A wide-angle, low-light photo taken outside a music venue at night. A bearded man in a baseball cap and black t-shirt is smiling, looking off to the right while holding flyers. In the background, patrons are gathered near the red entrance door of the building, which has the address 1812 visible.
Chewy Hemphill outside Crowbar in Ybor City, Florida on Oct. 6, 2025. Credit: Dave Decker / Creative Loafing Tampa Bay

Chewy Hemphill would be enshrined in the Tampa Bay punk-rock hall of fame if there was one. The Bay area promoter and solid human is a mainstay outside clubs where he’s ready to hand you a flyer detailing the next show he’s booked for his company Savage Beat.

One of those gigs is the nearly decade-old Pre-Fest, which has outlasted all other Pre-Fests that came before and after it.

Once again, Hemphill has assembled not just homegrown acts headed to Gainesville, but bands from across the U.S. (Tiltwheel, Amusement) and globe (Toodles & The Hectic Pity, Sunliner) for a one-night-only, all-ages get together ahead of this month’s bacchanal in Gainesville.

Deviant Libation, Ybor Heights’ church of inclusive punk-rock and heavenly beer, is the perfect venue for this, and it’ll be wild to see no-ring wrestling go down at the space, too.

Night two happens a short drive away at Magnanimous Brewing in Seminole Heights.

Tickets to Tampa Bay Pre-Fest 9 happening at Deviant Libation at Magnanimous Brewing, in Tampa on Wednesday-Thursday, Oct. 22-23 are still available and start at $26.50

Tampa Bay Pre-Fest 9

Time Wed., Oct. 22, 5-11 p.m. and Thu., Oct. 23, 5-11 p.m. 2025

Location Multiple Locations, ,

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This article appears in Oct. 16 – 22, 2025.

Read his 2016 intro letter and disclosures from 2022 and 2021. Ray Roa started freelancing for Creative Loafing Tampa in January 2011 and was hired as music editor in August 2016. He became Editor-In-Chief...