According to Robert Huggins, whose grandparents bought the farm in 1929, settlers first inhabited this land in the 1640s. At the time, it was primarily used as a site for making bricks with clay dug straight out of the Great Bay. Today, the field is covered with multi-colored wildflowers and long grass used for haying. But the secluded property’s rich history is still palpable.

“It’s like a little oasis out here,” Huggins says.

On a recent morning, the field was empty but for a wooden arch near its edge. But this weekend, it will be filled with teenagers and adults tossing Frisbees, playing volleyball and dancing around bonfires. Live music will blare from a temporary stage marked by that very arch.

A total of 17 regional bands will perform at the Great Bay Music Festival, which takes place on Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 11 and 12. The event was conceived by Huggins’ daughter, Julia, a 17-year-old senior at Dover High School. She planned the festival as a fundraiser for Pennies for Poverty, a club she formed to raise money for the United Nations Children’s Fund.

Julia said she started Pennies for Poverty after learning that small amounts of change can make a big difference in the lives of impoverished children. A few cents can get a child essential vitamins, a handful of dimes can get them vital vaccinations and a few dollars can feed them for up to a month, she said.

The club, which held its first major meeting on Oct. 6, intends to distribute change containers at gas stations, stores and other locations where people often have spare change. “Really simple pocket change can fix some kid’s life or keep him from dying,” Julia said.

Profits from the concert will cover the cost of containers, as well as advertisements and fliers to disseminate information about Pennies for Poverty. Julia intended to get the club going earlier but lacked funding to cover the costs. “I didn’t really have a couple hundred bucks out of my own pocket, so we decided to do a fundraiser,” she said, adding that any excess money the festival makes will go directly to UNICEF.

The two-day concert promises to draw an impressive crowd to the old farmland. Tickets are $15 per day, but a $25 weekend pass allows visitors to camp out for both days. Vehicles will park on an adjacent field separated by a stretch of wetlands, and guests can partake in games of ultimate and volleyball, as well as free kayak demonstrations by Eastern Mountain Sports.

But the real draw is the music. It didn’t take long for area bands to get onboard with Julia’s idea. She started by talking to some of her musician friends at Dover High School, quickly roping in youthful acts like Tonight We Are, the Knights of Jamalot, Cantonese Traffic and Head Train. Members of those groups reached out to bands they knew at the University of New Hampshire, including Audio Transmission, Skamasutra, Moon Minion and Laundry Machine and the 50 Cent Load. Julia even got her former history of jazz and rock teacher to play the festival with his band, Duty Free. 

As word spread about the festival, other bands became eager to sign up. Julia and her father booked a number of established Seacoast acts, including veteran bands like Rhythm Method and the Amorphous Band. They also extended their reach outside the Seacoast, picking up Soak from Manchester and One Big Mess from Boston. A coup for Julia came when she landed Boston-based reggae band Roots Nation, who will headline the show on Saturday night.

“Before we knew it, we had Roots Nation say that they would play, and they would do it for free because they supported the cause,” she said.

Boston-based jam band The Brew also signed up, offering to play at a significantly discounted rate of $1,000 (according to Julia, the group normally charges $7,000 for a  gig). After that, numerous bands started requesting to take part. The response was so strong that Julia had to turn some bands away. But she made a point of keeping local high school bands on the bill, preserving the festival as a supportive community event.

The festival is also intended to raise awareness about alternative energy sources and green practices. Atlantic Biodiesel will donate fuel for the generator that will power the amplifiers and other electronic equipment, and there will be a bus with solar panels on its roof on the property.

Robert Huggins also hopes to include other exhibits about green building and wind power to educate guests, “just to show people different alternative ways,” he said. “When global warming happens, we’re only about two feet above the water level, so we’re the first to go.”

It’s hard to remember the last time a multi-day music festival of this nature took place on the Seacoast. In the mid-1990s, WHEB held an annual concert called Localpalooza, which hosted many of the most popular local bands of the time, including Rusted Root, Thanks to Gravity, Heavens to Murgatroid, Moon Boot Lover, Say ZuZu, GrooveChild and others.

That event is long gone, but other music-based festivals live on. There are city-wide events like the Portsmouth Maritime Folk Festival, which took place on a recent weekend, and the Jazzmouth Festival, which returns to Portsmouth next April. But multi-day outdoor concerts with camping and bonfires are exceptionally rare in these parts.  

Robert Huggins said he attended SolarFest in Vermont with his children this summer, but the three-and-a-half hour drive made him question whether he’ll return next year. A hiking enthusiast, (Huggins has hiked the Appalachian Trail, the Pacific Crest Trail and sections of the Continental Divide Trail), he said he considered hosting a music festival on his property for many years. His daughter’s club spurred him to take the next step.
“Julia finally got me going again,” he said.

A third-generation farm owner, Huggins has become an expert on the history of his property. The barn was built in 1691 and a farm house was added in 1720. Both buildings have undergone extensive renovations, but fragments of the past can still be found in odd corners. “You can still see clay pits in the woods where they used to dig for clay,” Huggins said.

His grandparents donated about 100 acres of nearby land to the Audubon Society to protect it from development (Huggins said the state originally wanted Route 4 to pass straight through the field where the festival will take place). Now, the preservation land includes a one-mile hiking trail through the woods.

The festival has created its share of headaches for Huggins. When his home insurers found out he was hosting an all-ages concert on the property, they canceled his coverage, even though he had insured the festival separately. He has also had to consult with police who were concerned about underage drinking at the event. Huggins said guests 21 and over will be allowed to bring their own alcohol, but underage kids caught drinking will be kicked out.

Recent weather has created other problems. A particularly rainy weekend turned much of the field into a shallow marsh and made work on the stage a soggy affair. Bert Stocking and Peter Dellea have been helping Huggins with preparations for the stage, which they rented from the Whittemore Center at UNH. “This is the first time it’s been sunny in a week,” Stocking said recently.

But Huggins said the field would be hayed before the festival, and guests can sit on a dry hill that overlooks the stage. And Dellea said the wet weather hasn’t dampened their spirits. “It’s been really nice working out in the field,” he said.

Gearing up for the event has been a chore for Julia, too. She has a heavy workload at school and is in the process of figuring out where she will go to college. Fitting in Pennies for Poverty and a music festival has been hectic. “It’s been a ridiculous amount of work,” she said. 

But Julia and her father have benefited from the generosity of many local bands and businesses. Dave Roberge, of Transit Music Group, will be responsible for the sound, lighting and other technicalities. A number of food vendors will set up not far from the stage, including La Festa Pizzeria, Dos Amigos Burritos, Golick’s Dairy Bar and the Fresh Local Truck. 

Guests can claim campsites during a kick-off party on Friday night. Huggins said most of the camping will take place in a stretch of woods bordered by the field on one side and a salt-water creek on the other. He has been cutting up logs with a chainsaw and removing the pieces for firewood, creating flat, open spaces in the woods.

The music will begin at 10 a.m. on Saturday and end with a headlining set from Roots Nation at 8 p.m. Huggins said acoustic jams will continue deep into the night on Saturday, and the bands will resume onstage on Sunday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.

To find the farm, turn onto Back River Road from Route 4 in Dover, turn right on Bayview Road and travel about half a mile. For more information and tickets, visit www.myspace.com/greatbaymusicfestival. Tickets purchased at the gate will cost $5 more. 

Despite all the work, Julia and the other festival organizers are confident that their mini-Bonnaroo will be worth the trouble.

“I’ve got a lot of friends who are really excited about this,” she said.    

Appearing at the festival:

in alphabetical order:
Among Criminals
Amorphous Band
Audio Transmission
Cantonese Traffic
Djatmaterra
Duty Free
Knights of Jamalot
Laundry Machine
Moon Minion
One Big Mess
Rhythm Method
Roots Nation
Skamasutra
Soak
Superfrog
The Brew
Tonight We Are