Gainesville is the county seat of Alachua County, Florida, and the most populous city in North Central Florida, with a population of 145,214 in 2022. It is the principal city of the Gainesville metropolitan area, which had a population of 339,247 in 2020.
A rock festival is an open-air rock concert featuring many different performers, typically spread over two or three days and having a campsite and other amenities and forms of entertainment provided at the venue. Some festivals are singular events, while others recur annually in the same location. Occasionally, a festival will focus on a particular genre, but many attempt to bring together a diverse lineup to showcase a broad array of popular music trends.
Visual kei, abbreviated v-kei, is a music scene and movement that originated in Japan during the early 1980s. Originally influenced by glam rock and other 1970s rock music styles, visual kei musicians incorporate varying levels of make-up, elaborate hairstyles and costumes, often coupled with an androgynous aesthetic. The term visual kei was coined in the 1990s and is sometimes also called a music genre or style, similar to Shibuya-kei. However, there are no defined characteristics for the music played by visual kei acts, and whether or not one is considered a part of the movement is based solely on their having an emphasis on visuals and performance.
Plan-It-X Records (PIX) was an independent record label. Originally based in Georgetown, Indiana, PIX was based in Bloomington, Indiana following brief stints in Olympia, Washington, Gainesville, Florida, and Cairo, Illinois. The label released folk punk and pop punk music, including Against Me!'s Crime As Forgiven By, other releases include albums by This Bike Is a Pipe Bomb, Defiance, Ohio, Ghost Mice, Japanther, The Bananas, Operation: Cliff Clavin, and Antsy Pants and Fifteen.
The Reading and Leeds Festivals are a pair of annual music festivals that take place in Reading and Leeds in England. The events take place simultaneously on the Friday, Saturday and Sunday of the August bank holiday weekend. The Reading Festival is held at Little John's Farm on Richfield Avenue in central Reading, near Caversham Bridge. The Leeds event is held in Bramham Park, near Wetherby, the grounds of a historic house. Headliners and most supporting acts typically play at both sites, with Reading's Friday line up becoming Leeds' Saturday line-up, Reading's Saturday line-up playing at Leeds on Sunday, and Leeds' Friday line-up attending Reading on Sunday. Campsites are available at both sites and weekend tickets include camping. Day tickets are also sold.
Hot Water Music is an American punk rock band formed in October 1994 and based in Gainesville, Florida. Since their formation, the group has consisted of Chuck Ragan and Chris Wollard on shared lead vocals and guitars, bass guitarist Jason Black, and drummer George Rebelo. Since 2017, the band has also included guitarist-vocalist Chris Cresswell. The band initially broke up in August 1998, but reformed by October 1998. The group split up again in 2006, but has remained active since 2008.
The Halifax Pop Explosion (HPX) was a music festival and conference that occurred every fall, typically two weeks after Thanksgiving, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. The term "Halifax Pop Explosion" also came to be adopted in the 1990s as the name of the Halifax alternative rock music scene as a whole, which at that time was dominated by power pop acts such as Sloan, Jale, The Super Friendz, and Thrush Hermit.
The Music in Leeds ecompasses a variety of styles and genres, including rock, pop and electronic. While groups like Soft Cell, the Kaiser Chiefs, the Wedding Present, Utah Saints and the Bridewell Taxis have gained success in the mainstream, Gang of Four, the Sisters of Mercy, Chumbawamba and the Mission have helped to define genres like punk rock, gothic rock and post-punk.
As Friends Rust is an American melodic hardcore band based in Gainesville, Florida. The original line-up, which included vocalist Damien Moyal, guitarist Henry Olmino, bass guitarist Jeronimo Gomez and drummer Matthew Crum, formed in Davie, Florida in September 1996. After recording a demo tape but failing to secure a record deal, the band parted ways in February 1997.
Damien Zev Moyal is an American vocalist, lyricist, musician, songwriter and designer. Originally from Amstelveen, North Holland, Netherlands, he moved to the United States as a child and grew up in Miami, Florida, where he notably fronted such hardcore punk, metallic hardcore and melodic hardcore bands as Shai Hulud, As Friends Rust, Morning Again, Culture, Bird of Ill Omen and Bridgeburne R. Moyal has been based in Ann Arbor, Michigan since 2006 and is the founding member of the semi-eponymously named gothic rock/post-punk band Damien Done.
SunFest is a musical and art festival held annually in the first week of May in West Palm Beach, Florida. SunFest is the state's largest waterfront music and art festival in Florida and attracts more than 100,000 visitors. Main attractions of this festival are the three stages featuring live music with a diverse array of musical styles including Pop, Hip-Hop, R&B, Soul, Funk, Latin, Reggae, Blues, Rock & Roll, Alternative Rock, Southern Rock, Hard Rock, Indie Rock, Jazz, Bluegrass, Country, Folk, Electronic, EDM, and Americana.
The Ergs! are an American punk rock band formed in 2000 in South Amboy, New Jersey, by three high school friends: drummer/lead vocalist Mikey Erg, guitarist/vocalist Jeff Erg, and bassist Joey Erg. The band developed in the New Brunswick, New Jersey music scene. Through touring and recording the Ergs! became recognized on a national and international level, touring and playing with such noted acts as The Descendents, The Bouncing Souls, Lifetime, Less Than Jake, The Loved Ones, The Gaslight Anthem, Dillinger Four, None More Black, The Explosion, Municipal Waste, Lemuria, and more. They have appeared at a number of festivals including Riot Fest, Insubordination Fest, and The Fest, the latter of which the band played four consecutive years, including as a headlining act in 2008, and making a fifth appearance as a headlining reunion act in 2016.
The Treefort Music Fest is a five-day, indie rock festival which is held at numerous venues throughout downtown Boise, Idaho in late March. The inaugural festival took place during March 20–23, 2012, with featured acts from Built to Spill, The Joy Formidable, and Poliça. Treefort has been called "the west’s best SXSW alternative" and "Boise's preeminent artistic, cultural, and musical happening" which has "morphed from quirky music festival to consuming community event." It has also been characterized as having become a "nationally renowned gathering just by maintaining its personable close-knit vibe" and a "music lover's joyous mayhem" which showcases and amplifies the soul of Boise. Given its track record, by its seventh year Treefort was being hailed as "the greatest music festival in the country" and "an absolute gem of a festival."
Kaleb Stewart was an American musician, vocalist, songwriter and former skateboarder. Originally from Talkeetna, Alaska, he moved around in his childhood before settling in Tampa, Florida as a teenager, and later made his home in Gainesville, Florida. While in Gainesville, he notably played bass guitar and provided backing vocals in the melodic hardcore band As Friends Rust from 1998 to 2000, and in the hardcore punk band Bridgeburne R from 1999 to 2000. Stewart took part of As Friends Rust's reunion in 2008, and remained with the band until 2019.
Timothy James Kirkpatrick is an American drummer. Originally from Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, Kirkpatrick played in punk band Shaft and emotional hardcore bands Roosevelt and Burgundy in his teens. After a brief stay in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where he played in the hardcore band Bloodpact, Kirkpatrick moved to Gainesville, Florida in 1997, and joined metallic hardcore band Culture and melodic hardcore band As Friends Rust, both with vocalist Damien Moyal.
The California Tour was a headlining concert tour by American rock band Blink-182 in support of the group's seventh studio album, California (2016). The tour began on July 21, 2016 in San Diego, California and ended on September 22, 2017, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Prior to the tour, the group embarked on the We Are Pirates Tour, performing at several festivals and amphitheaters between May and July 2016. Support acts on the initial, first leg of the California tour included A Day to Remember, and the All-American Rejects and All Time Low on certain dates. A second European tour in mid-2017 included guests Frank Turner, the Front Bottoms, and SWMRS.
The Rebellion Festival, formerly Holidays in the Sun and the Wasted Festival is a British punk rock festival first held in 1996. The festival has attracted mainstream press coverage from such sources as The Independent, The Daily Telegraph and Kerrang.
Fluff Fest is an independent hardcore punk festival held each July at the Czech town of Rokycany. A significant event for the DIY music scene of the Czech Republic and the punk subculture of Europe, it is associated with movements such as veganism, anarchism, feminism, anti-fascism, and straight edge. It features an international lineup of bands from diverse punk rock genres including hardcore, crust punk, emo, and grindcore, as well as talks and zines. Catering is provided by local animal rights organization Svoboda zvířat.
Joseph Lee Simmons is an American guitarist, bass guitarist, songwriter and brewer. Originally from Houston, Texas, Simmons grew up in Coral Springs, Florida, where he notably played in the hardcore punk bands Dinner Time and Lock Down, the sludge metal band Bird of Ill Omen and the metallic hardcore band Morning Again. He later moved to Gainesville, Florida, where he played in the metallic hardcore bands Culture and Some Sort of Radio, the melodic hardcore band As Friends Rust, and the emotional hardcore / post-hardcore band Salem. He currently plays in the black metal band Rot in Coffins.
