16 May Author Jim Ruland Joins Schellraiser Lineup

May 16, 2023 | McGill, Nevada

Schellraiser 2023 is stoked to welcome Jim Ruland to this year’s event!

Jim Ruland is the LA Times bestselling author of “Corporate Rock Sucks: The Rise & Fall of SST Records,” which was named a best book of 2022 by Pitchfork, Rolling Stone and Vanity Fair. It was also one of our favorite books from last year, and we’re really looking forward to hearing Jim talk about it.

Jim is also the co-author of “Do What You Want” with Bad Religion and “My Damage” with Keith Morris, founding vocalist of Black Flag, Circle Jerks and OFF!

Jim is a longtime writer for Razorcake Fanzine and a frequent contributor to the LA Times. He is the recipient of awards from Reader’s Digest and the NEA, and is a veteran of the U.S. Navy.

His new novel, “Make It Stop,” “a punk rock fever dream about American healthcare” is available now from Rare Bird Lit.

05 May Revolutionary Artist Steve Keene Joins Schellraiser Lineup

May 5, 2023 | McGill, Nevada

Revolutionary hand painting artist Steve Keene, known worldwide as the most prolific painter in history, will join the Schellraiser Music Festival, creating an interactive live art show for patrons who can watch him create for the length of the festival. 

Rob Sheffield from Rolling Stone called Keene Your Favorite Band’s Favorite Painter. Having created the now legendary “Wowee Zowee” album cover for indie rock legends Pavement, Keene has also become a well-known art collaborator for Silver Jews, Bonnie “Prince” Billy, The Apples in stereo and more and has been heralded by musicians and artists alike including the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ Nick Zinner, Sonic Youth’s Lee Ranaldo and Thurston Moore; Michael Stipe and Shepard Fairey. 

Keene, celebrating the universally praised behemoth release of “The Steve Keene Art Book,” has hand-painted over 300,000 pieces via his own hands over the last 30 years and selling the works dirt cheap. He will have a pop-up studio for people to watch him create up to fifty pieces at a time, usually painted in series of four or six-of-a-kind. He utilizes quick-drying acrylic paints and a screen-printing technique of moving from broad swaths of color and gradually moving to the more detailed work, he normally paints all day long and people are encouraged to get close and watch him work… it is a fascinating and meditating “performance.” Possessing handmade art changes changes people’s lives. Possessing handmade art that’s also a good deal, is a revolutionary exercise that he has delivered for over 30 years.

Keene will sell his art and “The Steve Keene Art Book,” will be for sale at the merch table for fans to get hand-signed copies.

“He’s like a folk hero Warhol.” – Shepard Fairey
“…a churning waterfall of creation.” – Stephen Malkmus, Pavement

19 Apr Schellraiser named Runner Up for Best Hipcamp Listing in Nevada 2023

April 19, 2023

To paraphrase Sally Field, Hipcamp likes us. It really, really likes us!

The online campground booking site just named Schellraiser a Runner Up for the best Hipcamp listing in Nevada this year.

We had no idea that we were even a contender for this honor: After all, we were only open for a grand total of three weeks in 2022! We’ve put everything we had into this project and our micro-fest over the last three-plus years, and we’re so happy to be recognized for our effort.

We strive to offer our guests a unique experience and a level of quality that can be hard to find elsewhere in rural Nevada, and we hope to build on our Hipcamp status in 2023.

As we gear up for this visitor season, we look forward to hosting many more guests, and meeting wonderful people from around the world.

We’d like to extend our profound thanks to our general contractor, Shawn Wilson of Great Basin Building, and our campground host, Brian Luker, for all of their help in bringing our vision to fruition! We could not do it without them!

16 Mar A statement from Meat Puppets

March 16, 2023

With much regret, the Meat Puppets are canceling their appearance at the June 2023 Schellraiser festival. This was a personal decision made by the band and its management team, with the interests of everyone in mind. We look forward to getting back out on the road as soon as we can! Thank you for understanding our decision and for your ongoing support.

25 Jan In Memory of Craig Leerman

We don’t know what to say, except: “Craig Leerman, we love you!”*

Schellraiser 2023 is shocked and saddened to hear that our production manager Craig Leerman of Tech Works has died.
Working with Craig on last year’s event was among the greatest experiences of my life, and I was so genuinely overjoyed to be teaming up with him again for Schellraiser 2023. Craig was a true professional, and his commitment to his craft was on display during every single moment of last year’s festival. I didn’t know what to expect the first time I cold-called Craig to speak with him about Schellraiser in early 2020. But based on my experiences attending other shows and festivals over the years, I was neurotically prepared for the possibility that some technical problem/s might arise. Stupid me.

Every aspect of Craig’s production was ultimately flawless, and I’d go so far as to say that the sound quality was the best I’ve ever heard at any outdoor event, period. Of course, that should not have surprised me, had I delved a little deeper into Craig’s background and resume. Over the years, he worked with everyone from Smokey Robinson to Sun Ra; The B-52’s to The Beach Boys; Waylon Jennings to Wu-Tang Clan; Fela Kuti to Roberta Flack. From Maryland to Nevada, Craig had a hand in everything from presidential inaugurations and trade shows to charity events and festivals like ours.

Apart from his obvious expertise, one thing I’ll miss most about Craig is his wonderful sense of humor. The sound of his laugh, too. We’ll be remembering Craig this June, and in the meantime, we’d like to extend our thoughts and condolences to his family. Although I’ll dearly miss Craig, we are incredibly fortunate to have Kelly Dodge in his place, going forward. Kelly worked with Craig on Schellraiser 2022, and his contributions helped make our first-ever event the success that it was.

~ Rudy Herndon, Schellraiser 2023

*This is a reference that only festivalgoers from 2022 will get. We meant it then, and we mean it now.

27 May Schellraiser goes solar

The first phase of our solar energy project is nearly finished!

Our private campground is totally off-grid, so these panels will power our furnished glamping tents, yurts and shipping container homes. The system includes battery storage units, which will help us keep the power on when the sun isn’t shining. We’ll also have backup generators in place during special events and other busy times of the year.

10 Feb Schellraiser boosts camping options

Camp home featured on HGTV
The newest addition to the Schellraiser campground had a starring role this month in the new HGTV series “Off the Wall Builds.” Alternative Living Spaces of Las Vegas built the shipping container home as a dwelling unit for a family in California. But we wound up buying the home when Alternative Living Spaces gave it a slight makeover, after the HGTV episode was filmed. It’s one of two container homes that will be available to rent this June for the Schellraiser 2022 festival. Both homes have rooftop decks and bathrooms; one home has a kitchen, while the other features custom-made bunkbeds and a built-in tent on the roof.

Schellraiser boosts camping options
With less than four months to go until Schellraiser 2022, we’ve doubled the number of glamping tents available to rent this spring at our campground near McGill. Our Lotus Belle-brand tents are the first of their kind in White Pine County, and were designed to offer guests a comfortable and unique camping experience. All of the tents are fully furnished, with king-and queen-size platform beds, jute mat flooring and other amenities. Keep an eye on our website for a link to campground reservations, which will be available exclusively to festivalgoers in late May and early June.

18 Aug Festival campground takes shape

For the past four months, we’ve been developing a private campground on 80 acres about one mile north of the festival venue at the McGill Pool Park. New roads and designated camping spaces are now in place, and in the coming months, we’ll be turning our attention to landscaping and infrastructural improvements on the property. We’ll have six camping yurts and six glamping tents (ranging in diameter from 12 to 20 feet) available for nightly rentals during the visitor season, which typically runs from April through October. For the festival itself, we’ll be boosting that number, with 40 furnished and unfurnished tents from our friends at the Shelter Co. Access to the Schellraiser campground entrance is via a dirt road that is not regularly maintained, so attendees with RVs and cars with trailers are strongly advised not to travel down it.

12 May Festival kicks off fundraiser with $25,000 donation

The Schellraiser 2022 music festival kicked off its fundraising drive last week by donating $25,000 to the nonprofit Nevada Northern Railway in Ely. The donation will help the railway complete the restoration of Locomotive 81.

Schellraiser founder Rudy Herndon (third from left) is pictured with Lennox Purinton (left), Henry Stewart, Gary Hansen, NNRy President Mark Bassett, Heidi Still and John Henry McDonnell.

[Photo courtesy of Angie Stevens/Nevada Northern Railway]