Last month, at the Sidewinder Tavern, New Orleans’ was tearing up their set. While everyone in the small crowd was moving along with the frantic beat, Crawford Philleo was getting into it — really getting into it. His entire body moved, seemingly possessed by the music, and his dance was periodically punctuated by a huge smile across his face.
Philleo, the driving force behind this weekend’s , has a deep, abiding passion for music. What started as a DIY project between three friends who love music has blossomed into a festival drawing artists from across the country, and sponsors from around the globe. This is the third year for the festival, which kicks off Sept. 27 in Denver’s Globeville neighborhood at both the Sidewinder and Crash 45.
See photos below of the 2011 Goldrush Music Festival.
“ really connects Denver with a much larger global community of artists, labels, musicians. I have sponsoring labels from the UK and Germany,” Philleo explained. “It’s very much a local effort, but I think the concept of “local” is changing a lot, and Goldrush is maybe the best representation of that ideal that I can think of. Really, itap the entire experimental music community.”
The term “experimental music” can obviously be defined differently depending on who is asked. But the approach taken with Goldrush is quite cerebral: experimental music is music that makes one pause and take note and experiment with something they may not have before experienced. Phileo explains:
“For me, what it really comes down to is that we want to feature or highlight anyone that is making us look or think really hard about what we think we know about music, or a particular instrument, genre, or style,” he said. “Goldrush is looking to take people out of their comfort zones…an attempt to get people into that mode of constant change and progress that is needed to keep art and culture fresh and exciting, avoid stagnancy.”
The lineup for Goldrush is anything but stagnant, and if music lovers get bored with this, well, then they’re likely not music lovers. Bands run the gamut from drone to ambient, psychedelic to noise-pop, and everything in between. Among the 21 acts scheduled to play are Vermont’s , Brooklyn NY’s (Sarah Lipstate), and , both from Los Angeles, from Cleveland and the aforementioned Caddywhompus. Local acts include , , , the amazingly-named , and more.
“I really hate the hierarchy of ‘headliners’ and stuff like that, really everything we’re featuring at the festival is so unique in its own way, and I’ve been doing my best to highlight how on-the-level everyone playing is with each other,” Philleo said. “That said, I did try to book some more recognizable names with some unknowns to make sure we caught the attention of the general music fan as well.”
The festival, despite growing this year, is still completely DIY. Philleo has a veritable army of friends and volunteers who have helped with several aspects of execution, whether acting as sponsors, helping to hand-stitch the he’s created, or producing a mix tape sampler of all the artists at this year’s fest. It all lends to the grassroots feel of this thing – you can see there are real people behind each of the decisions made. Passion for music runs throughout everything the festival does, from acts onboard the free shuttle buses from around Denver to Globeville, to the rollicking afterparties hosted at Rhinoceropolis each night. And tickets are only $20 for the entire weekend.
Itap all designed to give artists a fun space in which to play and allow audiences the opportunity to be exposed to some of the music that they might never hear.
“Goldrush” was kind of a play on words; we were miners of this musical “gold” that was hidden in the rough or something like that,” Philleo explained. “I think that those sentiments still hold true to the festival actually. Goldrush is really about championing the underdog, making a big deal of out stuff that is either not normally a big deal, or just not even really known.”
Goldrush Music Festival runs Friday, Sept. 27 and Saturday, Sept. 28. Tickets and full lineup information.
Pro Tip: Catch the free shuttle, which has pick-up stops in Baker, Cap Hill, City Park West and Five Points will feature live sets on Friday by Alphabets and Saturday by Tommy Metz. After parties kick off at Rhinoceropolis at midnight both nights, featuring sets by Circuit Rider (Lee Noble and Derek Rogers), Sunpack, Champion, Homebody, mole people and EchoBeds. .
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Laura Keeney is an online news producer and journalist for The Denver Post. She’s quite obsessed with Joe Strummer. Follow her @LauraKeeney and @onnabugeisha.
