For sale: Albany music festival
MOVE founder wants to turn attention to annual Ahimsa yoga music event
After seven years, the creator of the MOVE independent music festival has put the brand on the market, offering up the trademarked logo and social media accounts for a locally grown event celebrating the Capital Region’s indie band scene.
“I think it gave tons of bands exposure and a chance to get hands-on industry advice from the VIPS we brought in,” said Bernie Walters, MOVE’S founder and CEO, in an email. He made the decision to sell because another annual project — the Ahimsa Yoga Music Festival, held in early November on Hunter Mountain — “has become my primary event and needs my attention.”
He posted the decision on Facebook Nov. 22, roughly 10 months after announcing that the festival would “take 2019 off to regroup.”
Launched in 2012, the MOVE festival modeled itself after SXSW, offering jam-packed programming that showcased 100 regional, national and international acts at multiple venues over the course of a single weekend. Also scheduled each year were panels and industry clinics aimed at helping local musicians form connections.
“I was inspired to create MOVE after witnessing a lack of festival for this ty pe of music in the Northeast. Most festivals catered to jam-band music and my business revolved around more indie/alternative music,” wrote Walters, who runs the record label Indian Ledge. “Also there wasn’t any regional festival that included the educational element. Which MOVE does.”
High points, for Walters, included “seeing people enjoying themselves going from club to club and thanking me.” A show by Canadian alt-rockers July Talk at the Hollow remains a favorite. Beyond that, he’s most proud of personally selecting “all the artists who have ever performed at MOVE.”
Over the years, those performers included Sean Rowe, Sawyer Fredericks, the Arkells and — in the festival’s inaug ural year — the Wombats. In April 2018, the slate featured Girl Blue, the Ryan Leddick Trio and C.K. and the Rising Tide.
In announcing the sale, he said, “the time has come for me to pass the Torch.” Beyond the trademarked logo, the brand sale includes videos, contacts, an Instagram account, a Facebook page with more than 10,000 followers and the website movemusicfest.com — “all yours for an unbelievable asking price.”
Asked what that might be, he replied in his email: “I cannot say exactly, but if someone were to make me an offer they would be surprised.”