Producer of Mount Tam Jam revives benefit concert at the 3,750-seat Cushing Memorial Amphitheater in Mount Tamalpais State Park, featuring Tedeschi Trucks Band, Dr. John and the Nite Trippers, the Mother Hips and the Portland Cello Project.
Two years after he created Mount Tam Jam, a day-long music festival to benefit Mount Tamalpais State Park, Mill Valley resident Michael Nash is back with a similar event under a different name but the same premise: put on a raucous, exciting concert and raise money and awareness for Mount Tam.

Sound Summit – Nash’s double entendre moniker for the festival – is set for Saturday, Sept. 19 (11am–7pm) in the 3,750-seat Cushing Memorial Amphitheater, home to the Mountain Play.

“Our ultimate aim is to make Sound Summit an annual, sustainable revenue source, a festive event that honors the spirit of the mountain, its legacy, and its many gifts,” Nash says.

He’s lined up a fantastic roster of bands to achieve those goal, including the celebrated Tedeschi Trucks Band, Dr. John & the Nite Trippers, Marin favorites the Mother Hips, the Portland Cello Project and the Mother Truckers.

Although Mount Tam Jam was a success by many measures, with bands like Galactic and Cake drawing a sell-out crowd and raising $25,000 for the park and garnering the approval of state park officials, it did not continue, as event sponsor Tamalpais Conservation Club decided to both not be involved in any future rock shows on the mountain and to keep the rights to the name Tam Jam, even though they had no plans to use it.

Nash kept at it, creating the nonprofit organization Roots & Branches Conservancy to sponsor the festival, which is the second (after Mount Tam Jam) major rock show to occur on Mount Tam since the Summer of Love in 1967. 

The 411: Tickets for Sound Summit are on sale now. Adults are $90, children 12 and younger are $45 and kids under 2 are free. More info.


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