Dreamland brings art, music and deeper meaning

Dreamland Dripping Springs hosted inaugural music and arts festival DreamFest last weekend, bringing together music groups and artisans for the day-long event.

Dreamland, still fairly new itself, opened in February 2021 as an outdoor entertainment, recreation and arts venue. The venue features sculptures, mosaics and murals from international artists throughout the property and has a state-of-the-art music stage for performances — in addition to miniature golf courses, pickleball courts and a disc golf course. DreamFest, on May 28, was a logical next step for the venue, which has become well known for its local events.

The idea behind DreamFest actually preceded the venue itself, beginning as an Austinbased music, food and arts festival.

“We had worked on that for maybe six months, and then we were canceled due to COVID-19,” said Gareth Maguire, Austinbased artist and creative director for Dreamland. “When we were canceled, Steve — our owner — brought me out to Dripping Springs, to what is now Dreamland, and said, ‘Why don’t we make this the permanent home of the festival?’”

Getting the festival up and running proved a challenge for the fledgling venue, which faced not only the COVID-19 pandemic but severe weather issues.

“Last year, we were going to do it, and I had scheduled it, I think, two or three times,” Maguire said. “We got rained out twice, and at that point, it was impossible to get all nine or ten bands we booked for the same date. We had to push it back to 2022.”

This year’s festival featured musical artists of all ages and styles, including pop-rock musician Bob Schneider, Latinfolk singer Gina Chavez, and indie-R&B artist Sir Woman.

“I picked what I thought would be a good lineup, popular lineup, fun lineup,” Maguire said. “It was everything from local, emerging talent to more established talent. With our core mission of celebrating the American dream by bringing people together, I try to make sure that we’re representing a variety of genres and genders.”

The lineup also included Maguire’s godson, Americana singer-songwriter Calder Allen, an up-and-coming talent in the Austin area.

“I’ve been performing less than a year, so this was a nice gig to get,” Allen said. “I’d never been to Dreamland before, so I’m excited to make it out there and check it out.”

Allen performed at Austin City Limits Music Festival last year and at South by Southwest this past March. His first full album will come out June 10, celebrated with a public release party at the Continental Club on June 11.

“This performance [at DreamFest] will kinda be a preview of the record,” Allen said. “I’m excited for people to hear the songs and see their reaction. For me, it was a record of the last four years of my life, so it’s kind of a collective storyline of what’s been going on in my head and an introduction to me in music.”

Allen will perform at the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in June, Lollapalooza in July and the See.Hear.Now Festival in September.

In addition to the music performances, DreamFest included an artisan market and live performances by visual artists. However, despite its entertainment focus, the festival had a much deeper inspiration.

“One of our primary goals is just bringing people together,” Maguire said. “We feel the topic of immigration has become socially and culturally contaminated, and we’re trying to bring people together on that. So, the art experience I curated, created and commissioned at Dreamland is basically a Trojan horse for immigration reform.”

“I think it’s important to bring people together just to see the things we have in common instead of the things we differ over,” he explained. “Things like music and art are some of the best ways to do that.”

The same sentiment is echoed on Dreamland’s website: “Inclusivity is always our goal at Dreamland, we are constantly working to improve access and programming for the people from all over the world who visit us. We strive to be a steady example, that when everyone feels welcomed and wanted, it strengthens our community, and creates new and diverse experiences for all.”

Dreamland strives to raise millions of dollars a year for charity, Maguire said, and has already fundraised for multiple local nonprofits. DreamFest itself was a fundraiser for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, with a portion of all ticket sales going to the organization.

“We’re just putting our toes in the water here,” he said. “I would want DreamFest to grow to be a two- or three-day event.”

Future ideas for the festival include camping, tiny homes and numerous food vendors.

For more information about Dreamland and its events, visit dreamland. us.