Seventy bands. Four venues. Two days.
The inaugural Fisherman’s Village Music Festival took over downtown Everett last weekend, beginning Friday afternoon and ending in the early hours of Sunday morning.
“We’ve gotten nothing but good feedback,” said organizer Steven Graham, one half of the Everett Music Initiative. “It was kind of incredible how well it all went considering it was our first time doing something this scale.”
They don’t have a final count on the turnout yet, but Graham said the festival more than broke even. The earnings will be reinvested into Everett Music Initiative projects such as The Cannery, the venue Graham and business partner, Ryan Crowther, opened last month.
“The turnout was great,” Crowther said. “I felt like the event was a huge success. At the busiest time there were a thousand people between the four venues.”
Those venues were The Cannery, Historic Everett Theatre, Kroakers Neighborhood Bar and an outdoor tent on Hoyt Avenue.
Crowther said he was able to enjoy a lot of the music since he was overseeing production throughout the weekend. Graham, on the other hand, only got to see three or four sets.
“I was making sure that little problems didn’t turn into big problems,” he said. “Making sure the volunteers were getting everything that they needed. Making sure we had ice for all the venues.”
Fisherman’s Village was partially funded by Snohomish County’s Tourism Promotion Area grant, which is given to events that will attract people from outside of Everett. The festival fulfilled that expectation, drawing people from Seattle, Portland and Vancouver. Two women even came all the way from Colorado to see The Moondoggies, Saturday night’s headliner.
“The county is going to be really happy with our turnout,” Crowther said. “Hotels in Everett were all full. The goal of the grant is to fill up the hotel rooms and we certainly achieved that.”
The Everett band I Will Keep Your Ghost played at The Cannery on Saturday night. The synthrock duo started out playing at Everett venues but has since begun playing more shows in the Seattle area.
“I think the festival went incredibly smoothly,” lead singer Bryan Bradley said. “I didn’t hear of any problems or technical difficulties, and all the bands sounded fantastic.”
Bradley hopes Fisherman’s Village becomes an annual event.
“I’d personally like to see it expand a bit beyond just music next year, maybe adding some local arts and crafts and food vendors,” he said.
The Irishmen, a pub two doors away from Historic Everett Theatre, saw a bump in business throughout the weekend.
“On Friday night, you could tell there were a few venues going around,” General Manager Brian Smith said. “A crowd would come in and have a few beers. We’d see them come back that night. Same thing for Saturday night. A lot of them were not regulars. We saw a lot of new faces.”
Smith, too, said he’d like to see the festival happen again next year. Graham and Crowther are emphatic that it will.
“There’s definitely going to be a second,” Graham said. “Our plan is to keep doing this thing over and over and over again.”
Read more at everettmusicinitiative.org and follow local music on Graham’s community blog at heraldnet.com/section/blog5202
Quinn Russell Brown: (425)-903-6341 or qbrown@heraldnet.com
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