Indie musicians rock the nest

As a quiet, under-the-radar home to many musicians and artists, Eagle Rock gives an incredibly extensive celebration to unite its residents with other performers in Southern California. Drive along Colorado Boulevard on Oct. 3, and you will find the centerpiece of its cultural events.

First held in October 1998 inside local restaurants and shops as a modest endeavor, the Eagle Rock Music Festival has become a nationally recognized event. As the festival gradually developed a devoted following, the number of attendees became a safety hazard, occasionally crowding into the streets. As a result, the festival underwent a major shift in 2006, closing off Colorado Boulevard for the evening to set up grand stages from Argus Street to Eagle Rock Boulevard.

With an audience of more than 30,000 at last year’s event, the festival is expected to push the boundaries again this year with potentially 40,000 or more attendees. Even the local fire department has shown concern about the large number of expected people.

A majority of festival-goers will be Eagle Rock residents, but residents from all over Los Angeles are expected to constitute much of the turnout.

“People from out of Eagle Rock can get to see what’s happening in this part of town,” Brian Martinez, director of festival events, said. “It allows Eagle Rock to differentiate itself and its music as being more organic as opposed to other music events that are all too common in LA.”

The greatest factor for the festival’s steady growth is that there is no charge. People are free to walk the closed-off streets without buying any tickets or paying entry fees, although donations are gladly accepted. This is thanks to the local businesses, the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs and co-sponsor LA City Councilmember José Huizar.

“Sponsorships have taken twice as long to get, to raise the same if not less money than last year,” Martinez explained. “Businesses have been really open and gracious, though.”

The festival’s outdoor atmosphere is a perfect way for local shops to expose themselves and appeal to residents who haven’t given them a try yet. Restaurants like Colombo’s and Camilo’s will host jazz bands, while the Women’s Twentieth Century Club will showcase revival rock.

One of the festival’s common themes — diversity of multicultural art — was a large factor in finding a wide range of music to be performed. While rock music has always been very popular at past festivals, support from sponsors, such as a grant from the James Irvine Foundation, allows greater freedom in the styles and genre of music this year. Though all the bands are from Southern California, there are a variety of performers — ’60s Middle Eastern psychedelic band The Gaslamp Killer and KoTolan’s Japanese salsa are only a taste of the eclectic musical acts featured this year.

Up from last year’s 40 bands, this festival will feature 60 musical groups.

“There’s no hierarchy — no real headliners,” Martinez said. “Certain bands got certain time slots and we put others later on or earlier to spread attention.”

According to Martinez, this year’s event has been focused on “refining relationships with programming partners.”

DUBLAB, the festival’s programming partner, is a collective of artists, musicians and performers founded by USC alumni, Mark McNeill. The collective is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year with 10 events starting Oct. 1 — one of which, the Future Roots Stage, will be at the music festival and includes diverse music like cosmic experimentalism from Julia Holter and Indonesian gamelan by Bali and Beyond Gamelan Ensemble.

With a firm infrastructure set in place, future festivals are guaranteed. In its 11th year, Eagle Rock Music Festival is still relatively young.

“As long as we keep the community included and focus on bringing music rather than profiting,” Martinez said, “I expect to see many more festivals.”

Among the bands performing at this year’s festival are LA music scene staples The Happy Hollows, No Age and Pocahaunted.