Bigger music fest rocks Yellow Springs
Conor Stratton of Great Guys Entertainment recently returned to Yellow Springs after six years in Athens, but his heart never left the small town where he grew up.
For the past several years, the musician and concert promoter has presented Springsfest, which returns to the lawn of the John Bryan Community Center in Yellow Springs on Saturday, July 7. This year’s expanded lineup includes big name bands like Guided By Voices and Twin Peaks and emerging acts like Caamp, Counterfeit Madison and Speaking Suns.
Stratton recently met with us to talk about Springsfest.
Musical upgrade: “Getting Guided By Voices, Twin Peaks and Caamp was huge. With those three bands, we’re putting on something that’s the first of its type in the area in a long time. It’s interesting because there’s such a generation divide because people passed the age of 30 are excited for Guided By Voices. It’s the only thing they care about. If you’re younger, then it’s Twin Peaks. What they don’t know is both bands are such a compliment to each other. I knew if we had both, the festival would be through the roof.”
Hometown sounds: “Obviously, local boys Speaking Suns is one band people want to see. They always put on a great show. They really make Yellow Springs proud as a band. I’m excited too because there’s actually some new Yellow Springs bands that are great like Scary Balance, and this band Lori is fantastic. It’s exciting to have a couple of these new, young bands because there are only so many people in Yellow Springs that even play music. They’re just getting a fresh start so it’s nice to give them this opportunity to get heard. That’s something I’ve been always passionate about.”
Liquid expansion: “We’ve made some changes this year. We have multiple breweries instead of just one. Every year Yellow Springs Brewery does the Springsfest American Pale Ale, which is a delicious beer. They brew that up for us and I love it so much. They usually keep it on tap in the brewery too before and after the festival. I’m excited to have Warped Wing and MadTree with us, too. Those are excellent breweries so we’ll have a pretty wide selection.”
Festival shopping: “The Springsfest Art Market is also new this year. We took submissions from more than 100 crafts vendors and our art manager went through that and isolated 10 really unique crafts vendors.”
Start times: Gates open at 11 a.m. and the first band, Scary Balance, begins at 11:30 a.m. Guided By Voices closes out the night at 9:30 p.m.