talking with the dude behind dudefest

I've unfortunately never made it across the atlantic for a dudefest and the fact that my friends are forever telling me what an awesome time they had makes me feel like i should pluck up the pennies and just do it before its to late. So in excitement for the festival season i'm putting up an old interview i did with Derek Brown, the innovator behind dudefest as well as raging member of band phoenix bodies.

For someone who lives in the UK where festival tickets are astonisghly high, it surprises me that you can stack your line-up full of incredible bands and keep the admission crazy cheap. Given the hard financial climate which we live in is it a hard principle to live by?
I always try to keep the fest cheap. It's a 100% DIY punk rock affair. Bands aren't playing this so they can get a huge stack of cash, and I'm not booking this to fund my extravagant lifestyle. This is all done for fun, and the door price is set so that I can pay all the bands fairly. Most of the bands playing are bands that I have known for a long time, and have probably played in my living room at some point or another. The fest is a good reason for us to all get together and have a really good time for a weekend. So really, the fest has never been a "financial struggle". I've never had a problem paying all the bands that play the fest fairly, and I don't believe I've ever lost money by booking this thing. I'd feel like I was ripping people off if I charged more than I do for the fest. Actually, if I could have found a larger venue for the fest this year, tickets would have been cheaper, but I can only let in 400 people, so prices are going to be at an all time high this year. Something I'm not too excited about.

Is there something special about Indiana? Im no expert on the geography of the states but is the dudefest template one which would work in other cities?
Indiana is sort of in the middle of the country, so it's not too hard for most bands to get here over the course of a weekend. A lot of Europeans tend to be sort of ignorant about how huge a country the US actually is. Indiana is about 800 miles from New York City on the East Coast, and about 2,100 miles from San Francisco on the West Coast. So being in the middle of the country can also be sort of dubious. I've started to routinely fly in bands for the fest that live 10-30 hours-driving away. However, the local music scene here is not much to get excited about. When I say that, I am not talking about the local bands, there are a TON of awesome ones from Indiana, but I'm speaking about the number of people interested in coming to the fest locally. Every year, the attendees from out of state greatly outnumber people that could have driven 15 minutes to come to the fest.

When you started this whole thing what was your inspiration? what sort of bands were you listening to at that time? and has this changed as the years have rolled on?
The bands that play the fest generally don't have much to do with the music that I listen to. I actually don't really listen to a ton of music anyway. I prefer to just see and watch most bands. Although, I'd love to have The Beastie Boys and The Fucking Champs come play the fest, I don't see that happening. The inspiration for doing the fest now, has changed only slightly from when I first got the impetus to do
the thing. Initially, I just wanted to do a sort of "big show" where I booked a bunch of my friends bands from the East Coast to come play in Indiana, so we could hang out and have a good time. I wanted the show to work out in a way so that I could cover all their transportation costs, and we'd all get to see each other and have fun. So, today it's all the same idea, but now it's kind of grown that I do this fest because many other people enjoy it from all over the country. Now, I want to see my friends bands, and create a fun time for all the people coming to the fest. The fest has grown large enough now, to where I can also invite bands to come play that I've never met, but I've always liked or wanted to see.

Would it be fair for me to say that DudeFest has started including more and more 'metal' bands?(and i use this term lossely of course) And if so what's the explanation for this? and without sounding too cheeky has it made the fest even more dude orientated?
Actually, I'm not a huge fan of 'metal' at all. I mean, I enjoy it. I have friends that are in metal bands that I like to see, such as Skeletonwitch and Demiricous, both bands that played last year, but metal is not really a huge interest of mine. The fest has sort of caught on with that crowd, for whatever reason, and that's kind of cool, but it's also kind of not cool. I don't want to book a bunch of metal bands at Dude Fest, so this year I kind of tried to steer clear of too much metal. I don't like how this fest is sort of getting pigeon-holed as a MIDWEST EXTREME MUSIC GATHERING or something cheesy like that. I'd really rather it be known as a punk rock festival, or something of that nature.

How far reaching is the Festival now, that fact i've heard of it and am considering going must say something?
As I've mentioned a few times already, people travel from all over the country to come to this fest. I'd guess that a few people come from almost every state in the US, Carloads of people cross the Canadian border each year, people have taken 36 hour bus rides here from Mexico, and Europeans and South Americans have hopped in planes to come to the fest. So, the reach is pretty far. Most people that come to the fest will have traveled for at least 3 or 4 hours to attend it.


I imagine this is gonna be such a hard question to answer, but what has been your favourite moment of Dude Fest?
This is actually sort of easy. Last year when Pig Destroyer was playing and a 12 foot long, plush, purple dinosaur made it's way into the show was so fucking funny. I fell over laughing and accidentally unplugged Scott Hull's guitar amp. To me, that was probably the culmination of how awesome this fest has become. Watching hundreds of people headbang and throw around a dinosaur to the most ripping grind band imaginable is one of the top moments I've experienced at any show. However, with Ice Nine and Portraits of Past playing this year, I'll get to see 2 of my all-time favorite bands get back together and come play a show for me. That will truly be something special.

Finally, Are you as stoked for Portraits of Past as I am?
I definitely am. My band, Phoenix Bodies, was lucky enough to play with them last summer in California, and they were incredible! I went in with low expectations, but I was completely blown away at how great that band sounded. It made me want to throw their records away, because they just seemed worthless after hearing the songs played
live.