Arts & Entertainment

These Eagle Rock Music Festival Deals Hinge on Your Support

Festival curator Brian Martinez talks to Patch about the past, present and future of the Eagle Rock Music Festival.

By Craig Clough

This week we've been bringing you the following parts of our conversation with Brian Martinez, director of events at the Center for the Arts, Eagle Rock, and the curator of the Eagle Rock Music Festival, which will be coming up on Oct. 5:
Martinez wants as many people to know about two deals that are being offered, which will increase feativalgoers' enjoyment of the event as well as help support the festival and the Center for the Arts, Eagle Rock. Read on for details:

Patch: What are you expecting as a draw this year? What if 100,000 people come again despite the downsizing?

Martinez:
 It’s hard to say. I don’t know. That’s the one thing I have no concept of. How do you know? We’ve gotten written up. Over the year’s we’ve had good press about the music festival and it seems that’s never been an issue for us. I just focus on the quality. Like for any artist, if you focus on the quality of the work, people will come to it.

Patch:
 If you build it, they come.

Martinez:
 If you build it they will come. That’s my take on it. For me, this year, my big thing is wanting people to support the festival and the center. A big amount of pain for all this comes by donation. Technically it is a free festival. But the climate, as far as corporations giving you an abundance of money doesn’t happen anymore. And so we look to the local sponsors in the area, and the businesses in the area, but also the festivalgoers. I’d like them to have a share in maintaining this, much like how you hear NPR and KCRW does it, the outreach to keep that entity alive, I feel like that’s my biggest thing this year. Because of the cutbacks, I’ve been very aware of the future of the festival. If people don’t support it, it’s going to be a tough thing to keep going with the model where it’s at, because then you have to ticket. If you are forced to ticket, that changes the whole scope of how you approach the festival, including the artists.

Patch:
 I imagine the security costs of that are way more, because then you have to block it off so no one sneaks in.

Martinez:
 And then you’re dealing with everything you were against. Now you are excluding the community. I want everybody to know this is an option, it’s something that’s very important to us this year. There’s two levels of support this year.

The two levels of support Martinez spoke of are the Support Level, which costs $10. It can be purchased in in advance, and for the $10 you get a download of an Eagle Rock Music Festival mix featuring 22 artists playing at the fest this year, and well as a fast track entrance where you can skip the entrance line. 

For the $20 VIP level, you also get the download mix, the fast track, a T-shirt, entrance to a VIP section in front of the stage and two tickets to any Center for the Arts Eagle Rock concert within a year of festival. 

For more information, go to: http://cfaer.org/2013/08/22/2013-eagle-rock-music-festival/

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