When most people talk about building a musical community, they are talking about working with bands and fans within a 10 mile to 20 mile radius. When Idio Gallery founder, Montana Simone says it, she’s talking about bridging the gap between the music and arts scene between her current home in New York City, and her former home in San Francisco, and it was with that notion in mind that she set about putting together Royal Oakie Fest.
“Royal Oakie Records is a really small awesome record label in Oakland that my friend, Yasemine June, and her partner, Dave Glasebrook, started a few years ago. It was born out of this desire of seeing the scene and seeing all of our friends being a part of it and wanting them to do better, wanting them to put their talents together, and, being a little a type A in organization, trying to figure out a way to do this adult thing with life long passions,” said Simone.
What Royal Oakie Fest is, at its foundation, is a musical and artistic beacon for people on both coasts to come together and collaborate. A three day artistic happening for bands and artists, who would otherwise be separated by thousands of miles, to meet one another and share ideas, both artistic and otherwise.
For Simone the festival harkens back to her days as a musician in the San Francisco festival scene. She reminisces about the communal vibes of the San Francisco music community and especially about a feeling of collaborative songwriting “around the fire” she doesn’t feel is as present in New York. She put together Royal Oakie Fest, with June and Glasebrook, in hopes of getting that cooperative feeling that she felt in the Bay Area to start forming in the city that never sleeps.
“For bands that don’t tour nationally, that aren’t signed, or tour nationally very rarely, it’s great for them to come together in the spirit of sitting around the fire and actually learn from each other’s music and share it,” said Simone. “We are doing a festival pre-party, just like we used to do in California, on the 6th to celebrate Yasemin June’s solo show opening on Friday. That night we are going to be have all the bands there, playing a couple songs and doing their ‘round the fire vibe.”
Each day, the event will begin at 2 p.m., with the lead singers of many of the bands playing solo acoustic sets in the upstairs section of the gallery. The acoustic sessions will conclude at 5 p.m., when the main festival begins downstairs.
