Let's face it – Gainesville always does things a bit differently. So it is no wonder that the celebration of Festivus (aka Fest 7) Gainesville style is actually the amalgamation of more than 250 bands over 3 days in 8 venues throughout Hogtown wrangled by Tony Weinbender (of No Idea Records) and friends. In its seventh year, Fest has grown up to become a destination for people from all over the world to see the best in independent music. Special thanks to Tony for continuing to put this event together each year. Over the weekend (10.31.08 – 11.2.08), I managed to see a myriad of music genres and capture no less than 26 bands: A Wilhelm Scream, American Cheeseburger, Ampere, Asshole Parade, Atom & His Package, Bouncing Souls, Bridge and Tunnel, Building The State, Chris Wollard & The Ship Thieves, City of Ships, Coalesce, Dillinger Four, Foundation, Have Gun, Will Travel, Japanther, The Menzingers, Paint it Black, Red Clay River, Rehasher, Strike Anywhere, The Takers, Tim Version, Triclops!, The Wading Girl, Whiskey & Co and Young Widows. Tampa Bay was well represented with lots of hometown heroes making it on the Fest schedule especially the Kiss of Death Records and ADD Records bands.

As usual, Fest provided a mix of new and old, loud, quiet, twang, metal and everything inbetween. This year featured an unsual number of really good female fronted bands (Bridge and Tunnel and The Wading Girl among others) too. Of course, Fest isn't just about the music – it is also the one weekend a year that people who may not otherwise still be entirely engaged in the music scene make the pilgrimage back to Gainesville to reconnect with old friends, make new ones and hear enough music to last them until the next Fest.

For a thorough photo review of Fest 7, plese visit my Fest 7 Photo collection.

Friday Highlights

The first day of Fest 7 copacetically fell on Halloween which meant creative costuming from The Bouncing Souls:

Have Gun, Will Travel (a Tampa Bay area band from Bradenton) had the crowd clapping and foot tapping along in no time:

Saturday Highlights

Bridge and Tunnel is my Fest find – dynamic melodic hardcore harkening back to the 90s (akin to Braid) with a future twist.

Minnesota's Dillinger Four a frequent Fest highlight!

Sunday Highlights

Tim Version Tampa Turnbalism

Japanther – yes, that is a phone handset converted into a microphone

Sorting through 26 bands worth of photos was exhausting but I am already looking forward to next year – hope to see you there! Special thanks to Matt Welch and Jana Miller for making this blog possible!