Photos: Ché Holts When the operators of a U.C. Berkeley alumni campground first contacted the Bay Area’s Strong Brew and One Foot Productions about hosting a music festival in the Stanislaus National Forest near Pinecrest, the producers dreamt of a much larger project. The U.S. Forest Service shuttered their hopes of a Burning Man-esque…

The first-ever Bear Music Fest will be nothing like its organizers originally brainstormed, and they say that’s how they would prefer it. “I think the best things in life come out of the limitations with which you’re presented,” says Kevin Merritt, the event’s executive producer. The idea pitched two…