Friday, August 17, 2007

VexFest: The Aftermath

By Sarah Poulton

YOUNGSTOWN — After 4 1/2 months of planning, sorting, organizing and jamming, the crew at youngstownlocalmusic.com pulled Vexfest IV off without a hitch.

Five hours after the event ended, Federal Plaza West was spotless. 24 hours later, no police reports had been filed. 48 hours later, the minds behind Vexfest: Fred Rafidi, Jim DeCapua, Dan Crump, and the absent John Jones, were sitting in the same room above Barley’s as they sat 48 hours before VexFest. The difference was instead of sitting stiffly around the table, surrounded by paperwork, they were lounging on the couches, relaxed and relieved that it was over.

The verdict? YLM thinks it was a hit. Rafidi said they were hoping for, but not expecting 5,900, which was the official attendee count.

“Overall, it was an enormous success,” he said. “We did this for the music scene. We did this for downtown Youngstown.”

The others agreed.

“The people who stayed all day loved it,” Crump said. “People don’t know how much talent is here. The Youngstown scene is strong.”

“It was a hell of a party,” DeCapua said. “Everyone had a blast.”

They said that overall, there hasn’t been much negative feedback. The only negative vibe they’ve encountered, Rafidi said, was a small amount of Internet chatter.

DeCapua said the only negative feedback he’s encountered was from bands that weren’t on the list and want to play next year. He said he tried to include as many as possible, but had more than 100 submissions.

You’re not going to please everyone,” Crump said. “To put your heart into it and touch 5,000 people, that’s what it is about.”

Rafidi said in hindsight, the group wouldn’t have done anything differently. They took every precaution and absolutely no risks.

“Obviously we made some mistakes, but we’ll learn for next year,” Rafidi said. “We’d be blessed to get it to go this smooth again.”

Jason Tibolla of Third Arm Promotions said he was amazed at the event. He’d never seen Core at standing room only in the middle of the afternoon, and that proved to him that VexFest IV was a hit, he said.

“This is such a great, positive thing,” Tibolla said. “The bands were into it, the people were into it, everyone was into making the day as successful as possible.”

For now, YLM has some ideas in the works. They said they were thinking about VexFest V, which will be held the same weekend next year. They are also throwing around some ideas about a winter festival and possibly a show called JonesFest for jam bands in May.

It’s going to happen,” Jones said. “It’s not going to be as big, but it will be the next big outdoor event.

The organizers said what pleased them the most about VexFest was the positive vibe felt in the area. They all agreed they felt more positive energy in the downtown Sunday than they had in a long time.

“I announced Asleep,” Tibolla said. “I announced Jones. You could feel the energy. It was great.”

“Winslow (formerly 1959) smoked the stage,” DeCapua said. “It was a great vibe.“

He said another cool thing was seeing the bands from different genres hanging out and helping each other. But it wasn’t only the bands that made this day a success. YLM said it was a mix of everyone.

“We had good people,” Rafidi said. “All of our staff, sponsors, Youngstown Local Music, the bands and the fans.”

The all-day music festival featured 40 bands on four stages. It was a free, all ages show that featured only local talent. Sponsors were 93.3 NCD “The Wolf,” Valley24.com, Third Arm Promotions and MaYnestream Promotions.