Back from the Furnace!
At around 2:30am this morning, I pulled into my garage, returning from the final Furnace Fest.
If you're not familiar, Furnace Fest is was a massive punk and hardcore music festival held in Birmingham, Alabama.
Over the past four years, I’ve had the privilege of shaping the festival's brand by helping produce things like campaigns, announcements, posters, stage banners, signage, etc — all of the things that bring a big event like this to life.
These are the bands I grew up listening to, many of whom reunited just to play at this festival one last time.
In the grand scheme, this genre is very small — not many people like this sort of music.
However, ironically, that's what makes it so special.
99% of this genre is completely independent with no outside funding or big corporate budgets to lean on.
Most of these artists do it all themselves. It's beautiful.
Looking back, it's clear that this do-it-yourself ethos shaped my own path in life (as I'm sure it has for many others), encouraging me to go my own way in life and business.
While I’m sad this chapter of Furnace Fest is closing, I’m grateful it ended on such a high note.
– Charles
P.S. Short clip from the band '68 yesterday on main stage:
