Life & Work with Dave O’donnell of Arvada

Today we’d like to introduce you to Dave O’donnell

Hi Dave, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
The first Psychs Peak was held in June 2021, but the inspiration for it was during the summer of 2020 during the height of the COVID shutdowns. My bandmates’ friend Colin of Wandering Natives had a small generator and PA system, so he asked my psych-rock band Ploom if we wanted to jam at a dispersed camping spot in the National Forest and invite around 75 of our friends. No one was doing shows at regular venues at that point, and being outdoors was deemed as being relatively safe. We came up with “Burning Ban” as the name for the event and it went well, so we ended up doing another one later in the summer and invited our buddies in the Ft. Collins band Los Toms to join. Even though it’s not what I would call a totally original idea on my part, I realized we could take the “jam on the National Forest” concept and blow it up into the perfect fusion of two things I love: camping out West and psych-rock.

The next summer, I talked with my buddy Nate from Los Toms, who came up with the name Psychs Peak, and made a list of local psych acts that we wanted to invite. The fest didn’t start out with a specific mission or goal in mind other than being a psych-rock party in the woods. I got a non-commerical event permit from the Forest Service to host the fest on the National Forest, not too far from the spot where Burning Ban was hosted back in 2020. We had 6 bands, a very primitive drum riser, a janky PA system, and a small generator that cut out multiple times because we were drawing too much power. About 150 friends of the bands showed up and had a blast. All the attendees brought a welcoming vibe, and everyone was appreciative to be able to enjoy live music surrounded by nature. The festival took off after that first year where we proved it could work, and we even managed to meet our budget almost down to the dollar.

Every year since then, Psychs Peak has grown in both attendance and scope. We’ve learned from our mistakes and tried to enhance the experience, all while trying to keep the fest as affordable as possible for our fans. I like giving our fans the best bang for their buck. All the while, the festival has stayed true to its roots. The closest thing we have to a mission statement is this: we’re a community-run camping music and arts festival that highlights and promotes Colorado’s strong and creative local music community while also bringing in artists from outside the state that embody our same spirit. We love combining a friendly, welcoming vibe with the perception-altering sounds of psych-rock, visual art, and the majestic scenery of the mountains.

In 2025, Psychs Peak is entering its fifth year. We’re still in the planning phase, but we’ll likely have 3 stages with 24 bands over two days, nightly DJs, and the best outdoor sound you’ve ever heard – shoutout to Mat Keller of Eventic Productions! We’ve had to move venues just about every year in the past, but this year we seem to have found a permanent home at Green Mountain Ranch in Pine, CO. It’s just about an hour drive from downtown Denver. An official date announcement should be coming this month (February).

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
We’ve definitely had some struggles along the way. The top concern is always the budget. Psychs Peak is personally funded by me and mostly floated on a credit card. We don’t have any big money backers or sponsors (yet) and don’t have tons of cash to throw around. It’s truly a DIY and community-run effort. If we run a deficit, the money would come directly out of my pocket, and I can’t afford to be deep in the hole. But the goal isn’t making money, it’s to have a kick-ass psych rock party in the woods. All I care about is breaking even and having fun. The fest is almost exclusively run by volunteers, including myself. I haven’t made any money doing it.

It seems it’s hard to keep music festivals alive in Colorado, and many of them fold after a year or two because they can’t sell enough tickets while making big guarantees to artists and event production companies and allowing mega corps like Ticketmaster to skim off the top. We try to avoid all that. One of the biggest strengths and weaknesses of Psychs Peak is that we don’t have a big budget to begin with, so we’re forced to make choices to keep costs down from the get go. This approach has thankfully kept us alive so far and also keeps the community-run DIY vibe intact.

The other struggle is navigating venues. It’s hard to find somewhere to blast music all day and have a few hundred people camp. The Forest Service has reasonable restrictions about noise and crowd sizes that would have hampered our growth after 2022, so we had to move to private land in 2023, and private land owners always want a decent chunk of change to rent their land. I found a spot down in Canon City with a private property owner that was on board, but when I started to deal with Fremont County and their event permitting process, I started to run into some trouble. With 6 weeks to go before the fest, I found out that we were going to get denied by the county because of complaints from the neighboring property owners. Boomers/Republicans (presumably) and NIMBYs are always trying to shut down cool stuff. It was either find a new spot or cancel the fest that year. We decided to try to press forward and relocate. It was like getting your wedding venue cancelled with only a few weeks until you tied the knot. Thankfully, AREA 420 down in the San Luis Valley ended up hosting us. Being 4 hours from Denver definitely discouraged a decent number of people from buying tickets and making the drive, and we lost money that year as a result. But for the hardcore fans who did make it down, it was a sick party in the desert sun. After 2023, we had some reckoning to do to keep the fest alive. The new location closer to Denver in 2024 helped turn things around massively.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I’m an aerospace engineer as my day job. I write software for flight simulators to train pilots. On the creative side, I play drums in the Denver based psych-rock band Ploom. I’m starting to join Ft. Collins based Los Toms as a second drummer as well.

Are there any books, apps, podcasts or blogs that help you do your best?
I don’t follow a ton of podcasts or read books related to the music biz or psych rock. I mostly get that inspiration from going to local shows and being involved in the community via Psychs Peak.

Pricing:

• Psychs Peak 2025 pricing is still TBD

Contact Info:

• Website: https://psychs-peak.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/psychs_peak/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PsychsPeakFest

Image Credits
@BryanOutWest
Hali Webb-Shafer
Amanda Castro