Music-is-Art festival enriches community with access to music -

BY MATTHEW HENCINSKI 

“When I was a kid I can remember go-ing to the Allentown Festival in the ear-ly 70’s,” said MIA founder and Goo Goo Dolls bassist Robby Takac, “and I was like, ‘what the hell is going on here, man.’

I was seeing things I had never seen be-fore and I was experiencing types of peo-ple I had never experienced before, and hearing things I had never heard before, and smelling things I have never smelled before. I just remember walking around going, ‘wow, alright man,’ like there’s a lot out there, that ain’t there. It was just something about that scene when I was kid… and yeah I just want the Music Is Art Festival to have that same feel to it.”

Fourteen years ago, Robby had a small recording studio on Franklin St. just a few feet from the corner of Allen. The 2002 Allentown Art Festival was about to hap-pen and Robby said he thought to him-self, “Wow, there’s going to be a hundred thousand people in our neighborhood and I think it would be exciting for them to get to hear a lot of music over a couple of days.”

With his recording studio and its empty parking lot, it seemed to be a per-fect fit for what he was envisioning.

“So I booked a bunch of bands in my parking lot, and because it was an art festival I invited some friends to display art that maybe weren’t of the same ilk as most of the stuff that was at the Allentown Festi-val. We did that in my parking lot and it was met with various emotions.”

As you could imagine, two very similar festivals going on at the same time could create conflict.

“The music community loved the idea, the Allentown Art Festival people hated the idea [they tried several times to shut MIA down]. So because the art festival people hated the idea of us being there we ended up kind of at odds.”

There was some fighting and troublesome times for the first few years of the MIA festival, including Mayor Brown’s office failing to negotiate a working arrange-ment between the two forces. Relations with the Allentown Art Festival people got so frosty that in 2007 MIA left Allen-town, accepting the invitation of Ameri-ca’s Fair to bring MIA to Hamburg to an-chor the main stage at the Erie County Fairgrounds.

But during this tumultuous period of Music Is Art finding its legs and a home, the MIA Festival and the concept behind it was also able to grab people’s attention in a very positive way.

“We really started to garner a lot of sup-port from the local music communities,” Robby told me. It’s easy to understand why. Music is Art is dedicated to reshap-ing and strengthening music’s cultural, social, and educational impact on our community – supported by a variety of programs and events, and that is exactly what the festival started to do.

What once started from a parking lot in Allentown, a year at the Fairgrounds, then back to Buffalo at the Delaware Park grounds behind the Albright-Knox, the festival was able to spread its ideas, music, and art to many different areas and people. Now, the festival stretch-es from Elmwood all the way to the Ivy Bridge in Delaware Park.

There are six stages of bands, many of which are local bands, seven stages with DJs, a reggae dub stage, and two dance stages. Some of these stages will be hosting a battle of the bands event for high school stu-dents and their bands, and next season the winner of MIA’s Battle of the Business Bands will be a featured artist, as well.

Along with all of the musical events going on throughout the day, there will also be artists painting on site, spoken word art-ists, a kids village, art galleries, and even a silent disco.

“There’s so many phases and so many different types of music and different types of people and types of dif-ferent art.” Takac said.

The Festival has become Buffalo’s most extensive exhibition of local art, dance, and music in one place; part concert, part bazaar, street fair and art gallery. It is truly a one of a kind multi-sensory event.

“We try to take a huge cross section of what’s going on in Buffalo and present it to the community” Takac said. “If you don’t come away with something that day and go, ‘man I saw the coolest thing today’ you know haven’t done the event right. It’s like you’re going to find some-thing cool going on there and I know it because I’ve seen everything that’s going in and it’s just amazing. There is some-thing for everyone.”

With almost 400 bands and musical groups applying each year, Robby and his team hand pick the bands to per-form. Many are up and coming bands who have not had much of a chance to play out all too often. This festival gives bands and artists a chance to shine and get a lot of exposure. Each group plays about a 15 minute set, so you’re able to hear many different performances in one day.

“We try to reach out to some headliners and bring them into the mix; and we try to bring a certain amount of nostalgia and stuff from an older music scene. We try to bring at least 50% of artist that have never done a festival before and then there are some festival favorites that we’ve had year after year” Takac explained.

There are a lot of local bands that are difficult to see because they only place once every so often. At the festival, you’ll be able to dozens of local acts and some larger headliners. As Takac mentioned, you’re able to be exposed to a huge part of the buffalo music scene in a very short time. Not only does the festival help local bands get in some stage time, the MIA organization also helps students and schools in the Western New York area.

Music is Art believes that if you give a child an instrument and a stage, that child will speak louder, more intelligently, and more passionately with and because of music. They take almost any new or used instrument, refurbish them to perfect playing condition, and then donate them to local schools and programs.

They also offer many youth music programs, a jazz fest, and a Rising Star Scholarship. MIA’s mission is to enlighten and ignite a per-sonal connection to the artistic merit and acceptance of all forms of music. All of Music Is Art efforts are supported by very generous sponsors and volun-teers. Without the help of the community, the festival would never be able to take place. Because of the community’s gen-erosity and support, the free Music is Art festival would never have been able to be where it is today.

“It’s all free come on in and plan to spend all day. Plan to come go home and come back actually. Or stay there all day; it’s like twelve straight hours of good stuff.” Takac said. “It kind of takes on a life of its own. It starts out breathing like a big old airplane that hasn’t run in years trying to get off the group but by evening we’re soaring above the crowd. It’s wonderful. You’ll have a great time, I mean if you’re fan of music and a fan of art and all sorts of stuff like that. It’s a very awesome day.”

The 14th annual Music is art festival will be taking place on Saturday, September 10th from 10AM to 10PM at Delaware Park behind the Albright-Knox Art Gal-lery. If you are an avid fan of music, art, food, and fun, this is an event you do not want to miss.