Wayne Coyne of Flaming Lips plays Langerado in 2006. (Alex Gaylon / flickr)

Related: Bonnaroo slowly, bizarrely rolls out lineup

At this time two years ago, I was laying the groundwork to get myself out to Big Cypress, an Indian reservation out in the Everglades, for my second Langerado Music Festival.

The question was whether I should take my car all the way into the reservation or catch a shuttle bus from a hotel in Sunrise — I decided both would work: drive in on Friday, switch to the bus on Saturday. I just had to get out there to see R.E.M., the Beastie Boys, get my G. Love sighting for the year out of the way, etc.

This time last year, we heard about organizers calling off Langerado.

Now it’s 2010, and my questions have switched to something along the lines of: Where am I going to get my festival fix now?

(OK, yeah, I know: SunFest. But I’m greedy.)

The Langerado Music Festival, which canceled its 2009 version due to, as its Web site proclaims, “sluggish ticket sales and lack of corporate sponsorship in this economy”, seems to have died without so much as a whimper.

Though there’s never been an official announcement, co-founder Ethan Schwartz basically pronounced the festival dead in September last year in an interview with Metromix South Florida writer Dan Sweeney. The interview is no longer on the Web, apparently, but a few Web sites, including Consequence of Sound and Glide’s Hidden Track blog, still retain a key paragraph in the story:

Over beers at Davie’s Ye Olde Falcon Pub, Schwartz put to rest rumors of a 2010 Langerado (to be held out in the Everglades again, according to the Internet grapevine), saying that the festival was “probably” gone for good. While he insisted that he isn’t done promoting and producing shows in South Florida, he quickly added that he’d like to do shows all over the state as well as his new home state (of Georgia), which, to these jaded ears, sounded suspiciously like he’d be bringing bands to, say, Atlanta, Orlando or Tampa, rather than down here.

To be honest, it’s not surprising at all that following the 2009 debacle, there’s no more Langerado. There were a lot of factors that seemed to go into its demise:

• Too big, too fast: Was it greed? Was it too high a demand? Whatever it was, Langerado had ballooned from a medium-sized festival at Markham in 2007, to a big festival in the Everglades in 2008 and then to its proposed 2009 version, smack dab in downtown Miami. And you have to wonder if the show just got too big.

• That darned economy: Let’s face it, even in the best of financial times, it’s difficult to put on a show of a festival magnitude. For example, this year’s Rothbury fest up in Michigan was canceled, and that received absolutely glowing reviews from concertgoers last year.

• Terrible timing: Any chance of a major showing by Langerado’s more loyal fans took a major hit when the fest was scheduled for the same weekend as Phish’s reunion shows in Hampton, Va. And considering the Phish shows were announced before Langerado, you have to wonder if it was a case of stubbornness on the organizers’ part.

• Bad location: Sticking the 2009 show at Bicentennial Park rankled a lot of Langerado’s loyalists, who loved the idea of camping out and raved about doing so at both Markham Park (site of 2005-07 Langerado) in Sunrise and Big Cypress. Camping at Bicentennial was going to be nigh impossible, not to mention dangerous, and the adjustment to Miami/Miami Beach’s hotels was a move that fans seemed unwilling to make.

• Lineup questions: Langerado had a loyal fan base, but slowly, this group was becoming disenchanted with the show’s lineup decisions in its final years, and the 2009 show may have been the final straw. Clearly, Schwartz and Brown were trying to draw from a variety of different crowds through their lineup, but some seemed annoyed with sticking Snoop Dogg and Public Enemy next to Umphrey’s McGee and Michael Franti & Spearhead next to Death Cab for Cutie and Ryan Adams next to Pepper and Slightly Stoopid. The mix of fans they wanted weren’t coming together the way they wanted, it seems.

• Bad publicity: Was a bus crash which killed a woman in Big Cypress in 2008 too much for Langerado to overcome? Festivals are supposed to be places to forget the stress of daily life and just sit back and enjoy the music. That seemed to go away with the crash — especially for me. I was actually on the bus that crashed. And I wasn’t too sure I really ever wanted to go through the festival experience again after that.

Whatever the reason, Langerado is, for all intents and purposes, a memory. For the most part, it’s a good one, as I got to see R.E.M., Flaming Lips and the Beasties for the first time, discovered Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and Secret Machines, and found out why Thievery Corporation is a can’t-miss live act.

(And also got an urban legend out of it, when the woman who I eventually married apparently stood next to Keith Richards during the Flaming Lips’ set. She couldn’t quite confirm it, though.)

And yes, others have come to fill the void. The Harvest of Hope Fest in St. Augustine is the closest to keeping the eclectic bill Langerado strove to provide. The Ultra Music Festival/Winter Music Conference will pacify the beat-crazy, Wanee will satisfy the Southern rockers/jam band fans, Florida Music Festival will bring up-and-comers to Orlando and the WMNF Tropical Heatwave acts as a tiny Langerado in Ybor City up in Tampa with a varied bill.

And you can’t forget SunFest, which seems to get more hip by the year. (I mean, they got 311 to South Florida a year after Langerado did.)

So we’ll miss you Langerado. And if someone tries to bring it back… remember, sometimes keeping it a tad on the small side isn’t such a bad idea.