The LouFest Music Festival was an annual two-day event held 2010 - 2018 in Forest Park, located in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. The event featured local, regional and national acts, with an aesthetic range from funk and indie-rock to alt-country and soul. The event featured four stages with alternating performances throughout the weekend. The festival grounds included a children's stage and village, an environmentally friendly vendor area, and a food court featuring restaurants from St. Louis neighborhoods.[2] On September 5, 2018, LouFest was canceled only days before the event was supposed to take place due to “the loss of two of the event’s top sponsors, scheduling and contract issues with major artists, and existing debt from previous events."[3][4][5][6]
After Loufest's 2018 cancellation, several of the participants and vendors made their own events.[7] LouFest headliner Robert Plant and the Sensational Space Shifters rebooked to do a Sunday night show at The Pageant. St. Louis Post Dispatch Journalist Kevin C. Johnson wrote, "Tank and the Bangas and Scrub and Ace Ha are two of the 41 acts who were scheduled to perform at LouFest in Forest Park this weekend, and both landed on their feet after LouFest was canceled with the Old Rock House show."[8] Some St. Louis vendors created events, including Archfest and LouWow, to help vendors recoup sales they would have lost without Loufest.[9]
The Kranzberg Arts Foundation, Urban Chestnut Brewing Co., Gaslight Records, Venture Cafe, Regional Arts Commission, Fabricatorz Foundation, and Express Scripts sponsored a showcase called The Sound of St. Louis featuring over 15 local musical acts at The Grendel in Grand Center Arts District, St. Louis. The acts performing at the Sounds of St. Louis include Ben Reece's Unity Quartet, Bob DeBoo, The Burney Sisters, DJ AgileOne, Dracla, Grace Basement, Jesse Gannon, Kasimu-tet, Kevin Bowers' Nova, The Knuckles, Mo Egeston, Owen Ragland, Ptah Williams, The River Kittens, Scrub & Ace Ha, and Tonina
Chris Hansen, executive director of the Kranzberg Arts Foundation, said "our organizational mission is to serve and support and the void that was left needed to have civic-minded organizations and companies to step up to protect our local talent. It was a obvious and natural decision for us to do this."[10]
In addition, the annual alternative to Loufest event, Pü FeST, started in 2014 as an alternative to LouFest, and now continues as a "DIY, weirdo alternative" underground festival featuring some rising stars such as Blvck Spvde, Nineteen, Effluvium, 18andCounting, and ICE aka Black James.[11][12]
The cancellation of Loufest has been hailed as "Everything That's Right About St. Louis." And, some are praising Loufest for the cancellation as an "accidental reminder that [St. Louis is] amazing."[13]
The 2018 LouFest music festival was to be held on September 8 and 9, but was cancelled because of financial difficulties in paying vendors and "untimely press attention."[3] Vendors complained that in years prior they had difficulties being paid and demanded a deposit for services to be rendered. Several vendors assumed they will not receive their deposits returned.[17][6]
Robert Plant and Modest Mouse were to be the event headliners. Musician Owen W. Ragland was scheduled to perform, and said he and his band put in a lot of time preparing to perform and was disappointed:
"A lot of us had been hearing things" leading up to the festival, he said, but "I didn’t think they would actually cancel it. The work I put in and that my team put in ... It's disappointing for the city to have this loss. But I'm interested to see who steps up and fills the void. There's clearly a want for LouFest. It's definitely a bummer to see it go to waste."[18]
Singer-bassist Tonina said, "I feel like, what artist is going to want to come here after this, if there's another one in the future? Musicians listen to that, and they talk to each other. We're already skipped by so many bands in general and needed this festival more than any other city," she said.[18]
Up and coming Rapper Smino, a headliner from 2017, tweeted, "LouFest been bogus. We gone bring sumn better 4 da city."[19]
Tickets are to be refunded but the organizers do not currently have the funds to pay back ticketholders. However, Live Nation and Ticketmaster will refund tickets as the organizers repay those two companies.[needs update][20][21]
2017 LouFest Music Festival
The 2017 LouFest music festival was held on September 9 and 10, a Saturday and Sunday. The festival was moved from the grand fields to the area around the upper lot of The Muny.
The festival offers free water refills and discourages the use of plastic bottles. Food and beverage vendors at LouFest are required to only use recyclable or compostable products.
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