Good Monday to you all and a sad goodbye to the wonderful spring month of April.
May is creeping in and you can start feeling the heat down here in Gainesville. It’s starting to be that time of year were the students leave, swim trucks start being broken out and weekend water fun begins.
Last time we updated, we announced some new bands and had a crazy day launching the ticket and hotel sales. It was a wild first day and like most first days of anything there were some glitches. I think we have everything worked out and are also in talks with the Paramount Plaza to release more rooms for anyone who had their heart set on staying there. Unfortunately, the Holiday Inn University Center sold out in about an hour, and many of you did not get a room booked there. We had no idea it would go that fast, and I know some of you from overseas had some issues in booking due to our credit card service providers’ restrictions on overseas transactions. We do truly apologize for all the hassle and wish we could have helped more; however it took us a while to get those issues straight with the company. Sorry again. We learn a little every time.
In good news though, we are super excited to announce a few more additions to the ever growing FEST 11 lineup! Joining the massive list of bands coming this year will be Good Riddance, Negative Approach, From Ashes Rise, The Bomb, Sonic Avenues, La Dispute, Captain We’re Sinking, City of Ships, Dukes of Hillsborough, Snakehealers, Billy & Joe and Party Drag!
So far we announced a massive list of amazing bands that are coming to party down with us all in October. A few happen to be Lagwagon, Anti-Flag, Braid, 7 Seconds, Naked Raygun, Frank Turner, Streetlight Manifesto, F.Y.P. , Baroness, A Wilhelm Scream, Mustard Plug, Andrew Jackson Jihad and a special Cadillac Blindside reunion show.
Go to the BANDS page to view and listen to them all.
We are going to take a few weeks before we add more additions. You might see a few just pop up here and there on the site. For now, I think we need to pull back the reigns a little bit and work on the schedule to see just how much room we have left, but trust me, there are a ton of bands left that want to play and are just figuring out their schedules still.
FEST 11 weekend passes are going FASTER THAN EVER BEFORE!!! We are only able to sell 3,250 passes and as I type this update we are at 1,887 sold. That happened in a little over a week! Do not be that person a few months from now who is freaking out because they can not get a FEST 11 weekend pass. Get it today on the TICKETS PAGE.
Thanks again for checking us out. Hope to have more updates and the first episode of our FEST RADIO SHOW on WGOT to check out in a few weeks.
-Tony and the FEST 11 crew
Happy 4/20 everyone!
I would also like to send a congrats out to Roger from Less Than Jake who is getting married today. Fucking Hippie!!!
So, today is the big day (Friday 4/20/12) where we unleash on you the opportunity to purchase FEST 11 WEEKED PASSES/ BOOK OFFICIAL HOTEL ROOMS/ and BUY FEST 11 MERCH.
Starting at 1:00pm EST today you can head over to the TICKETS page to order. You do not have to purchase a FEST 11 WEEKEND PASS to book HOTEL ROOMS or buy FEST 11 MERCH.
We are only going to sell 3.275 FEST 11 WEEKEND PASSES. They are $85 each from now until July 1st. 2012. After that they go up to $100 (if we are not sold out). So do NOT snail on this!!! HOTELS will go quickly as well, but please take your time with your order. There is a charge to change things. If you are having issues with your order please email peej@noidearecords.com.
Two weeks ago we announced a massive list of amazing bands that are coming to party down with us all in October. A few happen to be Lagwagon, Anti-Flag, Braid, Naked Raygun, Frank Turner, Streetlight Manifesto, Baroness,A Wilhelm Scream, Mustard Plug, Andrew Jackson Jihad and a special Cadillac Blindside reunion show.
This week we are not at 217 confirmed bands by adding: 7 Seconds, F.Y.P, Titus Andronicus, The Menzingers, Toys that Kill, The Soviettes, Underground Railroad to Candyland, We Are The Union, The Front Bottoms, La Dispute, The Criminals, Waster, Stoned at Heart, Waxahatchee, Cop Problem, No Weather Talks, The Manix, Billy Wallace, Code Orange Kids, Despite Everything, Former Thieves, The Great Explainer ,Young Turks, Criminal Culture, The 20 Belows, American War, Rob Lynch, Margate, Broadcaster ,Jus' Folks, Possessed by Paul James, Raindance, American Pinup, Bear Trade, Kill You Dead, Hold Tight!, The Liberation Service, Little League, Nightmares for a Week, No More and One Win Choice.
Go to the BANDS page to view and listen to them all.
We still have more confirmations to come and plan to announce them in two weeks if all goes well!!! Got some good things still cooking in the kitchen and I have time before the party so be patient with these bands as they try to figure out their fall schedules.
I am sad to say that we have heard early that the following bands will NOT be playing FEST 11. Promise Ring, Against Me, Propagandhi, Lawrence Arms, Fucked Up, Hot Snakes, Night Marchers, NOFX, None More Black, Obits, Paint It Black, Lifetime, Russian Circles, They Might Be Giants, and a few others. Just wanted to let FEST fans know that I tried and we will again if there is a next year.
I think that is about all we have to announce today. Check out our video of the week. The 1st episode of Australian punk rock podcast D.I.Wireless month-long road trip to attend FEST 10. I think there will be six episodes in all, and we will have them here first.
Thanks again and I hope we all make it though this crazy weekend! We have Tim Barry coming on Sunday so that equals hung over Monday morning!!!
-Tony and the FEST 11 crew.
Welcome everyone to the official launch of the FEST 11 website! We started early once again in hopes to give you all time to figure out how you are going to get Gainesville for our big 11 year anniversary. Dates for FEST 11 are Oct 26, 27 & 28, 2012.
I would like to thank the fine folks at Black Axe for the tight site design and our new TIKI party theme this year. As always, they have outdone themselves!
Booking FEST 11 was a bit of a challenge this year since it seemed like we had almost every alumni band in our town last year, but we have only begun the process and are really proud to say that we have a shit ton of bands already booked, and a ton of new bands coming to party with us all this year like Lagwagon, Braid, Anti-Flag Streetlight Manifesto, Ensign, Red Fang, Mustard Plug, Joyce Manor, Dan Vapid and the Cheats, Crusades, Black God, and many MANY more exciting new bands we hope to expose to you.
We also are giving an open arms return to the likes of Frank Turner, Naked Raygun, Baroness, Torche, The Swellers, Valient Thorr, Andrew Jackson Jihad, Shook Ones, The Sidekicks, Night Birds, Into It. Over It, Shellshag, Larry and His Flask, Burning Love, as well as many of our close family of bands who seem to never miss FEST!!!
Speaking of returns, it has been almost a decade since anyone has seen the likes of our really good friends Cadillac Blindside (featured band on the site). For those of you who are in the know you can thank me when we are all there at the show singing along. For those of you who don’t…get into it! Personally this is a really big deal to me. Cadillac Blindside was not only an amazing band when they were active, but some of the closest friends I had when I first moved to Gainesville even though they are from Minneapolis. Getting them to reunite has taken years in the making, and we could not be more pleased to have our good friends back in Gainesville!!! Fest has changed quite a bit since they have played so I hope you all will help me in welcoming them back!!!
Many of the bands this year are making their appearance at FEST 11 very special by making it their exclusive show in Florida. You can see a little icon on their band photo letting you know who is only coming to Gainesville to party down.
Go to the BANDS page of the site and check everyone out. Once we get all the info in from the bands, each page should have a song to check out, a video, links, and a little bit about the band that they have written. You can also jam out the FEST radio player and, hopefully, find some new favorite bands. I already have some newbies that are in my constant rotation while working on this beast. We are also not done booking this fucker. We have a few tricks still up our sleeves so stay tuned. We hope to have another big batch of bands to announce in the months to come. There are a ton of bands we are in talks with who are still trying to figure out their fall plans. Hell, I am totally shocked that this many bands have their shit together this far in advance. Trust me. This is only the beginning my friends.
In the months to come, we will also be doing our FREE DIGITAL DOWNLOAD COMPS. Last year we had 6. You can still download them here.
REGISTRATION: We will once again be doing it at the HOLIDAY INN UNIVERSITY CENTER. We have a plan to make the line move much faster this year and opening up an early registration on Thursday. We also have already stated planning some OFFICIAL PRE-FEST SHOWS for that day in Gainesville. So, come to town a little early and party an extra day. We will not be announcing who is playing PRE-FEST until later this summer, but I already have Double Down and Loosey’s totally booked up. We are getting dangerously close to making FEST a four day marathon.
FEST WEEKEND PASSES/ HOTELS/ MERCH go on sale April 20th at 1:00pm EST. Give us something else to celebrate that day! We are gonna do an early turd price again this year. It will be $85 before July 1st. Then it goes up to $100. So do not snooze! Last year we sold out in 60 days! We are only going to sell 3,275 weekend passes. Same we sold last year.
We now have 4 OFFICAL FEST HOTEL PARTNERS. The new ones have some pretty cool room features! Go to the HOTELS page to get the scoop on each hotel, and come back on 4/20 to get your pick. Hopefully with 4 hotels we will not sell out so fast.
Horsebites has once again graced up with some really kick ass wear again this year. We also brought back the FEST Hoodie and the FEST Pint glasses that were so popular last year. We also will have a third shirt design and a limited edition Horsebites FEST 11 Art Print for sale in the months to come. With this year’s TIKI theme I can only imagine how crazy that print will turn out.
OUR FEATURED VIDEO:
In October 2011, the makers of Australian punk rock podcast D.I.Wireless embarked on a month-long road trip to attend the 10th anniversary of THE FEST.
Along the way they met a number of bands who make the same pilgrimage year after
year to one of the biggest punk rock parties ever forgotten. The series captures thoughts
about hometown scenes as well as what makes THE FEST so unique - told by those who
play the theatres, bars and cafes, but are also just as much part of the debauchery as the
thousands of people from around the world who swarm to Gainesville every year.
All 6 episodes can be seen here on the FEST 11 site and at D.I.Wireless with a new episode debuting every 2 weeks.
KEEP INFORMED ABOUT FEST 11 & HELP SPREAD THE WORD:
Follow us on Twitter and Facebook for updates. We hope to do some really cool stuff with the site this year and maybe even debut a few things from bands in the months to come. Seems like everyone is putting out new material this year! Hopefully we can get some sneak peaks for you.
WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE! CRAZY FROM THE HEAT!
Tony and the FEST 11 crew
