What-the-Heck Fest
w/Mount Eerie, Mirah, All Girl Summer Fun Band, Calvin Johnson, Kimya Dawson (of the Moldy Peaches), and more Fri-Sat July 18-19, various venues around Anacortes (see www.knw-yr-own.com for specific details, 360-293-9788), $25.
It’s 7 a.m. on a Saturday, and Commercial Avenue is alive–alive like Christmas in July. Eight city blocks are sectioned off in 20-foot squares, each filled with any measure of trinkets and crafts, trash and treasure alike, unearthed from attics and basements all over town. The final two-block stretch is consumed by the chrome-tinted pride of regional car enthusiasts, whose metal chariots park alongside the Guatemalan craft booth, which is directly adjacent to a wealth of hand-painted Christmas decorations (local favorite) and the Kiwanis Club’s snow-cone stand. This is Shipwreck Days–Anacortes’ 24th annual community celebration of “the world’s biggest garage sale”–and, as logic dictates, the perfect backdrop for one of the region’s most expansive indie-rock festivals. I mean, What the Heck, right?
Initially the brainchild of the city’s modest (and hyphen-happy) Knw-Yr-Own Record label–as helmed by former Beat Happening member and current Anacortes local Bret Lunsford–What-the-Heck Fest was originally conceived for last July as a one-off endeavor, but its inaugural success persuaded organizers to make it an annual event. Now in its sophomore year, W-T-H has expanded to comprise over 40 performances straddling eight of the city’s “venues”–a term applied loosely to an assortment of parks, pubs, a few actual venues, and, of course, a booth on Commercial Ave.
“Yeah, it’s sort of out of context with the rest of the day, I guess,” admits Lunsford, “but at the same time, that’s part of what we’re trying to say, you know: ‘We’re part of this town’s community too, and this is our voice in it.'”
What began as something of a joke early last year–set up a booth at the small-town, citywide rummage sale and hawk our indie wares–quickly snowballed into a modestly sprawling festival, whose size seemed to baffle even its organizers (“We sold out some of the shows last year, and we ended up having to turn people away, which was terrible,” explains Lunsford, “but Anacortes has got its limits.”). The inaugural voyage of What-the-Heck mined the vast and tightly woven family of performers that constitutes the Anacortes music scene, along with a significant auxiliary push from Knw-Yr-Own’s sister label, Olympia’s indelible K Records. Between intimate pasta dinners, the rummage sale, dance parties, and sleeping on lawns, the lax, two-day schedule offered memorable performances by the likes of such national notables as the Microphones, Mirah, Dub Narcotic Sound System, D+, Lois, and Mecca Normal–all amid the utopian scenery of a remote island town.
For the uninitiated, the premise might seem a little outlandish: remote location, small-town, communal ambiance, earnest familial idealism. But for those familiar with the two labels–their impossibly intertwined rosters united in ideology and distinctly Northwest DIY sensibility–What-the-Heck is a likely prog- ression of the already fluid mentality. Two labels in such unlikely locales as Anacortes and Olympia have fostered for themselves such an intricate support system (what the folks at K have officially dubbed the “Invisible Shield”) that band members and label rosters have become virtually interchangeable. And, it seems, we’re all finally invited to the party.
“First and foremost, What-the-Heck is an Anacortes music festival,” explains Lunsford. “We’re obviously not attempting some big rock festival–we’re more about extending and celebrating a community of friends and family that already exists.”
This year, organization of the festival has been dispersed from its central home at Knw-Yr-Own to Anacortes’ all-ages venue and youth hostel, the Department of Safety, with the folks at K picking up some additional loose ends. Invites were extended to all of last year’s performers, and joining the wealth of returning performers (among them the Microphones, Mirah, Little Wings, Dennis Driscoll, the Gift Machine, and the Blow) are new faces like Portland’s Bobby Birdman, the Badger King, [[[VVRSSNN]]], All Girl Summer Fun Band, former Olympian Kimya Dawson (of the Moldy Peaches), and Seattle representatives Broadcast Oblivion and Anna Oxygen. Full passes for the event ($50, including a special dinner performance) are long gone, but two-day passes and accommodations assistance are available at Knw-Yr-Own’s website (www.knw-yr-own.com).