Nonprofit Big Ponderoo’s Artwork Eerily Similar to C3/LiveNation’s FairWell Fest
This story has been updated (see below).
FairWell Fest has just kicked off in Redmond, Oregon this weekend with a lot of great artists set to perform, including Billy Strings, Kacey Musgraves, Jason Isbell, Colter Wall. It’s one of independent country and Americana’s “megafestivals” that have popped up in the last couple of years.
But as Saving Country Music has reported in the past, the C3 Presents/LiveNation-promoted event and their aggressive radius clauses have caused chaos among the region’s more established and independently-owned festivals, forcing the Wild Hare Festival just south of Portland to have to discontinue, while also encroaching on the Jackalope Jamboree in Pendleton.
Possibly getting the worst of it is the Big Ponderoo Festival, located just a few miles away from Redmond in Sisters, OR, and happening only a few weeks before FairWell Fest. As a non-profit festival operated as a sister festival to the long-established Sister’s Folk Festival, Big Ponderoo saw headliners Silverada, Shinyribs, and The Brothers Comatose in 2024. As Saving Country Music reported, Big Ponderoo is the small festival with big importance due to its proximity to FairWell.
Big Ponderoo 2024 also featured a fairly distinctive poster that featured a cowboy riding a fish jumping out of a lake. It was composed by Portland-based musician and visual artist Austin Quattlebaum. On Friday (7-19) when patrons from Big Ponderoo and folks affiliated with the festival went to check out their big corporate competition at FairWell Fest, they were shocked to find a variation of Big Ponderoo’s cowboy fish poster being employed throughout the festival.
Not only has FairWell Fest’s take on the rodeo fish found its way onto posters. It’s also emblazoned on T-Shirts, commemorative rugs, and other merch items. For the folks involved with Big Ponderoo including artist Austin Quattlebaum, the similarity is way too close for comfort, or to be a coincidence.
Saving Country Music attended FairWell Fest in 2023 to see how the inaugural festival fared (read review), but decided to sit out 2024.
As for what happens next, that might be a matter for lawyers. But if you happen to be reading this and are at FairWell Fest 2024, perhaps considering spending you merch dollars wisely based off the above information.
UPDATE 7/20/24: The artist of the FairWell Fest poster, Travis Bone, tells Saving Country Music in part:
In April I was approached by C3 presents to make a poster for a festival they were doing in Oregon. The creative for the festival was already laid out so this poster was supposed to be part of their merch lineup, a departure from the brand but also fit the general vibe … I sent them three concept sketches, all were sort of western themed, cattle dogs, mustangs, things of that nature, as well as this cowboy riding a fish…The folks at C3 wanted the trout cowboy.Now, I cannot imagine that anyone involved in this process knew anything about what Big Ponderoo was doing at the time. I certainly wasn’t and if someone involved with C3 or Live Nation was, and decided that they wanted to use a piece of merch to stick a thumb in the eye of the folks at Big Ponderoo, that just sucks and it makes no sense. Live Nation looks bad, C3 looks bad, and I look bad as I’m connected to the whole thing.
July 19, 2024 @ 10:02 pm
I don’t know enough about both festivals or that part of the country to know anything about it. But I do follow the artist that did the posters for Fairwell Festival on Instagram – @FurTurtle. Seems like it fits in with the artists style as they do other posters for musical artists, most recently Jason Isbell
July 19, 2024 @ 10:24 pm
The festivals are located 19 miles and three weeks apart in one of the most remote parts of the United States. In festival terms, it is virtually impossible for them to be closer. They’re basically on top of one another. A couple of weeks ago I wrote an article about how Big Ponderoo was such an important event because of the encroachment of FairWell Fest and how they were so close. Two weeks later, FairWell unveils posters and merch that utilize the same basic concept of a rodeo cowboy riding a fish—not exactly a common concept. At the absolute least, it is an irresponsible oversight by FairWell Fest.
It looks like the artist also composes artwork for Pickathon, which is another independent festival in Oregon. I’m not sure how making posters for Jason Isbell explains it away.
July 20, 2024 @ 10:38 am
I guess what I was really saying was:
1. If you look at that artists other posters, that poster seems to fit in with their style
2. They do posters for legitimate musical artists
3. Giving you the artists contact info so that maybe you reach out and try and get a comment from them before writing a one-sided article accusing them of plagiarism.
July 20, 2024 @ 11:11 am
I do appreciate you identifying the original artist Paul. I have reached out to them for comment.
July 19, 2024 @ 11:23 pm
Neither of these are original. Will Overman had this print as his tour poster last year
July 20, 2024 @ 7:05 am
I don’t believe anyone is claiming that the Big Ponderoo poster was the first ever portrayal of a cowboy riding a fish. Even though it’s quite the unusual and unique approach to a poster idea, with the millions, maybe billions of images floating out there on the internet, it’s is likely someone has done everything before.
I’m not sure it’s possible to even put into words how close these festivals are, and how interconnected their stories are. After Saving Country Music alone wrote a dedicated, in-depth article about the encroachment of FairWell Fest on Big Ponderoo in 2023, and then another dedicated article about in 2024—whether it’s completely inadvertent and actively purposeful—FairWell Fest cannot be using an image that appears to rip off Big Ponderoo not just on posters, but on T-Shirts/ commemorative rugs, etc. FairWell is already facing a large amount of heat on a local level for encroaching on this local, non-profit organization. This will not help.
July 20, 2024 @ 6:33 am
Slue-Foot Sue did it first.
July 20, 2024 @ 8:58 am
YETI stores all feature a cowboy riding a local fish.
https://holayara.com/YETI-Retail-Store-Logos
July 20, 2024 @ 11:15 am
Again, the issue is not that a cowboy riding a fish has never been done before, though it is a unique enough image that it’s not like a mountain scape, or a star, or a moon, or a cow skull with horns where it’s a commonly used item.
The issue is a dedicated, detailed, and ongoing concern between these two events of one crowding out the other, one being a nonprofit and the other being backed by LiveNation, and then you have this strikingly similar approach to a poster and merch. It could be completely coincidental. That doesn’t mean a significant oversight didn’t occur.