Ruben Mendez and Abigail Swanson have a plan to vanquish your funk. They’ve organized Depression Fest, which gathers together eight musical acts and six writers at Fred Wildlife Refuge with the goal of lifting your spirits at one of the most difficult times of the year for those dealing with the titular affliction. Hell, on top of the multitude of other factors causing dejection among sensitive people, even December’s damnable repetition of Christmas jingles makes you want to stop going outside. So this is a magnanimous gesture on the part of Mendez (who plays guitar in the flamboyant electro-punk group DYED) and Swanson (a poet who’s in the group Belva). The multimedia extravaganza will also raise money for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.
Talking about the impetus to create Depression Fest, Mendez says, “It was around last year at this time that friends of mine and friends of friends were having a hard time. The days were getting darker faster, the holidays were coming, Trump and social media were making lives horrible. I thought about people who I’ve lost and friends have lost or almost lost to suicide, and how it affects the whole world around them. I was feeling incredibly low, and I know others were and still are, too. I basically wanted something to look forward to during the following autumn.
