Thank You! Thank You! Thank You!
All No.Fest participants… Thank You.
No.Fest 2009 was an amazing day. After a week of gray and rain-storms and the death of Michael Jackson, the weather cleared, shining sun on one among Portland’s finest ever of moments. St. Johns residents, artists, and business owners all shared an appreciation for what was happening in this historic neighborhood. KBOO shared this wonderful event with the whole world via webstream and even my parents were listening in Tucson. It was quite a Portland-eventful day, festivals and gatherings were happening every few miles across the Portland scenery, no one event more important than the other. But for Me, everything was in No.Fest 09.
St. Johns’ 8 venues hosted 42 out of the booked 45 performances, creating a sort of collection of micro-festivals. Attendance doubled from 2008, as did the economic boost for our neighborhood. All types of musician and performer shared the stage. Consciousness was raised. The monstrous event ran away with the organizers and volunteers, its chaotic spirals flowing off behind it, unknown to the audience, but that’s OK, they don’t need to know of our challenges. We’re all there to have a good time and to drop our hang-ups before our hang-ups drop us.
So as for No.Fest 2010, we’re due for even further expansion. To count our blessings, in 2009 we developed a spankin’ new website, program booklets, fund raising, infrastructure, publicity, a stage from scratch, and most of all, developed a community of artists, volunteers, friends, business owners, and youth. What a step up from 2008! But now we face 501c(3) applications, serious accounting and management infrastructure, editing and releasing 30 hours of audio, which means more money, more employees, more community, more co-operation. Indeed, No.Fest is a year round job for Me and Jeffree. So lets have it in 2010 with a heightened awareness of what this festival means for this great place called Portland.
Love
Sean
