Philadelphia Beard Festival to feature ‘hairy’ much fun
PHILADELPHIA » The city of Philadelphia has been called many things before, but the “City Of Beardly Love” is a relatively new title. After the first-ever Philadelphia Beard Festival took place there last year, Philadelphia was ranked as the #1 facial hair friendly city in America in a study conducted by Wahl Clipper Corp. in partnership with Opinion Research Corporation. Festival promoters Michael Wink of Drexel Hill and Kevin Baxter of Delaware are back, hoping to retain Philly’s title by hosting the Second Annual Philadelphia Beard Festival, returning to The Piazza at Schmidt’s Common in Northern Liberties, noon-6 p.m. Sunday, April 29.
The festival is the brainchild of Baxter and Wink, two local event producers who specialize in niche festivals and are co-owners of the Digital Force Agency, a digital branding company at 15th and Walnut streets. In addition, John Frankowski, former owner of Shampoo Nightclub and Swanky Bubbles, is involved in bringing this unique concept to life. Wahl Clipper came on board this year as the title sponsor of the festival, stage and beard contest. Wahl will provide complimentary beard grooming throughout the day on the Wahl grooming stage.
The festival will feature a plethora of activities, including the Wahlsponsored beard contest. Contestants can enter their beards in 12 different facial hair categories before a panel that will include judges from Wahl, the community, businesses and locals, including John and Jackie Mansi of Sleight of Hand Barber Shop in Prospect Park. Categories will include longest, groomed, business beard, fake beard male, fake beard female, partial, natural, freestyle and more. Winners will receive bragging rights, along with commemorative glass trophies for displaying.
Just like last year, the festival will also host “Bearded Speed Dating,” for those lovers of bearded gentleman.
Beyond just “the beards,” the festival will entertain guests with axethrowing from Bury the Hatchet, local craft beers, music by DJ Troublemaker, live acoustic music from local favorites Tino & Ashley, whiskey and spirit tastings, a mobile cigar lounge from The Traveling Tobacconist, outdoor games, food trucks, beard product vendors and more. Mural artist Alloyius McIlwaine will be on site, painting live on canvas.
As the title sponsor, Wahl’s giant mobile barbershop and team of master barbers will be there to support all the festival’s hairy happenings. Philadelphia marks the kick-off of Wahl’s annual mobile grooming tour which includes taking a 30-foot mobile barbershop on the road to visit the 10 Most Facial Hair Friendly Cities in America. At each tour stop, Wahl’s team of master barbers will give guys free facial hair trims for a good cause. For every trim, Wahl will donate $1 to “ZERO - The End of Prostate Cancer,” the leading national nonprofit with the mission to end prostate cancer.
While on the road, Wahl will select one guy from each tour stop location and one guy from online entries as finalists in the Wahl Man of the Year contest. These lucky few will be crowned champion of their city and then go mano a mano in a facial hair face-off to compete for the ultimate Wahl Man of the Year title.
The 10 finalists will each win $500 and Wahl products. Online voting will help determine who wins the grand prize, which includes the title of “Wahl Man of the Year” and $1,500. The contest runs through Sept. 27. For more information about Wahl’s Facial Hair Friendly Cities Tour, or Wahl Man of the Year Contest, visit WahlGrooming.com.
The festival has its roots in Delaware County. Wink, a lifelong Delco resident, is a graduate of Monsignor Bonner High School in Drexel Hill and Williamson College of the Trades in Middletown, where he was certified as the youngest-ever structural coatings inspector.
“I never did a thing with that certification,” laughed Wink. “I went on to start my own contracting business but quickly got into the promotions field.”
After graduation, it all started with a New Year’s Eve event. Wink was working at Spectator’s in Springfield when the place decided to host a NYE event. Tickets sales were sluggish. Wink offered to help them promote the party and before long, the event was a sell-out and Wink discovered his untapped talent as a promoter and an underlying passion for making things happen. Before long, he moved onto W.C. Murphy’s in Havertown and then to the former Deck in Essington. It was at The Deck that he met future business partner Baxter, who was also a promoter there. Wink went on to do promotions at Harrah’s Chester, where he met Dave Feldman. Wink and Feldman paired up with Baxter to host the first-ever Philadelphia Cheesesteak Festival in 2015.
Before producing festivals, Wink also worked as a corporate chef/ manager at Stephen Starr’s Morris’ Café in the Duane, Morris building at 17th and Market streets and at Starr’s Tableau, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts’ full-service café.
“I wasn’t a trained chef, but I fell right into this because I love to cook and I’m a really good cook,” Wink confided.
After the inaugural Cheesesteak Festival, Baxter and Wink combined their talent for promotions, entertaining and creative ideas, along with their knowledge of social media, business, and event planning, and launched the Digital Force Agency.
The duo conceived the idea for the beard fest after noticing the popularity of beard competitions trending across the nation. The other competitions were just that, beard competitions, Wink said, without any other fanfare or hoopla.
“The other competitions didn’t have much going on in addition to the beard contests, so we decided to amp up our festival idea, to be the most manly event ever,” Wink explained. “We added other activities that guys — and women — would enjoy, and included music, food and drink, plus invited many vendors. It turns out that beards are a whole culture of their own. There are beard clubs and groups out there and all kinds of beard-loving people that made this unique event a whole lot of fun! People kept coming up to us, asking us for the date of the next one.”
Wink and Baxter, who both sport beards of their own, have been working non-stop to promote this year’s facial hair-themed festival. Vendors can still sign up to come on board for the unique and memorable event.
Digital Force Agency is planning on having more festivals in the next year or so, including a Pickle Festival in September In the same Northern Liberties location that holds about 3,000 attendees. For the beard fest, the pair has flooded social media, including the “Philadelphia Beard Fest 2018” Facebook page, which they continually update as they add on more festivities and vendors each day.
“No pun intended, but we will try to grow this festival more and more every year,” Wink smiled. “We are wide open to its possibilities.”
Wink said that whenever he’s in Center City or anywhere that has a little crowd, he spots guys who have beards and hands them each a card that gives them a discount into the festival and compliments them with the words, “Nice Beard!”
“I know everyone will have a great time at the Philly Beard Festival, those with beards and those without,” Wink commented. “Even if you only have a five o’clock shadow, come anyway to have fun, see some new and trendy grooming products, smoke a cigar, throw an axe, watch the competition or have a beer. There really is going to be something to amuse and entertain everyone there.”