Texas Rock Fest
Last Updated on Sunday, 28 March 2010 13:00 Written by Jemini Saturday, 27 March 2010 23:34
The black sheep of the Austin, TX music festivals that take place during South by Southwest (SXSW), Texas Rock Fest (TRF) has been unintentionally hiding in the shadows. For eleven years, the festival has played host to the best unsigned hard rock talent from Austin and the surrounding southwest region as well as indie artists from across the US and beyond. Getting little to no press in local newspapers and other sources of entertainment news, you would never know that this festival exists until you stumble across it at one of now five locations in downtown Austin, TX or see a rock fest show date on your favorite indie band’s MySpace page.
To learn more about this festival, the RenegadeRadio.net Street Team caught up with Adam Brewer, the creator and founder of Texas Rock Fest for a quick impromptu interview during the festival. Here are some paraphrased exerts from that interview.
Texas Rock Fest started in 1999 when Adam Brewer, an up and coming UT film student, submitted an independently produced country music video into a SXSW indie film competition. [Click here to view the music video.] A few weeks prior to the festival, contest officials informed him that his video had been turned down. Wondering why, Brewer did a little investigating and found that the other music videos entered into the competition were ones that were backed by million dollar film studios. Brewer then talked to some of his local musician friends to see if they were having similar problems getting into the music festival. Sure enough, they were having problems as well.
In the midst of all of this, admission prices for SXSW were skyrocketing to the point to where it became inaccessible for the average music fan. With no other cheaper alternative for music fans to enjoy the week, Brewer and his musician friends decided to take on SXSW. In March 2000, they launched The Heart of Texas Quadruple Bypass Music Festival, four nights to bypass SXSW for free. Starting with 16 different bands and one club, the festival now showcases over 300 bands on seven stages in clubs and outdoor venues across downtown Austin, TX.
Four to five festivals later, Brewer finds himself living in New York City working various jobs including one for MTV. Needing someone on the ground to run the festival, Brewer enlists his friend Trey Edwards to help with the effort. Edwards ran at least two rock fests until Brewer returned to Austin in 2008. Since then, the two have worked closely together to make Texas Rock Fest bigger and better every year.
Despite the tremendous amount of money it takes to put on a festival of this size, Brewer and Edwards still manage to keep the event free and open to the public. “We have a message to keep the music free. We are all working-class folks who like good rock and roll music but we can’t afford $200 for a wrist band [now you purchase badges] and we still want to enjoy this week.” [For SXSW 2010, one music badge cost $595 if you purchased it prior to September 25, 2009. The walkup rate during the festival was $750. When you do the math that is $119-$150 a day for the five day music festival.]
So how do you pay for a festival like this and still manage to keep it free? Brewer explains that “it takes 3-4 months of struggling to try and find sponsors, especially in an economy like the one we are in now, it’s almost impossible. So, you seek outside revenue sources like raffles, liquor sales, t-shirts sales, donations, fund raising concerts [and] like minded folks that [want to] make the machine happen.”
Eleven years later, SXSW is slowly getting the message as the festival organizers now have the Auditorium Shores Stage, a large free outdoor venue at Lady Bird Lake and several live music venues across downtown Austin that play host to free SXSW Showcases.
Despite the message of free music getting across, Texas Rock Fest still doesn’t receive a lot of publicity for what it does and what it stands for. Why is that you ask? Countless times over the festivals history, Brewer and Edwards have been trying to work with local Austin media to publicize the event and all they receive is a brief sentence or two in articles all about SXSW. As strange as it seems, it is the unfortunate truth. When promoted to give a little more of an explanation, Brewer encouraged us to ask various music writers for local Austin media and do a little investigative reporting.
To give the festival a little more press, The Stairwell Showcase, a segment on the Monday evening show The Pound, will feature three bands that played at Texas Rock Fest and talk about the festival on Monday, March 29, 2010 from 7-10pm cst only on RenegadeRadio.net.
For more information about Texas Rock Fest, visit the festival’s official website at www.texasrockfest.com. There you will find the full schedule for 2010, pictures from 2009, a list of past performers, and much, much more.
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written by DaveTV, March 28, 2010
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written by adam brewer, March 28, 2010
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