Music
by Austin Powell
The Ice (Cream) Man Cometh Matt Allen with Elvis Costello
The off-white ice cream truck parked in the center of the backstage area at the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival appears to be a mirage, some sort of chemical or heat-induced hallucination that dances with thoughts of fruit bars and Popsicles. Multicolored Christmas lights are strewn across its hood, while a Cookie Monster piñata hangs from the passenger side mirror. The license plate cover reads, “Make every day an ice cream day!”
Such is the motto of Matt Allen, who practically bounces as he helps a handful of the world’s finest musicians achieve a similar sugar high. Elvis Costello and Alec Ounsworth of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah both reach for vanilla ice cream bars with a crisp layer of chocolate and almonds. The Streets’ Mike Skinner gets an ice cream sandwich, while Stephen Malkmus, Jim James and Thurston Moore request various flavors of Julie’s organic bars.
Better known as the Ice Cream Man, Allen has spent the past three years touring America in his 1969 Chevy P10 Step Van, “Bessie,” dishing out free frozen treats at various music festivals.
“This isn’t about rock ’n’ roll,” says Allen, who has given away nearly 90,000 desserts to date. “This is about getting people to think about things a bit differently, proving that you can do anything with your life. I want to give away free ice cream. It’s that simple. Great minds understand conceptually what we’re trying to do. Why not bring all of these like-minded people together to do great things?”
The operation started with only a three-wheel bike, a cooler and a boom box, which Allen used to blare a taped version of his radio show “Jazz Band Classics,” while attending college in Colorado. Following graduation, he spent some time in a chocolate factory in Ashland, Ore., before purchasing Bessie for $1,200. After struggling to earn a decent living as a real ice cream man making the rounds in town, Allen decided he might as well figure out a way to give the ice cream away for free.
Sponsorships from companies like Guitar Center, Levi’s, Rhapsody, Jakprints and Mochi Ice Cream enable Allen to travel the country, sharing his chocolate-coated vision with everyone he encounters. He’s also assembled a nationwide crew of writers, photographers and like-minded individuals to help sling cream at the festivals and run the website, icecreamman.com, which posts reviews and photos from each excursion. Last year at Bonnaroo, along with handing out 2,500 treats, his crew—three photographers, two writers and three helpers—took over 7,000 digital shots and reviewed nearly every performance.
“He masterminds situations that benefit everyone,” says Pat Kauchick, a 51-year-old photographer who flew in from Arizona last summer to help shoot the festival.
Sundae Morning Allen with Jim James of My Morning Jacket
Now, instead of jazz band classics, Allen is spinning The White Stripes, who perform Sunday night on the Which Stage, from “Bessita,” the Yaris hatchback that Toyota custom-built for his operation last year. (He still uses Bessie much of the time, since Bessita only holds about 400 ice creams.) The Ice Cream Man recently collaborated with Warner Bros. to help promote the duo’s new record Icky Thump by previewing songs as he handed out treats designed by the Stripes’ graphic artist Rob Thomas at the Coachella Music Festival in Indio, Calif.
“We think of every way we can to integrate our sponsors to make it worth their while because there’s so many different things that they can be a part of,” Allen says en route to Kansas for the Wakarusa Festival. “We really have to offer something that’s going to be directed to a target audience that’s unique.”
This year alone, Allen has logged more than 3,000 miles, spanning from Austin, site of the SXSW Music and Media Conference, to Vancouver, British Columbia, his first international venture, for the Virgin Festival. “The more I do, the more I have faith in the process,” Allen says. “You just have to relax and hope that everything works out. It’s starting to become second nature.”
That doesn’t mean that things are becoming easier, though. Allen still spends most nights lying atop his freezers in Wal-Mart parking lots without air conditioning, while nearly every part of Bessie has been replaced or rebuilt in the last year. “There’s a huge personal sacrifice involved, but that’s part of the reason why it hasn’t been done before,” Allen says. “We’re not making any money off of this. I live with my parents. I’ve sold nearly everything I own to keep this thing going. I wake up in the morning, though, and all I want to do is work, because I know this is what I should be doing. I’m constantly reminded of how something as simple as free ice cream can make people so happy.”
On Tuesday, Bessie arrived at St. Jude Children’s Hospital in Memphis, where Allen hosted an ice cream social, giving away over 500 sweets donated by Ice Cream Man, an unaffiliated Memphis company with over 20 years in the community. “It’s about bringing a smile to the kids’ faces,” Allen says, “but it’s also similar to the way we do festivals because we want to reward everybody involved behind the scenes that is helping make a difference.”
Following his weekend at Bonnaroo, where he hopes to catch sets by Manu Chao, Wilco, the Flaming Lips (whom he once joined on stage as a dancing alien extra) and, of course, the White Stripes, Allen will head north for the Ice Screamers Convention in Pennsylvania. Then he’s off to Chicago for the Pitchfork Music Festival and Lollapalooza, but there’s no telling where the road will ultimately lead.
“You can only plan so much,” Allen says. “Life takes living, doing, making things work. Outside of a few festivals, I have no idea what’s going to happen. That’s what keeps it exciting. As long as I have a full freezer, I’ll be satisfied.”