BA Indie fest

While lots of students are buying their school books and preparing for the fall semester at San Francisco State, Daniel Costa, a senior music business major, was waiting to find out when his band, Bel Air Academy, was going to hit the stage at the first Bay Area Indie Rock Music Festival last Saturday August 25.

Costa thought the bands that are based in San Francisco drew a decent amount of people at the festival but he witnessed that the same bands would have drawn more if they played closer to or in San Francisco. He said it seemed like a stretch to call Martinez the Bay Area.

However, the festival became a way to reach a new audience. There may have been slip-ups with the sound at the Bay Area Indie Festival and people may have went home cold with bug bites but everyone involved in this festival--fans, bands, promoters stayed true to the indie ideals.

The festival that was schedule to begin at 12 p.m. took an extra two hours to start due to sound system complications. “In the beginning no one knew what was going on,” said Costa.“It was kind of good for us because more people showed up later to see us.”

The promoter of the event, Joshua Carter who is also the CEO/Co-founder of 3 Udders Productions, was seen darting back and forth through the John Muir Amphitheater attempting to hold the show together. “We had to fire our sound guy yesterday at the last minute,” he said.

The new sound engineer seemed a bit unprepared, yet fans were still not jaded. Once the show got pieced together, fans were quick to see the golden opportunities that were created by bands that were waiting to go on. “I think it’s a bit unorganized since it’s their first time, but I think it’s really awesome because it’s like a huge hang out,”said Amanda Meth, Freshman at San Francisco State.

Meth said it was great that she got to talk to Sugarcult, one of her favorite bands at the festival and meet the guys from Overview who hung out and posed for snapshots. “It’s all day, with bands at their tents, and walking around --it’s pretty intimate,” she said.

As the sun was setting behind the stage, fans gathered to watch Overview perform. The decent sized crowd listened with enthusiasm as lead vocalist, Spencer Dräger smiled in hopes of reaching new fans. “It’s just such an independent do-it-yourself-kind-of-deal, so right now our goal is to have people listen to us and see us play live.”

3 Udders Productions has already put next years festival into works but has yet to name a location or lineup. In addition to being a promotion company, they say they will be adding a record label soon.