It started as a birthday party. Now, it's a 'heavy metal Woodstock.'

MYRTLE CREEK — In 2011, Dustin Rivera held a birthday party.

He lives on a property around 10 miles east of Myrtle Creek, and decided to invite four heavy metal bands to perform for his special day.

Twelve years later, it’s evolved into a full-blown heavy metal music festival — titled, appropriately, “Riverafest” — with 25 bands performing over three days, and hundreds of attendees camping through the weekend on what is essentially his front lawn.

“This is a small community. Word gets out fast,” Rivera said.

Rivera has lived in Douglas County for 17 years, working as a painting contractor. Once he found out people knew about the metal bands showing up on his doorstep, he started to sell tickets and bring more bands from the Pacific Northwest and beyond.

“Watching them all succeed, as this things gets bigger, watching their popularity grow, their fan base grow, I do this for them,” Rivera said. “I don’t make money doing this. I’m here to make these guys some money, I’m here for the community to have a good time.”

Chad Smith, who performs as part of Las Vegas-based band Hemlock, performed Thursday night, the first of the event’s three days. His band, which was founded in 1993, has toured with popular metal acts like Slayer, Korn and Rob Zombie, but they play a few shows a year in smaller, outdoor venues like these.

“This is a little like a hippie, heavy metal version of Woodstock,” Smith said. “I might not have ever been to Myrtle Creek, Oregon, but Dustin hit us up and we said ‘Hell yeah, we’ll be there.’ So now we’re here, and it’s beautiful.”

Tickets for the event were $25 per day. Rivera wants to keep prices as low as possible, letting as many people as possible come camp in his front yard, have a good time and mosh to the music.

“Most of all, I’m a fan,” Rivera said. “When the show starts, when the music kicks in, that’s when I go back to my childhood and I’m out there having fun. That’s my therapy, and it’s his therapy, it’s their therapy. That’s what makes us happy.”