This week we are helping out a great cause here in the state of Florida as well as a huge festival for indie bands – the Harvest Of Hope Festival in St. Augustine, FL. Earlier this week Zach brought you some great information with Phil Kellerman, the President of the Harvest of Hope Foundation. Today I am happy to share a cool interview with Ryan Murphy from No Idea Records. Ryan is in charge of booking the wide range of artists at HoH including Dead Prez, Kid Sister, Broken Social Scene, Senses Fail, Anti-Flag and a ton more. We got to talking about the bands, the venue and mobile technologies. If you are in Florida and want to see 3-days of kick ass music while helping a great cause, come hang out with us at HoH.
(photo taken at HoH last year by nolongerhostage)
Greg: This is a big festival in the middle of a big field – what are you guys working on marketing wise, to attract a crowd that will both fill the field and contribute to your mission with the foundation?
Ryan: This of course is a huge challenge…we’re offered this huge awesome space at the St. Johns County Fairgrounds that literally could hold hundreds of thousands of people and we try to creatively fill it and make it fun, interesting and informative for all the attendees of the weekend. Having the option to offer camping to people is nice, because we are able to have them there all weekend…but also, we aim to divide the grounds up in a way that each day you can walk around and find something new or interesting.
Greg: At the event, what are some things you are looking at to get the crowd involved with the foundation – from an education and interest standpoint?
Ryan: One of the things we all agreed on that we wanted to improve this year was the overall visibility and access to all things that the Harvest of Hope Foundation stands for and all the great work that they do. We will have a large non-profit area as you walk into the festival that will be hosted by the HOH foundation and host a large group of non-profits that we work with and are involved with migrant issues. We are planning on making this area informative and interactive to help festival attendees learn about all the issues that HOH Fest stands for and is involved with.
Greg: Let’s switch gears over to the bands – what do you expect from them at the event, as far as helping to spread the message an in their promotion of the event to their fan base?
Ryan: This is definitely something we try to stress to bands to emphasize on campaigning and advocating for this event. Since we are a non-profit, benefit event we rely on all the grass-roots and street team aspects of promotion that we can use. We try to express to the bands what a unique event that they are helping to be part of, and how we rely on all the help we can promoting the event.
Greg: What can the bands that are playing look forward to at the festival?
Ryan: Even though the HOH Fest is a benefit, we make sure to let bands know that we will take care of them in every way we possibly can. We have amazing catering from local businesses that are able to work with donated food from local farms that we support, donated beer, camping, etc. Also, since we have friends who are in bands that play festivals around the world all the time, we made a point to ask them for things that they like and dislike about the festivals they go to and how they are treated at these events. We rely so heavily on the generosity of these great bands and want to make sure everyone feels taken care of and has a great time.
Greg: With the recent disaster in Haiti, there was one thing that helped the awareness and donations for the cause and that was the use of mobile technology (both SMS and Twitter) to make donations. Playing off the demographic of your audience – what are your thoughts on mobile marketing and how it can be used to get kids excited about donating and making a difference while listening to music?
Ryan: This is a good question…we’ve been approached by several people about this idea. We are constantly running fund raising campaigns and hopefully will be able to incorporate more mobile technology into what we do as it comes. Some bands (most recently, a band from Orlando called HOW DARE YOU) did a twitter campaign to raise money for the foundation and it went over amazingly. We also work with tons of media outlets and websites that are constantly running contests and fundraisers to help raise money and awareness for the foundation and festival.
Greg: You guys recently released a 2-disc compilation album – this is something that is a bit of a staple in the indie festival scene. Can you talk about its importance and why these things are still a big part of festival culture?
Ryan: The cd comp that Fail-Safe Records put out recently was a nice surprise off shoot from the festival and is actually working out great as a fund raiser for the foundation. Our friends at National Underground, had already planned on recording a bunch of the audio from the fest, and we knew at some point it would be used in a cool way. Shaun from Fail-Safe came up with the idea and reached out to the bands that seemed into it. The main reason I got behind it was not so much the fact that it helped spread the HOH Fest out there, but the fact that for every cd sold several dollars would instantly be going to the foundation and help Migrant Families. It’s really cool to get people to involved in ways beyond the festival itself. But, also, any kind of documentation (audio, video or otherwise) is always great to help a festival make it’s mark and capture the vibe and what was happening at that specific time.
Greg: Anything else exciting you want to share?
Ryan: Just the fact that I am really excited and inspired by the amount of people that come out to support the HOH festival and foundation. It’s really great to see that something that is extremely grassroots and does immediate and much needed aid for a population that is overlooked gets the support and attention that it truly deserves from the underground music community. In all the fund raising activities that HOH has been involved in, working with punk-indie-folk and other underground artists, we have received the most appreciation and support and that is really great!
Greg: Thanks Ryan for your time and we’ll see you in March!
Disclosure: HoH Fest is sending some members of GYRS to the event in March.
