Punkfest aim's to support Midwest Punk and Rock N Roll by hosting shows and facilitating punk rock brotherhood!
Bloomington, IL
61701
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MWPF BIO:
Midwest Punkfest at it’s very core was started as a means to bring friends together to celebrate punk rock, and rock and roll hailing from the Midwest. In it’s early days it consisted of myself, Jerm Plue, inviting mostly Illinois bands I had befriended through playing regional shows with my band A Hidden Agenda. The idea was sort of selfish in the fact that I wanted to bring all these great bands I had found to play with me for one great night a year. With the first “Punkfest” as it was named in 2009, I wasn’t aware that there were so many people around the country doing the same thing and it was such a generic name for a festival. But it was literally a 6 band event meant to be much more than just a show, but a revelry of all things midwest punk rock with all my favorite unsigned regional bands. There was no talks of guarantees, or anything of that nature, just “do you want to play?” And most responded “hell yes”. The event ended up being so much fun, and such a success, that it was decided that we would try to make it an annual event. When I say success, I don’t mean monetarily, cause it wasn’t about that, and sort of to this day isn’t. It is not an event even at the size it has become that I try to make money off of. It’s still just an event I get to try and bring all my favorite bands to play and a completely selfish venture. Most of the money raised and paid by patrons goes to the wonderful bands who participate and bless us, with a lack of a better term, with killer music. Looking back, and never knowing what the the event could truly become, year after year more and more bands big and small from all over the Midwest and beyond were invited to join in, all in the name of making great new friendships, and forming connections that in turn help these bands do the thing they love, play more shows with other great bands and get their music out to more people. Simply make progress. We have outgrown a few venues since 2009 which is great, but also sad at the same time because we have been hosted by some great places over the years. It seems as the festival had natural growth in Bloomington, IL, we had to search for more suitable venues. Each has a place in our hearts for very different reasons and we are forever thankful for their support and hospitality. Year five brought about the addition of Midwest to the festival name, in an attempt to set ourselves apart from other events in different regions using the generic “Punkfest” moniker. It is now year ten and we have at this point expanded to well over 30 bands over three days, and are considering an expansion to a fourth day due to the overwhelming response from great bands from all over the country. We have found a great new home in the brand new venue NIGHTSHOP, opened by our great friend and supporter Christopher Golwitzer. It’s a wonderful feeling to know we will have a home for the foreseeable future than can handle our inevitable continued growth. We still do our best to promote Midwest punk rock and bands from the region but are quickly having to branch out to other areas of the country to bring them to the Midwest. Our goal is to keep growing this into a festival on the scale of other iconic festivals but maintain our core values. MWPFX is aiming high and doing our best to kick the next tens years off on the right trajectory to attain those goals, and continue to facilitate the creation of great relationships and community.
