Saturday, May 15, 2010

DIY Launch - Memorial Day - Loving Touch (Ferndale)













I've pitched a tent atop the W.A.B., just under that lurching billboard with the shifting displays of Michigan colleges calling for the tuition cash of this area's late-teen-somethings, on the southside of it to avoid its low-end spotlight blaze on the north's picture side. For five sequential nights, I will climb down from my site, canteens set all in a row over the gravel top with clothes-line strung between vent pipes and a shoddy tent speckled with both pigeon and bat droppings, and I will descend the maintenance/fire-escape ladder, down to the pool hall, adjacent to the W.A.B., the former massage parlor known as The Loving Touch.

I'll have no recourse but to -camp-out - as this sleek and cozily-lit rectangular recreational watering hole will be hosting a FIVE-DAY-LAUNCH - a veritable lost weekend for those of us unable to supress our magnetism to live music - for the 3RD ANNUAL DIY STREET FAIR (Sept 17, 18, 19 - 2010), - Thus, all of this would suffice for my MEMORIAL-DAY-WEEKEND "camping trip."

All of that ballyhoo aside - I really have very little room left for rambling in this post - as the magnitude of the line up - the girth of the 5-day-launch's presentation - shall take up the rest -

Thursday - 5/27- "the Mix and Mingler"
A one-night-only art show by Buy This So We Don't Have To Rob You - this is one of the more crucial nights because it will serve as the rallying-point, for volunteers and vendors. Ferndale's DIY Street Fair is a community-celebrating festival with dozens of local vendors sliding into tents splayed across the parking lots just at Woodward and Troy - indepedent artists and collectives come to share their wares at affordable prices as well as network with other cultural contributors while upwards to two dozen bands sing, stomp and sashay across the main street stage to soundtrack the carousel of revelers sliding in and out of the "beer tent."








This means - we need volunteers - to survey certain entry points, to serve beer, to serve food, to aid the vendors, to be ready for weather turns or to avert people from eating the brown acid.

Thursday is the "get involved" night - where vendors can drop off their application in advance (with no fee) and others can sign up to volunteer.

DJ Jeff Howitt of Loco Gnosis Records will be spinning...
Free















Friday, May 28 - "Flashback Night"

"Alum" from the past two festivals will perform some special sets - dual-Ferndale-based acts Computer Perfection, with Silverghost will herald "the return of the Pop Project" - while DJ "Happy Endings" with Mike Trombley -

This is where the music is recruited - bands interested in performing can drop off "apps" of their own.
7$
Saturday, May 29 - "Bellyache Night"

Night three... - Bellyache Candy Shoppe (/Record Label/store, etc) will install a record shop into the Loving Touch - as well as host a line of performances from bands featured on the label's releases and compilations, including: Woodman, Electric Fire Babies, Swamp Sisters and The Muggs.

There will also be candy bars for sale.

6$

Sunday, May 30 - "Vintage Night"
During the day, the pool hall turns into a vintage accessory bazaar - tables will slide in and outside of the venue, featuring vintage inspired crafts and a swap-table for you to trade your own stuff (Free, 1pm--5pm)

During the night, it's a vintage fashion show and concert: (with music from Johnny Ill Band and Infinite Land of Make Believe)

Monday, May 31 - "In The Forest"

Continuing their tuesday-night series of DJs (with a special Monday afternoon appearance), it's Record Show - with local labels selling all vinyl, with stacks across the pool tables. This part is free.

Then, that Monday evening, DJ Richard Wohlfiel returns with a proper "Forest" presentation - spinning records to a line up of bands, with a $5 cover.

Now...when I set my tent up on the roof, I knew full well that this porter-pulsed escapade of night-after-night through the Loving Touch would often require subsequent cover charges - but--you must think of it as your own support/fundraising towards the festival that would (and will be) free to you and the public, later on...anyway.

More info from:
(Pictured above - from DIY's 2009 - top-to-bottom: Johnny Headband, Champions of Breakfast, Oblisk)

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