A Back Yard Music Festival

Six years ago my friend Lindsay had a birthday party with music. With tongue in cheek she called it “Lyndzapalooza.” I carried all of my meager musical equipment down the street to her apartment on my back and we partied to a full day of our friends’ musical talents.

In each of the intervening years Lindsay threw another party, and I helped with each. Starting in 2007 the party become more of a festival – both in execution and atmosphere.

At the moment I am getting dressed to head out to Snipes Farm, where tomorrow Lyndzapalooza (LP) will host their first full-scale musical festival as a recognized non-profit.

In that shift from party to festival, we kept something very important in place: LP is a place to share and listen. The first year people played that had never had a set of their own before – including Gina and I, separately.

Even though our scale is bigger now, the concept remains the same. We’re combining a bill of bands about to get signed with some who’ve never played a show of this scale, and everyone gets hefty, full-length sets. Lindsay, Gina, and I spent the past two weeks interviewing those artists, and each article is an awesome snapshot in the development of a major talent on the Philly scene.

I have different levels of touchy-feely feelings before and after our festivals each year, largely dependent on how many times I skipped lunch, dinner, or sleep leading up to the festival and how many times I feel frustrated, angry, or incapable during the festival.

This year my pre-festival feeling is achievement. As college students we didn’t plan for our musical kegger to transform into a non-profit organization. The us of then could conceive of such a thing, but I don’t think any of us expected it to transpire.

Yet, six years later, here I am inviting you to come out tomorrow to BYM Fest to enjoy ten artists (including our duo Arcati Crisis) playing from 2pm until close to midnight, rain or shine, for just $20.

I think you’ll love it. I think college-us would have loved it, too.