The decades long running Dayton Music Fest is back this year, September 5 and 6, across multiple downtown Dayton venues. Dayton band The Fotons stopped by WYSO with festival organizers Paige Beller and Brandon Hawk to chat about the festival with WYSO music director Juliet Fromholt.
Dayton Music Fest has a tradition of switching organizers every few years, with a couple or group of folks taking on the organizing for for a period of time and then passing it on to the next team. This year Paige Beller and Brandon Hawk have taken the reigns.
"It's an immense undertaking- every single band's schedules in line with two dates, with all the venues. Just working on the back end of getting sponsors, working with the different venues, making sure that what we have put together vibes with them is... it's intense, but it has been incredibly rewarding." said Hawk.
In the past the festival has been more indie-music focused, but this year the organizers tried to better reflect the diversity of genres the city has to offer including metal, hip-hop, and electronic music.
"That was the entire stipulation of doing it, to make sure that we had a good blend of everybody involved. I mean, there is so much music out there." said Beller. "I think that it would be really nice for people that maybe don't normally go out all the time to just go and kind of get a sampling of what there is to offer."
Venues in this year's lineup include The Brightside, Yellow Cab, Blind Bob's, Oregon Express, and The Trolley Stop. There are 35 minute breaks in between every act to allow for festival goers to travel to different venues. The lineup at each venue features a multi-genre bill, so no matter where you go you'll get a full taste of what Dayton has to offer. "We really just wanted to make sure that every venue had like a full spice to it." said Hawk.
Go to https://www.daytonmusicfest.com/ for the full schedule, line-up, and more info.
