What You Got? Festival
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Four-day, D.I.Y. music festival opens next week in Olympia
by Matt Driscoll
Jun 21, 2007
Admittedly, Olympia didn’t invent D.I.Y. culture.
But it could have.
Of all the things about Olympia I like, from the bars, to the town’s walkability, to its politics, I’m always most amazed by the people. There’s a sense of community and ambition in Olympia, aided by the capital city’s relatively diminutive size, that’s unique — a vibe I’ve found nowhere else in my travels. D.I.Y. stands for Do-It-Yourself, and when so moved, that’s exactly what the people of Olympia do.
The fourth annual What You Got? Festival, happening Thursday, June 28 through Sunday, July 1, is a fine example. Over the course of four days, bands including Fitz of Depression, Old Time Relijun, Macklemore, Karl Blau, The Old Haunts, Laura Viers, Jason Webley, and The Pharmacy will do what they do best — all in the name of youth. In addition, there are plenty of younger bands involved, including Tacoma’s the Freakouts, who along with the aforementioned groups will lay it down at a number of venues around Olympia — from nightly performances at the Capitol Theatre to Manium, Arthouse, Sylvester Park, Café Vita, and Artisan’s Café. Throw in some youth-centric workshops presented by Olympia’s Freeschool and YaYa Media (among others), and you’ve got yourself one hell of an event. For more information check out www.myspace.com/whatyougotfest.
Created by the Olympia Film Society to “celebrate, nurture and cultivate the artistic efforts of young people, and to support and inspire youth/teen culture,” for the last three years the What You Got Festival? has done just that. This year, however, in a classically Olympia move, there are more people involved, the event is bigger and better, and more good is being done than ever.
“What You Got? is a coalition of folks who believe in youth voice, power and creativity. We believe that what this community needs is a PERMANENT YOUTH ART FACILITY that compliments the efforts of existing youth arts organizations and provides a dependable venue and gallery for regional youth artists,” states www.bicyclerecords.com — one of the event’s many sponsors.
Brendan Phillips graduated from The Evergreen State College on June 15. Originally from Spokane, Phillips has spent four years incubating in Olympia, involved with a number of different community-oriented causes. Over the phone, Phillips admitted he’d grown a reputation for spreading himself too thin, a guy with great ideas who never managed to pull them all together. After heavy deliberation, eight months ago Phillips realized he needed to choose a cause.
He chose Olympia’s youth — and specifically the need for a youth art facility. What he imagined was the “YODA Center.” (Youth of Olympia Doing Art). Phillips’ proposed YODA Center is the “PERMANENT YOUTH ART FACILITY” mentioned above. He shared his idea with a number of different youth organizations in Olympia, as well as the Olympia Film Society — whose yearly What You Got? Fest already went toward benefiting Oly’s youth.
Voila. The biggest and baddest What You Got? Festival yet was born.
“There’s a broad coalition working on youth issues,” explained Phillips.
“They all support opening a space that can be used by all the different youth groups, that allows for creative access and empowering voices. The festival shows that there’s support for this idea, that there’s kids who want to use it, and there’s a need for it in our community.”
[Downtown Olympia, June 28-July 1, www.olyfilm.org/whatyougot/2006]
