The Fest: Gainesville

Halloween: one of the greatest musical weekends of the year. New York hosts Hallowmass, New Orleans hosts The Voodoo Experience, and Gainesville hosts The Fest. This year, I finally made it to The Fest. The choice between Voodoo and Fest was easy: $180 for 89 bands vs. $60 for 200+ bands.

Every Halloween weekend, Gainesville residents travel to Jacksonville for the University of Florida vs. University of Georgia football game and the punks take over in their absence. Very quickly, the entire city is filled with the strong odors of beer, cigarettes and sweat. Punks travel in from everywhere — California, New York, even as far as England. My friend Julie and I drove to Gainesville and stayed in her friend’s UF dorm. Others opted to bum it for the weekend, finding different floors to sleep on each night.

This year, Less Than Jake, 7 Seconds, Dillinger Four and Strike Anywhere headlined. Besides the headliners, hundreds of lesser-known punk, pop, folk and hardcore bands played. Part of the Fest’s magic is that a smaller band that would normally only attract a handful of people can pack a room with everyone singing along to every word. The overwhelming feeling of community manifests everywhere during Fest. Fest-goers always seemed eager to start conversations and meet new people. This even made waiting in long lines at venues enjoyable, and the performers were friendly too. When more than 50 people got shut out of Andrew Jackson Jihad’s show, the band played an impromptu set in the parking lot across the street.

The official Fest shows were only a portion of the weekend’s events. Starting around 2 a.m. every night, countless bands played various warehouse shows and house parties. The music continued late into the night, until all the bands played or the police showed up.

Some of my highlights included seeing a few of my favorite bands multiple times (such as Defiance, Ohio and The Max Levine Ensemble), witnessing one of Cheeky’s last shows ever, crowdsurfing successfully for the first time and indulging in delicious burritos at El Indio. Fest allows its partakers to escape into a temporary punk mecca for one weekend out of each year, and I am already crossing off the days until Fest 2010.