WE Fest: Is This the Future of the Music Festival?

How many bands are you going to have this year?
100, over five days.

How many do you anticipate showing up?
At least 20. [Laughs] I have no clue. Last year we had 3,000 over the course of the three days; and this year I think we will have more. We really made an effort to talk to the local hardcore community and the goth community and the metal community and say, "Look, we want you to be a part of this." A lot of these scenes are used to having doors slammed in their faces, and so they just sorta hunker down and don't reach out. We end up with folk bands hanging out with metal bands hanging out with industrial acts — and they're still friends! It's exciting. There's an energy this year that really hasn't existed since the very first years, and it's great to see the kids get excited about it.

What bands are you excited to see this year?
I'm dad. That's like saying which one of your kids do you like the most. I love them all the same. I can tell you that of all the bands playing this year the most likely to succeed is Spiraling. They've got a great record that just came out and they've got their shit together, which means people are gonna hear it. They will probably blow up faster than a number of other bands.

Have there been bands that have come through whose success has surprised you?
Well, not "surprised," because we've always had a lot of faith in them in the first place. But we've certainly had a lot of bands play WE Fest and go on to more notoriety, whether it be the Dismemberment Plan, or Mooney Suzuki, or Lamb of God ... you know, Alison Mosshart is blowing up right now with the Kills. And all of these people are WE Fest and proud — you know they are all proud of our tradition.

What do you think WE Fest has to say about the future of the music festival?
It's really time to promote this idea that artists, especially in this new climate, need to take control of these kinds of events. It's absolutely possible to do. WE Fest is a way for us to trade skill sets back and forth and learn how to compete in a market where, for the first time in history, a little tiny DIY band can compete against a major label band. Not on a level playing field, but at least with a fighting chance. David and Goliath actually exist today.

And WE Fest has been around for 12 years?
This is WE Fest XII. We skipped one year 'cause we were drunk [laughs].

I'd like to hear that story.
Well, yeah, we don't remember [laughs].

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