Web Exclusive: A conversation with the Fest's Tony Weinbender

For the past seven years, TONY WEINBENDER has curated the three-day weekend of beards, booze and bro-ing down known world over simply as THE FEST. Hundreds of bands, each handpicked by Weinbender, descend upon Gainesville, Florida, each October and take over the city’s downtown, performing sets in one of a dozen or so packed clubs within a few blocks’ radius. Think of it as punk rock’s South By Southwest. (Among Fest alumni: Hot Water Music, Against Me!, the Gaslight Anthem, Minus The Bear, Mastodon, the Blood Brothers, Lucero, Ted Leo/Pharmacists, Pretty Girls Make Graves, Lifetime, the Bouncing Souls, Naked Raygun, Avail, the Lawrence Arms, Paint It Black, Municipal Waste, Seaweed and literally thousands more.)



This year’s installment, the Fest 8, is as strong a lineup as Weinbender has ever assembled. From longtime Fest staples (Dillinger Four, Less Than Jake) to rare one-off appearances (Snuff, Samiam); young up-and-comers (Polar Bear Club, the Swellers) to classic reunions (Small Brown Bike, the Ghost); folk-punk (Andrew Jackson Jihad, Defiance, Ohio) to face-shredding metal (Coalesce, Torche); the Fest truly offers something for everyone.



On the eve of the Fest 8, once again taking place in downtown Gainesville this weekend, SCOTT HEISEL caught up with Weinbender to discuss the inner workings of the Fest, just how you can get blacklisted from the event and if there will be a Fest 9.



You’re less than a week away from the Fest 8. What’s your biggest concern right now?

There are three major concerns. One is that we can actually afford to pull this thing off. Expenses are way, way up, across the board. Two, that a lot of these U.K. bands get over the border. Lots of them aren’t getting working visas, they can’t afford to. We’re gonna do lots of little things here and there to get them across. Three, I always worry about the weekend of, just the overall safety of everybody. But we’ve done seven Fests, we’ve never had a fight at any event that I know of.



Why do you think the Fest creates a friendlier atmosphere than other fests?

I think the root of that is based around the root of the scene that it revolved around to start with. When we first started this festival, it was based around friends and family; there were no big, giant bands that we weren’t directly friends with. There were no strangers; everybody knew each other. It’s based around a DIY punk scene. There are no egos at Fest, neither with attendees or the bands playing.



We have 330-some bands playing over three days at 11 stages all over town, and this whole thing is run on a volunteer basis. A lot of the volunteers we don’t know, and we just take them on trust. They put forth a lot of heart and a lot of energy, and they care about how the weekend goes. We don’t have to worry about security issues because everybody’s involved. We did the numbers yesterday; I think something like 1,370 people attending this festival are playing in bands. That‘s more than half of our paid attendance. People in bands know what’s up; they know what kind of atmosphere they want to have.



Out of those 300 bands playing over three days, how many bands’ sets do you actually get to sit down and watch from start to finish?

I don’t think I’ve ever seen an entire set of a band at Fest. Maybe some of the main-venue bands because usually I’m stuck there since it’s the most chaotic. This year, I have taken an extra step–I have one of my good buddies, Kyle Baker, helping out with production, along with Cam Taylor and Ben Pratt, who have always worked with me. With four of us being overlords, it’s gonna free me up a little bit more, so I’m hoping I don’t have to do as much.





Weinbender (left) with Cam Taylor (right).


Since you spend the whole weekend running around from venue to venue, what are the bands you are hell-bent on catching at least one song from?

I pretty much curate the entire Fest, so it’s really, really hard. My top three are Snuff, 7 Seconds and Samiam. I haven’t seen Snuff since 2001; I’ve never seen 7 Seconds live; and I haven’t seen Samiam since I booked them a show in 2000. Those are three bands I definitely want to see, come hell or high water.


There are so many awesome reunions this year and it’s gonna be hard to split it up. I wanna be there for the Small Brown Bike set, because they’re gonna be playing new songs.


As far as new bands go, that’s one of the cool things about Fest: We really actively try to bring in a lot of new bands. We had over 600 bands apply this year besides the bands we handpicked and asked to play, and we accepted more than ever. We actually created a couple new venues just to make sure we could have space.



Yeah, there are definitely some new venues this year. Flaco’s, Rum Runners, Cam’s Cove…

Cam’s Cove was created yesterday. [Laughs.]



You also involve the University Of Florida in the Fest, booking shows at the Rion Ballroom a few miles from downtown. Have you ever thought about having a shuttle service to take people there?

We have, but honestly, it’s just really costly. There’s liabilities and weird stuff, like what if this thing was in an accident? I hate having to think about lawsuits and legalities, but this year more than ever, I’ve really tried to cover my ass in a lot of ways. The campus really wants to be involved, though; we pick the bands, and they run the show. It’s not as convenient as the other clubs; but being a free show on campus, you have a lot of UF students who will go to that show who won’t even know what Fest is.



The Fest has grown considerably in the past few years; how do you handle the outside influence?

We run this thing on our own; we’ve run it on our own for eight years. We don’t need outside help. Like, today, I got a call from Budweiser. Today. Today. They were like, “Yeah, we always hear about this fest, how can we get involved?” I was like, “Call me three months earlier, and also we would never get involved with Budweiser.” We deal with Pabst. We deal with Pabst because if we’re gonna take anything from any major corporation we’re gonna take it from one that has some street cred. Yes, Pabst is distributed by Miller, but we deal directly with the Pabst rep, and it’s cool because Pabst has its own distribution down here and they can bring in a lot of small, independent craft beers. Next year, they’re going to try and get some of those craft beers to get involved.



I don’t regret anything because if anyone wants to get on us for major corporations getting involved with the Fest, it’s all in trade. We don’t take money from people. That’s how it’s done. If a magazine like you guys, it’s a trade for advertisement. It’s the same with Pabst. They give us kegs, and they give us money to make beer koozies. This year, we got Orange Amps and C&C Drums to give us gear on loan to use for backline. Dean Markley sent us a box of strings so every band gets new strings. Granted, they have the dude from Extreme on them… [Laughs.]



We’ve turned down some sponsorships. We’ve turned down money thrown in our faces. It’s our ethics. I don’t want to compromise my personal beliefs. A couple years ago, a liquor sponsor popped up and wanted to give us a good chunk of money. I thought about how it could help us to pay bands more, but I was opposed to the brand of liquor. It didn’t really fit with what we were doing. It was cheesy. There’s nothing I regret on any of the decisions we made.



What’s been the one moment over the past seven years of the Fest that you would say was the worst moment?

Last year, we had some good friends of ours do security on the main stage at the Venue. The Venue has their own security, too, and there was a miscommunication, and there was a fight in the parking lot out back. I didn’t get to witness it; I didn’t know what the fuck was going on. It took about six months of me trying to piece things out with people who were my friends who were not happy with me at all. Now, we’re totally cool. That’s honestly the worst scenario, when my friendship with somebody else got compromised because of something that happened at Fest.



We’ve had bands that have decided they don’t want to play Fest anymore–they’d had a bad show or didn’t get enough money–and that’s fine. I could care less about that. We have plenty of fuckin’ bands who want to play for the right reasons. We’ve never had anyone get hurt; we’ve never had a lawsuit. I really can’t say there’s been bad things that have happened during Fest.



Are there any bands you’ve decided are no longer allowed to play the Fest?

There have only been two, and I won’t name names. They both were a very, very long time ago. One was because their tour manager had partied a little too hard that weekend, and was “out to find me” because he thought we didn’t pay his band, but we did. The guy got all up in my face and his eyes were about three times bigger than what they should’ve been. I woke up the next morning to, like, a billion calls from this guy about how he was gonna slit my throat and all this stuff. The band doesn’t exist anymore and it doesn’t matter, but note to bands: Sometimes, your buddy being your tour manager is not the best idea in the world.



The other band was a band I was friends with and pulled a rock star move. They decided to way overplay on their set, and played into the next band’s set, significantly, to where the next band got to play, like, two songs. That band has since asked to play, and we told them, “No, you can’t play. You fucked up. Never again.” It was a dick move, and we don’t want that here. There’s no room for rock stars at the Fest.



What’s really cool is to see a band who came and played Fest on a really small level and then over the following year, see them just get bigger. I don’t know if the Fest had that much of an impact on it, but some bands have told me it did.



Oh, sure. Polar Bear Club last year; the Gaslight Anthem the year before…

Gaslight really wanted to play this year, and Benny [Horowitz, TGA drummer] and I had lots of talks about it, but it just didn’t fit into their schedule. That’s what’s really hard with bands of their level: There’s so much involved with their year. It’s so hard to balance it out. I totally understand when bands can’t do it. Prime example: This year, before we had confirmed anything, Against Me! were like, “Hey, I think we’re gonna be in town that weekend; can we play?” and we started working everything out. Then I got a call from their agent that was like, “Look, Against Me! can’t play this year, I’m really sorry. Tom [Gabel] just found out he’s gonna be having a baby and his wife is due that month.” That’s totally understandable. I don’t want him to commit to playing Fest and then his baby comes out two days before and he has to cancel, and he doesn’t want to do that to the fans, either.



Bands have come to me and said that playing the Fest is like going on a tour. They play for all these people from all over the place, and then they go on tour after the Fest and in every single city, they meet someone who says, “I saw you at the Fest,” and they bring five or 10 of their friends. I don’t think bands can have a bad show at the Fest. I think the band can play poorly; but don’t think you can have a poorly attended show. There are always gonna be people there just to see you.



A lot of bands sacrifice a lot to come to this festival, and I kind of feel bad. They’re sacrificing time and travel and money to come here, and I can’t afford to pay them what they put into it. Broadway Calls, they signed up late for Fest. They’re taking a day off tour on the West Coast to fly in and play Fest, then fly back to the West Coast. I was like, “Really?”



Every year, you book bands from other countries to come and play. What about the attendees?

This year we have more people coming from overseas than ever. We have kids coming from China, Spain… People come from all over, and it’s nuts.



We had talked previously about the future of the Fest; can you tell me what your thoughts are now?

I hinted at maybe not doing Fest next year, and that’s still a possibility. It’s not that I don’t want to do it; I have other aspirations and dreams. I’m 33 now; I’ve done a lot and accomplished a lot in my life, but there’s still certain things that I want to still do and pull off before it’s all said and done. I think there’s a need for some of these ideas I have. I just don’t know if I can do them all together, with working, doing Southern Lovin’ PR, doing the Fest and being really involved with Harvest Of Hope Festival. Luckily, I don’t have a wife and kids.



So for everyone wondering if there will be a Fest 9, at what point would you have to start planning the weekend and booking bands to commit to it?

I think it was late April, early May this year. The dates [for the Fest] will always be the Georgia-Florida football game weekend. If you really wanna worry about it, bank on we’re gonna do it. Nine times out of 10, we’ll do it.



Okay, last question: It’s next Monday morning, and the Fest 8 has wrapped. What’s the first thought in your head?

“Oh, God, I gotta go down and start this meeting,” because I’ll think it’s another day of Fest. We still gotta clean out stuff, return rental PAs and tents, clean up the Holiday Inn… But as soon as that’s done? The first thing I do is go back to bed. alt