Summerdance electrifies Nelson Ledges

August 4, 2012 at 12:00a.m.

Over the past few years, Nelson Ledges Quarry Park has become the Midwest epicenter of the electronic dance-music world with its annual Summerdance affair. While Northeast Ohio likes to rock, it also likes electro sounds.

“This is, I think, the fifth Summerdance, but we’ve been doing shows since 1997,” said Nelson Ledges Park Manager and concert booker-promoter Joe Pirtz. “We do music festivals at Nelson Ledges, and music festivals encompass all music. Music crosses all borders, or doesn’t have borders or genres. Music is fluid.”

You’ll have to forgive Pirtz’s hippiness. The Champion native is just excited about this year’s warm-weather festival taking place this weekend. Similar in vibe to the Electric Forest festival last month in Michigan, this three-day Portage County affair attracts EDM-loving folks from around the nation, including in the past road trippers from California, Oregon, Minnesota, Vermont and Texas.

Last year’s bill with Big Gigantic and Billy Martin was massive, and hopes are high regarding the current lineup featuring Pretty Lights artist Gramatik headlining Friday and Saturday nights.

“First of all, Gramatik mixes in jazz, funk and fusion, and he’s agreed to 75 percent of his own material for Summerdance,” Pirtz said. “He mixes in James Brown and samples ’40s and ’50s swing and jazz, which I like because he brings that essential music to the crowd. It’s just not beats and booms. Right now, he’s blowing up right before our eyes. He’s opening up all around the world and playing big arenas this fall with Bassnectar.”

Other artists scheduled to play this year are Michael Menert and SuperVision, Eric Evasion, Broccoli Samurai, Sean 216, the Skeetones, Arpetrio and The Manhattan Project.

For electronic band Broccoli Samurai, this marks the Cleveland act’s second- consecutive Summerdance gig.

“It was a blast last year, and it’s definitely, in my opinion, the best festival of the summertime at the Ledges,” said Broccoli Samurai drummer Chris Walker. “People just go all out for Summerdance. It’s a ton of people, and everybody is in good spirits. We just try to keep it light and fun.”

Part of that fun includes Broccoli Samurai introducing new trip-hop songs, including the gritty “Dub Lite” and the hip-hop-beat heavy “The Transmitter.”

In addition to music, Summerdance offers art installations decorating the forest, as well as a geodesic temple called the Fabric of the Universe. Pirtz said there’s also a beefed-up light and sound system planned for the venue, which is a privately owned, 250-acre campground and concert facility.

“It’s artists, musicians, yoga instructors,” Pirtz said. “We’re crossing into where our music is mixing with artistic and visionary world values, man. It’s everything. It’s 2012; human consciousness is speeding up rapidly. Some people are coming around and waking up; some people are speeding up; and some people are just staying the same.”

Odds are Pirtz and the Summerdance audience will shine like stars in the summer night.