Photo by Bill Shouldis

For this installment of Tales From The Fest, The Riot Before’s guitar/vocalist Brett talks about breaking his Fest cherry last year and how the festivities have a deeper meaning than just getting silly drunk for three days. The Riot Before released their fantastic album Fists Buried In Pockets recently via Say-10 Records and you should check it out. Onward!

Last year was my first time at The Fest and I didn’t really know what to expect beyond the stories of inebriated fun I had recounted to me by those who’d been before. And while inebriated fun was completely, unsurprisingly, and happily represented over the weekend I attended, I was caught off guard by another aspect of The Fest that I had never expected. The Fest is not just a weekend of the best type of liver punishment, it’s also a family reunion.

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For the last two years, Horsebites (aka Richard Minino) has created the official logo for The Fest. Along with running his own design company, Minino has provided album covers for bands like Dead To Me, Strike Anywhere, and New Mexican Disaster Squad. Below, he gives us the dirt on how he hooked up with Tony Weinbender and The Fest crew. Enjoy.

I was lucky enough to do the art for the Fest 6 last year and it was a really great learning experience on how to brand a music festival. I thought I did a pretty decent job last year and I wanted to top it for this year’s Fest. Tony Weinbender told me since it was Fest 7 and it started on Halloween that he wanted the art to have something dealing with gambling (i.e. lucky #7) [along with] a Halloween feeling.

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