YOU CAN DANCE! AT MAMMOTH ROCKS
This article was published in the August 23, 2025 issue.
There’s a chance of rain this weekend. Mark Deeds, co-director of the upcoming Mammoth Rocks festival, wants nothing to do with it.
“If it rains during our festival, we’re dead. We probably won’t be able to have a 2026 event,” Deeds said, in an interview with The Sheet on Wednesday. He said the festival relies heavily on bar sales, and if it’s raining, chances are people won’t go out and buy a beer.
“We don’t have the luxury to depend on high occupancy weekends like some of the other events do,” he continued. “We gotta work hard for it.”
Organizing the event requires hundreds of hours of work for both Deeds and his co-director Matthew Lehman. They have to purchase county permits, fire department permits, and town permits. They also must insure the event and hire security. Deeds described the last two weeks before the event as a “scramble” to ensure that each member of each band has a bed to sleep in, that their sound is dialed, and that their needs are taken care of.
Deeds wishes the town gave more funding to the festival. As he sees it, there is a disproportionate amount of funding given to certain events over others. He named the Spartan Race, an endurance experience held in October, as one such event.
“They’re not drawing any more people to their event than any of the other events that are receiving 5% of the funding [they’re] receiving. It would be one thing if they were drawing 10,000 people, but they’re not.” He sounded exasperated.
With that out of the way …
This weekend marks the 17th annual Mammoth Rocks festival. It began in 2009, during the recession, when the economy in Mammoth was particularly slow. The local Chamber of Commerce brainstormed ideas to bring more revenue and more people to town. Genius struck Deeds, Lehman, Jack Copeland, and Eric Wasserman.
“We sought classic rock. We figured it just has the broadest appeal to the most people.” Now, Deeds said, the event has become a local favorite. “It’s kind of the end of summer party.”
The event usually tries to feature bands from every decade, spanning from the ‘70s to the early 2000s. This year is an exception, as the majority of the bands are ‘70s oriented. Headlining this weekend are the Rag Dolls, an all-female Aerosmith tribute, and ABBA LA, a glamorous evocation of the original Swedish powerhouse. Deeds told the Sheet he’s also looking forward to Blink 180True and K-Tel All-Stars.
“We don’t take ourselves too seriously. I don’t think [these bands] take themselves too seriously either. But they’re seriously committed to putting on a solid show and delivering a great performance,” Deeds said.
On Wednesday, the Sheet spoke with both Michael O’Mara, the lead singer of the K-Tel Allstars, and Laura Bradley, who portrays Agnetha, the lead singer of ABBA. These two bands differ in style, as the K-Tel Allstars play an array of hits from the ‘70s from many different bands, whereas ABBA LA focuses just on ABBA songs.
“We call ourselves the ultimate ‘70s experience,” O’Mara said. “[The] ‘70s were the greatest era of music, the songs, the writing of the songs, the musicians, the singers, the melodies, it’ll never happen again.”
The band was founded in 2019, when O’Mara left the Def Leppard tribute he’d been playing in for twenty-two years. He wanted to start a ‘70s project, inspired by the K-tel record label. Now in their sixth year, the band frequently plays songs such as “Saturday Night” by the Bay City Rollers, “I think I Love You,” by the Partridge Family, and “More Than a Feeling,” by Boston. The K-Tel Allstars were inducted in the California Music Hall of Fame. This weekend will be their first time in Mammoth.
O’Mara loves to sing, and he loves the reactions his band gets from crowds.
“We will play a show, and people run up to us after the show and say, you’re playing my entire playlist. And then they’ll also say, I grew up with all these songs, but I was too young. I didn’t have the opportunity to see these bands live,” he gushed.
O’Mara also plays in a Led Zeppelin tribute, which he hopes will come to Mammoth Rocks in the future. That band generates similar reactions.
“I had a musician friend of mine that called me the next day and said, ‘Dude, I saw Zeppelin back in the ‘70s, and you are singing better than Robert Plant ever could.’”
Bradley echoed O’Mara’s sentiments.“The absolute joy that we seemingly bring to people of a multitude of generations is so fulfilling,” she said. “It just doesn’t get old.”
ABBA LA began as a metal ABBA tribute band, then transitioned to a traditional ABBA set in 2020, before the pandemic. As previously mentioned, Bradley plays Agnetha. The band also has a Björn, a Benny, and a Frida. Bradley’s current partner, Michael Wallace, plays the bass.
This will be ABBA LA’s second time in Mammoth. Bradley spoke highly of the Eastern Sierra beauty, the Village as a venue, and of the fans that came out. Her favorite moment from last year was during the last song of the set, “Dancing Queen.”
“I looked out and as many big burly men in motorcycle jackets were singing as 12 year old girls,” she said.
This year, Mammoth Rocks is partnering with Mammoth Lakes Foundation, a local non-profit focused on supporting higher education and cultural enrichment in the Eastern Sierra. Fingers crossed Mother Nature shines down on the ‘70s.
