As of today, organizers of the annual Wakarusa Music and Camping Festival are still searching for a place to hold the event for June 2009. After its first five years in Lawrence KS at Clinton State Park, the festival planned to move to a new site at Circle S Ranch in Jefferson County, 12 miles north of Lawrence, but the county commission yesterday rejected the festival's permit application to hold a festival on that site.

Festival promoter Brett Mosiman said alternative sites are under consideration. It's possible the festival could relocate outside the immediate area or even the state.

The Circle S Ranch alledgedly "lacks infrastructure to host thousands of cars and people", even though Wakarusa is far smaller than many of its contemporaries (i.e. Lollapalooza), holding a mere 20,000 people. The new proposed site has gravel roads leading up to it, this being one of the reasons that Jefferson County vetoed the proposal.

One of many further complications regarding the issue is that $25,000 is still owed by the festival to the parks deparment, sparking a series of economic and political conflicts. Mosiman said that state officials charged the festival unfairly, while simulataneously limiting the event's capacity to 13,000.

It seems that Wakarusa is outnumbered by the Jefferson County Commission, the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks, and pretty much every political establishment in the area. So it looks like the festival will have to relocate. More to come on the issue.