A couple months ago, Audiofeed dropped the lineup for this year’s festival. It was met with a chorus of comments lifting up the same refrain:
“I don’t know who any of these bands are.”
My reaction was two-pronged. On the one hand, it’s a pretty bold move to loudly proclaim your own ignorance like that. On the other, I understand that when you compare the lineup for Audiofeed against events like Furnace Fest, Riot Fest, Post Fest, When We Were Young, or any of the other massive festivals offering lineups punctuated by dozens of legendary bands, Audiofeed certainly fails to capture the same sort of excitement.
Part of that is out of necessity. I had a hand in organizing a stage this year, and I can tell you that there were definitely budget constraints that we had to deal with. Our entire budget (lol what budget?) was less than what some of these festivals are paying single bands.
However, despite those constraints, there are some very intentional reasons why Audiofeed looks different than most other festivals dotting the calendar.
DIY by Design
Beneath the sheen of mid-size venues, headlining tours, and TicketMaster fees is a vibrant community of basement venues, living room tours, self-made merch, and more. You might not ever these bands on the radio (or whatever the 2023 equivalent of the radio is) or see them touring with any big names or playing any big fests. But, this underground scene is filled with absolute gems.
These scenes dot the landscape all over the continent, bands cross-pollinating as they tour outside of their home regions. Many of these bands have toured through my living room, crashed on my couch, or have hosted my own band in their own venues or housed us when we were on the road. Many of these scenes have their own smaller DIY festivals, like Bloodline Fest in South Bend IN, Steadfast Fest in Columbus OH, Threat Fest in Nashville TN, or the now defunct Flood City Fest in n PA.
Audiofeed serves as a sort of gathering of gatherings. Caravans converge on Urbana Illinois from Central Florida, Metro Detroit, New England, the Rockies, etc., etc., filled with bands sharing members and equipment. Solo artists build backing bands with friends from other parts of the country. Several sets are punctuated by guest appearances from friends in bands that they only see a couple times a year.
And this community aspect is the principal purpose of Audiofeed. It’s not concerned with offering a high-dollar lineup as much as fostering a community of musicians and the people they share their music with.
The Downside of Sponsorships
It takes a lot of money to create the sort of lineup that your Furnace Fests or Riot Fests have been putting out. Most festivals offset this cost through sponsorships. At its face, sponsorship looks like the perfect scenario: someone with money cuts you a check to help pay for your festival, simply for the pleasure of having their brand attached to it. It’s free money!
However, that money isn’t always as free as it might seem.
A lot of those sponsorships often come with conditions attached. Some sponsors might require you to book a particular band—sometimes a band you wouldn’t be interested in booking. Others might have conditions on what sorts of vendors are allowed at the festival.
For instance, in the months leading up to Furnace Fest 21, it was announced that there would be no outside water allowed into the festival, but people could buy water from festival sponsor Liquid Death. Granted, that’s an extreme example, and the (entirely justified) outrage from fans led to the decision being reversed. Still, it serves as a cautionary tale about what a sponsorship might cost.
Even beyond those sorts of burdensome demands, there’s something a little gross about plastering brand logos all over stages and posters and t-shirts. The stink of capitalism is already steeped deeply into the music industry. It’s refreshing to get a break from it.
Audiofeed isn’t a Nostalgia Fest
It’s no secret that nostalgia sells. It’s why Hollywood is filled with reboots and spinoffs. It’s why the vinyl market has been inundated with even the most obscure represses. It’s why things like When We Were Young Fest and the DC Talk Cruise exist.
Not that there’s anything wrong with nostalgia. I’ve had my tickets for Furnace Fest for about six months now.
But, in a sea of nostalgia-packed fests, it’s important to clarify that Audiofeed isn’t one.
The hiccup here is that Audiofeed has its roots in Cornerstone Music Festival, and there is probably no greater bit of nostalgia for Christian-adjacent punk kids who grew up in the 90s than Cornerstone. And while Audiofeed is distinct from Cornerstone, Audiofeed will never escape that comparison. Every year when the lineup is announced, people begin to make the inevitable remarks about how there should be more “Cornerstone bands.”
But the thing that people seem to forget is that those bands didn’t have to compete against nostalgia acts to find slots. When you book for nostalgia, there are fewer opportunities to give the up-and-coming bands that deserve them. And if you ask the folks asking for more Cornerstone nostalgia what kind of bands they have in mind, they will almost always list off bands that were in the early days of their careers. I know we all look back at mewithoutYou’s guest-and-costume-filled mainstage performance from Cornerstone 2006 and wish we could recapture that magic at Audiofeed, but shouldn’t we look forward to whatever magic new bands can conjure up?
Looking back at Audiofeed this year, there were plenty of magic moments like that. Moments like Jagalchi coming out of nowhere and blowing everyone’s minds. Moments like a bandless moshpit that formed during Chariot Karaoke (Chari-oke?) on the Impromptu Stage. Moments like Convictions playing a surprise set in the food court parking lot. Moments like Adjy‘s entire deal.
It’s the magic that keeps me coming back to Audiofeed. There are moments and stories and people that are forever emblazoned into my brain as what the spirit of Audiofeed is. It is a community and an experience that has given me so much more than I could ever give back to it. And so until I’m able to pay back that balance, I’ll just encourage you to make the trip out to Urbana next year. Nevermind the naysayers displaying their ignorance of the DIY road warriors that make up the lineup or the old timers with their heads too stuffed with memories to appreciate what’s going on in front of them.
Audiofeed might not look important from the combined streaming numbers of its performers or its ticket sales or whatever other metric you choose to assign to it. But there is an intangible value to it that makes Audiofeed incredibly important for a very devoted group of folks. It would be worth your while to come see why.
Audiofeed 2024 (the tenth anniversary!) will be July 4-7 in Urbana Illinois.
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