Summer brings a huge variety of festivals, some old, and some brand new. One in the latter category is Chive Fest, a 4-stop festival that came to Seattle last Saturday, July 12th. Two stages at Seattle Center saw the likes of Washed Out, Steel Panther, and Girl Talk. But what exactly is this Chive Fest thing, anyway? We posed 5 questions to festival organizers via email, and got this response from Brandon Barrett, director of partnerships, Chive Live.
1) How would you describe The Chive, and how does that vibe translate into a music festival?
theCHIVE is the world’s largest entertainment photo website, showcasing original galleries of funny photos, videos, beautiful women, groundbreaking photography and art from all over the web. Chive Fest is a culmination of hundreds of meet-ups theCHIVE has thrown all over the world with our community of Chivers. It was an obvious next step for us to take theChive to the main stage and not be constrained by small venues. This is going to be the largest group of misfits listening to some insane music and having the time of their lives.
2) How/why did you choose the four cities hosting Chive Fest?
theCHIVE chose Chicago, Seattle, Denver, and Dallas because these four cities have the largest gathering of Chive Chapters in the country. We wanted to give our communities something in return for all of the loyalty that these cities have shown our brand over the years.
Chicago was chosen as the first stop as it holds a special place in the hearts of our founders Leo and John Resig. theChive after all combines the cities they lived in, Chicago and Venice Beach.
3) This is the first year of this traveling festival. Do you think it will become an annual tradition?
Yes, absolutely. The turnout for the inaugural Chive Fest in Chicago was massive. It proved that if you’ve never heard of theCHIVE, it doesn’t matter. We’re anticipating an even bigger crowd for Seattle. Based on this initial success, we’re psyched for Chive Fest to become one of the country’s next big music festivals.
4) What makes Chive Fest different?
Chive Fest offers its own distinct signature. From the Nostalgia Tent (life-sized game of Operation anybody?), oversized ostriches, blimps, fireworks, cats and Chivettes, we are basically bringing theChive’s online community and culture to the masses.
5) What went in to making booking decisions? How did you pick a lineup?
We partnered with the best in the business in C3 Presents for all bookings of our talent. The talent decisions were a collaboration of efforts from the Chive Live team, theCHIVE, listening to our community, and focusing on past and current festival acts. Our main focus was to have a run-of-show that made sense and had a flow for everyone. Rock and Roll, Alternative, Indie Rock, Hip Hop, etc…were all areas we wanted to provide so everyone could enjoy the music.
Stay tuned, we will have an in-depth review of Chive Fest posted soon.
