WE Fest XII News
May 9, 2008
Less than two weeks away, hot damn! The bands are booked, the venues are stoked, radio and press are being great, and pistons are firing at full blast. Everything looks phenomenal. You rock.
April 27, 2008
HUZZAH! We've already raised enough money that ticket prices are still gonna be just $1 a day. That's badass.
April 18, 2008
Well, hot diggity, here comes WE Fest again!
I want to thank everyone new to our event for checking us out, and also thank all of our veterans for coming back, things are shaping up for 2008 to be one helluva year! We have almost 100 bands, more than ever before, and we also have more volunteers than any year since the very first years. Our staff is proving to be phenomenal, spanning three decades of indie music activism from the old veterans to the new kids coming up. I said last year that it felt brand new again, and 2008 looks even better, hot damn!
We've always been pretty tough when it comes to the rules, and this year we have a few rule changes that loosen things up a bit, so I thought I might go over them and let everybody know why we're shifting gears.
CHANGE #1: The biggest change is that we're accepting sponsorships for the first time. As all of you veterans know, our ticket prices are always dirt cheap, and we've never accepted a single sponsorship dollar over the entire course of our first 11 festivals. So why change anything now? Simple answer. We want to be able to pay the bands, but we also want to keep ticket prices at just $1.00 a day.
Every year all of the bands have played for free, but after we've covered our basic expenses we've often surprised bands by giving them payouts (especially travelling acts, even moreso bands from overseas). This year, we're trying to make enough money so that all of the bands can be compensated. We don't know if it's going to work out or not, so if you're playing this year don't get all excited just yet, but we thought it was time to give it a shot. One of our primary goals has always been to try and genuinely be a service to bands, as opposed to so many other events that just aspire to take advantage of them, and we think this is the next step. Wish us luck!
For the record, there are still no plans to pay staff. All of us here behind the scenes are still working for free, and we also have rules about who we'll take money from. For us, a sponsorship should be a genuine endorsement from the event for a specific brand, and we take that seriously.
We know you all are loyal, and we have no intentions of trying to steer you wrong for a quick buck. We've already said "no" to a credit card company who want to try and get you all into debt, we aren't accepting any money from Starbucks so they can try to sell you Genesis best-of CDs, and we aren't accepting any money from the major record labels. But we are accepting sponsorships from folks like Sam Ash Music and Redhook Beer, and we're delighted that our local altrock radio station Surf 98.3 reached out to us to be our first ever official radio partner.
So yep, for the first year ever, there will be some logos of people who are donating money on our website in addition to the logos of folks who are donating their time and effort, but we think they're good people, so don't freak out. There might even be a company banner in the venues here and there, but have no fears - we're still the stubborn little independent pricks that we've always been, and we're still more than happy to tell anyone who's full of shit to get bent.
CHANGE #2: Another new change that might seem shocking is that we are no longer automatically rejecting major label bands. While we aren't courting bands with major label ties, the industry has changed a great deal since we first started this event back in 1996. Back then the major labels had all the power, and us little guys were barely even an afterthought. It was US vs THEM. But an amazing thing has happened. We little guys are building steam while the major labels are freaking out and losing their power. We no longer think that a band who really wants to participate, and understands and shares our devotion to community and integrity should automatically be rejected just because they have a major label affiliation. Overall, the playing field is rapidly being levelled, and there are some good folks who shouldn't be excluded just because of a business decision they've made.
*Note to major label bands: if you wanna play (not this year, 'cause we're booked, but next year), just call us, we're friendly. Despite being heavily entrenched in indie and punk scenes for years, we don't buy into any of that indie-rock snob stuff. That being said, don't have your "people" call us. Your "people" are a pain in the ass, and will almost certainly get you immediately rejected.
CHANGE #3: Booking is different! We no longer do centralized booking where bands are chosen by committee, but instead, we have a series of showcases booked mostly by WE Fest alumni, and also by a few choice bloggers and music magazine publishers, all of whom are showing off bands that they themselves love. WE Fest has always been supposed to be about a congregation of voices. New voices, veteran voices, angry voices, soothing voices, from bluegrass to death metal, the whole gamut of the underground. By changing the way we're doing booking, we're allowing some very different people who really love music the opportunity to show off the new stuff that they truly believe in.
OK, so that's what's new! But ultimately, not much has changed. We still think the mainstream music industry is a crock, and we're still not interested in becoming the next SXSW or CMJ NMM clone.
We create the stuff we believe in instead of just bitching about the stuff that sucks, we build the things that we want to exist instead of complaining about how those things don't exist yet, and once a year we all get together, drink enough beer to drown a small army and become, like, BFF, ya dig? Dig!
April 18, 2008
2008 WE Fest Venues Confirmed
This year's WE Fest will take place from Thursday, May 22 through Monday, May 26 at the Soapbox Laundro Lounge, The French Quarter and The Whiskey in downtown Wilmington, NC.