Howdy!

Just wanted to let everyone know that the 2008 Northgate Music Festival has moved to August. Always Creative, which I am Creative Director and co-owner of, will be launching a new site next week with loads of festival information, a constantly updated band lineup and a few MP3s of confirmed bands. You can see it at http://northgatemusicfest.com but look forward to major updates. Some of these updates include a full event schedule plus lineups per location, a custom page for each band with pics, a bio, MP3 and even music videos as well as signup forms for artists, volunteers and sponsors. If anyone knows of interested bands or volunteers, please have them visit the site and sign up by clicking the "application form" link on the current site. We're proud to help the community with such an important event and hope to generate tremendous support and donations for charities.

Thanks for your time!

--
Roby Fitzhenry
Always Creative
http://WeAreAlways.com

[This message has been edited by robyfitzhenry (edited 4/18/2008 3:05p).]

I hope Feeding 5000 makes a return to CS

How do bands sign up to play? Do they need to be auditioned?

[This message has been edited by atm86 (edited 4/18/2008 4:58p).]

The festival needs to include some electronic music this year. The electronic dance music scene is expanding again in Texas and there are a lot of local DJs and artists.

Ghostland Observatory out of Austin would be a great band to have.

Get Fair To Midland to come!

Why August when no one is in town?

Im guessing it will be late August when the students are back and there is nothing to do.

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Why August when no one is in town?

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That's easy. The NDA has taken over the festival and they make horrible horrible decisions.

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Harry Potter just like the Smurfs and many other things are simply witchcraft made G Rated on the outside but underlying it is still witchcraft and is against the will of God.

That's funny. . .the Northgate District Association has always been in charge of the music festival. They moved it so they wouldn't compete w/ Chilifest, Parents Weekend, Spring Break, etc. (Mainly Chilifest)

Thought it was odd that they'd move it to the summer. There are plenty of weekends when school is in session that the festival wouldn't have to compete with other events.

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the Northgate District Association has always been in charge of the music festival

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Lol, perhaps in their minds they were. They were virtually hands off until Heather took over and that year we had the added benefit of her running the association. It's not a coincidence that the more control the association has taken the worse the festival has done.

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Harry Potter just like the Smurfs and many other things are simply witchcraft made G Rated on the outside but underlying it is still witchcraft and is against the will of God.

No one wants the festival anymore. Can you call it a festival when no one ever shows up. Spend the money that the city contributes to a mardi gras week or something else. You could get all the greeks and organizations to make floats and have the winning floats get a donation in their name to a charity.

Two words...

...Sister Hazel

Are you kidding me! You have a town with 45,000 college students and you get a band that had one hit in like '94 when the current students were ten?! A band with no hits that is regional would have been a lot better. $%&# my grandmother would have been better. Then you move to August when no one is in town and it will be 85 and humid at night. Where is the logic.

The first couple of years this festival was AWESOME! The first years college kids pretty much ran the show. Every year since it has gotten worse. Sometimes you need to get over the denial stage and realize that the festival is actually a disgrace to the town. People come in from out of town to play in front of five people. It makes us look bad.

Please let young people run it so it can thrive again.

[This message has been edited by phunkykomedina (edited 4/20/2008 9:00p).]

Thank God I don't live at the corner of Boyett and Church anymore. I used to have to leave town every year when this thing happened. My entire apartment would shake all weekend long.

Knowing Roby and the fact that he does not get involved with and promote things that are not going to be good I think the festival might turn out well this year (despite the date). I have talked a bit with him about his vision for the festival this year and I think he has some great ideas.

I was here in school when the festival started and remember how good it was back then. I think it will start moving back that direction now.

Just my 2 cents.

I am a current student and actually went to the festival JUST to see sister hazel...the concert was very disappointing though

I did catch some good bands in obannons the whole weekend though

FYI, Sister Hazel still has a very strong following. We made a trip up to DFW a few years ago to catch them in concert.

They've had more recent hits than 1994

They may still have a following, but it is definitely not large. I am glad someone went to see them because when I looked out there I would guess there were about 100 people or so. I am not bashing sister hazel. If you like them then great. I am sure you wouldn't like some of the music I listen to, but when you are running a festival you have to look at as a business and I would bet money that someone regional like bob schneider would have been a bigger draw and might have cost less so that they could have had a couple other decent bands. If buckcherry, hinder and randy rogers band play at Harry's then the festival should be able to get recent, known names like that. It is sad when Harry's gets better bands than the headliner of a three day music festival.

I correct myself. Better is just an opinion, so how about....more prevalent in modern pop culture.

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but when you are running a festival you have to look at as a business and I would bet money that someone regional like bob schneider would have been a bigger draw and might have cost less

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There were restrictions on who they could select as a headliner you aren't aware of. They could have done a lot better than SH, but not with the guidelines they were operating under.

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Harry Potter just like the Smurfs and many other things are simply witchcraft made G Rated on the outside but underlying it is still witchcraft and is against the will of God.

I'd really like to see GWAR come back to town.



[This message has been edited by Zzz (edited 4/21/2008 1:56p).]

there were at least 1,000 at the sister hazel....there were more at times and towards the end, there were a few less. There were many others standing outside the gates listening to them

however, there were much more than 100 present

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There were many others standing outside the gates listening to them

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Looks like you have highlighted another problem other then the fact that the headliner was sister hazel.

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There were restrictions on who they could select as a headliner you aren't aware of.

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can you enlighten those of us not in your posse on what these are?

I know that Fair to Midland has been approached about playing. Don't know where it stands other than that.

sweeeeeeeeeeet!!

Maybe they can bring Serj with them..

Thanks to everyone for the honest feedback. Although I disagree with some opinions, your straightforwardness is appreciated.

Here are some replies:
Bands can sign up on the current website by going to http://northgatemusicfest.com/bandsignup/
Bands will be judged on many different things including overall sound quality, sense of uniqueness, location and fan base.

GCRanger: 100% agree. With everything you said. Ghostland Observatory is awesome and we'll see what can be done to get them out here. We are also very in to Atari Matt and other local talents.

The show moved to August because of competing events. The committee (which we do not belong to) decided to move the festival to the weekend before school starts. We hope the event becomes the final exciting thing before school starts back up. (See obt's comment)

phunkykomedina: You are very right. We're sorry that Sister Hazel didn't work out as planned. Don't expect stuff like that this year. Willie Bennett, one of original founders of the festival, will be doing all the booking to ensure a quality festival people ACTUALLY WANT TO SEE. On top of that, we 100% agree that the students and volunteers make the festival what it is. If you know of anyone willing to give it one more try, please please please have them sign up at http://northgatemusicfest.com/volunteer/

RMAggie0308: We'll keep our fingers crossed in regards to the weather. A decision will be made after this year to keep it in August or rethink the date altogether.

Here are a few bands we have booked so far:
Cruiserweight, Driver F, Hollywood Black, The Canvas Waiting, The Wonderland Avenue, and a few others. We are also in talks with larger bands such as As Cities Burn.

Let's be frank. The festival has started to suck. We absolutely know that. The festival has lost it's appeal, it's reputation and it's overall sense of purpose. However, this is the reason we took on the job. We're tired of not having a great music scene in Bryan/College Station and have decided to help that. So we ask that you refer any bands that you or anyone else would enjoying seeing by sending an email to bands@NorthgateMusicFest.com

Thanks again to everyone for their time and energy.


--
Roby Fitzhenry
Always Creative
http://WeAreAlways.com

[This message has been edited by robyfitzhenry (edited 4/21/2008 3:48p).]

[This message has been edited by robyfitzhenry (edited 4/21/2008 3:50p).]

As Cities Burn?

While not the worst of choices, they certainly will get your share of teenagers to come to the event..

+/- (plus/minus)

they claimed they may be interested in playing a show in CS as they have begun to play austin regularly.....hmmm

[This message has been edited by CopeIt (edited 4/21/2008 4:07p).]

They are in no way a potential headlining band. We seek diversity and feel they may have a sound some people are interested in. Does anyone care to share ideas for headliners? We would love the feedback!

[This message has been edited by robyfitzhenry (edited 4/21/2008 4:00p).]

see the above post

Shoot, book the Castro kid from American Idol. THAT may draw a few.

not sure he would be the right type of gig to be playing.....

Any way yall can get Explosions in the Sky?

Fair To Midland would attract a lot.

The Strange Fruit Project (hip hop from Waco)
Erik Larson (solo artist from Houston) http://www.myspace.com/erikstevenlarson
Justin Platt (solo artist from Houston) http://www.myspace.com/justinallenplatt
The Finalist
The Jonbenet
At All Cost
Pompeii

There are lots of bands in Texas..

[This message has been edited by mazag08 (edited 4/21/2008 4:33p).]