Nophest 5.0 comes to WonderRoot this Thanksgiving Weekend

Here's something to be thankful for: Friday, Nov. 28 through Sunday, Nov. 30, WonderRoot will host the fifth edition of Atlanta's Nophest Music Festival. To get you up off the couch, away from the holiday football and burning off all those turkey calories as soon as possible, shows begin at 8 p.m. Friday, 2 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m., Sunday, and the schedule features almost every excellent small local band, including Nerd Parade, Sunday Drive Bye, Lindsay Appel, Tealights, It's Elephant's, Pistolero, Gift Horse, Wighat and many more.

Paste:Local recently spoke with Nophest co-founder and local musician Randy Garcia about the festival, about the music and about the cake.

Paste:Local: How would you define Nophest? How is it different from other small Atlanta music festivals?
Garcia: Nophest is "No B.S." festival. We don't think about door receipts, beer sales or merchandising as much as we think about the great party we are trying to throw and the new friends we're hoping to meet. We also define it by the diversity of music we present and the sense of family that easily develops over the course of the weekend. If we are lucky, we break even.

Paste:Local: How do you book acts for the fest? What makes a band a Nophest band?
Garcia: I try to book the festival first-come, first-served. However, that's often a lose-lose situation, so I suppose the only thing I can say is that booking Nophest just sort of happens-- like a string of random and/or unfortunate events which somehow aligns into a performance schedule. That being said, the ideal Nophest band is loud, has a sense of humor and doesn't carry a chip on their shoulder. Other than that, we are pretty open.

Paste:Local: How did you select WonderRoot as your venue?
Garcia: WonderRoot is awesome! They represent everything good about the D.I.Y music scene and are the antithesis of night-club politics. There is a sense of freedom and growth at WonderRoot which is impossible to find at bar-based venues.

Paste:Local: Why has this festival been successful enough to do it five times?
Garcia: Because we have nothing to lose, and because we love music. What other motivation could we possibly need?

Paste:Local: Why do you hold concerts twice a year?
Garcia: They are actually two distinct events. The winter party is the titular "Nophest" while the spring party is the "4&20" festival. Both share a similar order of events, but the 4&20 festival is essentially a glorified birthday party for Matt Simpson, the co-founder, and myself. Last year someone got me a delicious red-velvet cake and everything.

Paste:Local: Why should people go?
Garcia: Because we won't insult or alienate you! We will do everything we can to put on a bad-ass weekend of music for you. Also, we have officially lowered ticket prices this year to $5 a day instead of $10. We figured with the recessions and the bail-outs and all the ridiculousness afoot in modern society, why not cut everyone a little slack?

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