catch some of the best music in the world that you’ve never heard of,” wrote magazine editor Jedd Ferris. “Besides the breathtaking sight, the main attraction of the event is the globally inclusive hodge-podge of music ... showcasing traditions of Appalachia and opening up to those beyond.”

Getting here wasn’t easy.

“We’ve sacrificed and learned to get to this point,”  Johnson said. “We wouldn’t change a thing. It’s built a lot of character.”

Angels in the mountains

Johnson and Hodges, both 36, met in 1995 at a club in downtown Roanoke. They have two adorable children, Tristan, 8, and Chloe, 5, and they refer to each other as husband and wife even though they don’t have, as Johnson puts it, “that piece of paper” that most people call a “marriage license.”

The family lives in a 200-year-old house on the side of a mountain in Montgomery County. Johnson grew up in the house, which is why she doesn’t mind  that it doesn’t have indoor plumbing. Hodges, however, occasionally boomerangs to his parents’ Roanoke home so he can have a shower.

Hodges and Johnson have lived there since they sold most of their possessions following FloydFest II in 2003. They were broke and owed thousands of dollars. Hodges even had to call the management for bluegrass band Nickel Creek, one of FloydFest II’s headline acts, to tell the group, “Don’t cash that check.” He scraped together enough money to pay the band within a few days.

“Digging out of year one, we needed a miracle in year two,” Hodges said. “We didn’t get the miracle.”

Maybe they didn’t get a miracle during the festival — attendance was OK, but still not enough to make money; the weather was better, but it still rained one day — but afterward, several people came to their rescue.

One benevolent benefactor handed them a $5,000 check the day a $5,000 bill was due. Hodges and Johnson won’t reveal the names of the donors, but Hodges said “there’ve been a few of them.”

“We didn’t hound anyone. We somehow gained the right allies. People who loved art and music started to believe, 'Those two are for real.’ ”

'Live the cheese’

They began acting like responsible business people. Doubters had told them it would take five years  to get on their feet financially, if ever.

“Nah, we’ll prove that different,” Johnson said of people’s suggestions for a five-year plan. When it became obvious that it would be years before FloydFest would turn even a meager profit, they hired bookkeepers, accountants and a lawyer.

“We were all those” in the early years,  Johnson said.

They did have  business experience. The couple opened Oddfellas Cantina in Floyd, a hip little outpost that sold good food and hosted great musical acts such as  Norman Blake and Rhonda Vincent. The idea for FloydFest, the notion of creating a community that celebrates art and music and even good cuisine, sprang from their Oddfellas experience. They sold the restaurant in 2002 to start FloydFest.

The couple has always divided the labor. Johnson deals with much of the business side and handles negotiations with governmental and law enforcement bodies. When parkway officials began stopping more cars on their way to FloydFest in 2006, Johnson called a meeting with the park service bosses. The result was a clearer understanding of each other’s goals and responsibilities.

“We want to be good partners,” said parkway superintendent Phillip Francis. “They have a good event, a good family event.”

Francis said that more rangers patrol the parkway during FloydFest. “It’s a little busier day,” he said. “We have a few more rangers in the area, but it’s not a huge increase. As long as they obey the rules of the road and drive safely, nobody will even know we’re there.”

Hodges and Johnson have worked hard to establish FloydFest as family-friendly and to distinguish it from larger, wilder festivals such as  Bonnaroo in Tennessee. Last year, more than 800 children participated in activities inside the kids’ area.

Hodges, meanwhile, handles the artistic end. A musician and longtime promoter himself, he chooses the performers and books the talent. He is passionate about music and art and is prone to saying things like, “I’ve always dreamed of creating a positive music-and-art event. I know it sounds cheesy, but I want the cheese. I want to eat the cheese. I want to live the cheese.”

Live the cheese. The Kris Hodges story.

Proud parents

The partnership works.

“Thank goodness we have balance,” Johnson said. “If there were two of him or two of me, we’d be in big trouble.”

The festival has grown. Attendance numbers for the early days were admittedly exaggerated (when they said 7,000 people attended FloydFest I, they really meant about 4,500). Now, close to 12,000 people could attend this week’s event (honest). A survey conducted by Radford University in 2005 showed that FloydFest has an estimated $1 million impact on the New River and Roanoke valleys.

Johnson and Hodges still rely on a corps of about 400 volunteers to work the event. They have four full-time and four part-time employees. “Ninety percent of the people who started with us are still with us,” Johnson said.

In addition to securing the Vintage Virginia festival, they’re organizing the Capitol City Carnival in Northern Virginia in September, an event that replaces the Floyd Fandango, which was held last fall. The expansion into Northern Virginia has tremendously helped balance the books and raise the profile of Across The Way Productions.

It isn’t just FloydFest anymore, but it’s still their pride and joy.

“I’ve seen some other promoters come on the scene,”  Hodges said, “and I tell ’em, 'Woooooo, I hope you know what you’re in for. You better be in it for the long haul.’ It’s more than just a party."