The Fest 7 :: Gainesville, FL :: Oct 31 - Nov 2

Hey Everyone,

Well today is the day many of you have been waiting for (and bugging the crap out of us for). Today we are proud as can be to announce the official schedule for FEST 8!!! Click here to check out THE FEST 8 SCHEDULE

We have looked over and over it so many times that when I close my eyes at night all I see are small Excell blocks flying about in space. Really exciting stuff! Enjoy, plan your weekend, see when you are playing and who you are playing against and hopefully everyone will be moderately content with our planning. If you have attended FEST in the past you know there are always tough decisions to be made that weekend. We just have too many amazing bands playing, so sorry if we tried to get all your favorites in town at the same time. I am sure this will not be the absolute final version. Bands always pop up now to tell us their conflicts and stuff. I am really looking forward to our email boxes on Monday morning!

When you check out the schedule you will also notice a few new spots added this year. This is why we were able to add so many more bands this year! So, when you go to these places be super super awesome to them for being nice enough to have your jerk face in there.

New Venues Added:

Flaco’s- Flaco’s is located on the corner right beside Durty Nelly’s. In the front there is this amazing Cuban joint that many of you who visit during the FEST have made it a staple for late night grub jam. In the back they now have a little draft bar and a space for musicians to play. Every Wednesday night, a few buddies of ours play in there. Shows are always free, always fun, and always packed. A super awesome dude and musician in town, Michael Claytor, approached me about having some of his friends play. He also offered up to provide his PA and run the shows for us. Check out his awesome jams here. These shows will be all ages and free for everyone, so pop in there and check out some awesome local and touring acts as well as a few surprise acoustic versions of some of your favorite bands.

CMC- The CMC (website) has been around Gainesville for as long as I can remember. It was one of the first places many of us got to see Against Me! in their early stages. They just moved to a new location on S. Main and with the new location came lots more room to do awesome stuff. Replay Dave who works at No Idea with us started doing these Tuesday night acoustic shows there to raise funds and awareness for the CMC. They went very well and are still going strong. Dave approached me about doing something at CMC during FEST this year. After meeting with the amazing folks at the CMC, I left feeling that it was going to be a beautiful space to do a showcase. I am very happy to say we have great shows lined up there and think it will also open lots of folks’ eyes to how strong a community can be. They also have a lot near the building and are offering parking for a small donation. This is perfect for any of you who want a place to stash your ride between The Kickstand and downtown.

Parking will cost $5 a day and is available from 12pm - 2am at 11 SE 5th Avenue. (South on Main St. Left on SE 5th Ave, on your immediate right). Reserve your spot as there are only 30 spaces! Email daachagallery@gmail.com.

Rum Runners- Rum Runners (website) used to be a Fat Tuesday’s. Still looks like one too. They have a wall of frozen drink machines and a giant Gator statue in the corner with Mardi Gras beads all over it. My buddy Bobby came to me and said the new owners were super nice and wanted to do FEST shows there. We went down one Friday, had a few frozen treats, and talked to the owner. He was stoked to have us invade his venue for the weekend and is ready for a full-blown party! So, we have Savage Brewtality in there for the kick off. Figured if they want the party we can bring it to them. But word of warning: total brain freeze on too many of those frozen adult beverages!

If you are interested in volunteering for FEST 8 check the news post below this one.

If you missed last week’s news post, read further down below to check out talks of THE FEST ART SHOW, SMALL BROWN BIKE playing, trailer for the FEST documentary, and other goodies.

If you would like to help us spread the word about THE FEST 8 you can email streetteam@thefestfl.com with all your contact info and where you can put up posters at in your town. Also, please email us a general idea of how many posters you wish to take on.

You can also help us out by going to this page and stealing the FEST 8 web banner. You just cut and paste the link into your personal page so everyone can see it. Check them out here!

Also, in the past week we had a handful of Brits decide to cancel their rooms at The Holiday Inn, so we now have a small number of rooms available. They include Kings and Doubles and are for all kinds of different nights, so reservations will be taken by phone only to make sure we don’t over sell anything! If you’re interested in booking a room, give my lovely secretary Cam a call and let him know. He can be reached at 352-379-9099 and is in the office weekdays from 10am-7pm. If you want to call at night or over the weekend, please leave a detailed voice message with your name, phone number, and what day and time you called, and he will call folks back in the order in which they called to make everything fair and square. Rates are still $169 plus tax a night and the party there is going to be raging.

That is it for this week. Short and sweet. Not sure what will pop up for our news announcement for next Friday but I am sure with a month left we will be updating you all on other non-official things going down FEST weekend and pre-FEST shows in the works. We also hope to have a page up with artist features on the FEST 8 ART SHOW and who will be setting up at THE FEST FLEA MARKET. If you are interested in vending please check out the Flea Market section of our site. It’s time to head to Common Grounds happy hour!!! Cheers Doggies!!!

-Tony Weinbender & THE FEST 8 CREW!!!