This past weekend, 103 different artists performed in the Ithaca DIY Festival over three days and six venues. For over 12 hours on each day, bands of a variety of genres played sets in venues like the Bernie Milton Pavilion, K-House, Angry Mom Records, the Nocturnal Cafe and more. DIY Fest proudly featured only artists who had played in Ithaca before and had been a part of the renaissance that Ithaca’s music scene is currently undergoing.
DIY Fest is a collaboration between Unknown Stage, Cornell’s Fanclub Collective and Electric Buffalo Records, Practice At, Electrozone, the 1980 Underground and Ithaca Underground. The brainchild of Dominick Petrucci and Sophia Spring, both seniors at Ithaca College and representatives of Unknown Stage, DIY Fest originated from the desire to enjoy all of Ithaca’s music scene at once. Petrucci cited one night a year and a half ago where three great shows happened simultaneously, all in different parts of town. Unable to attend all of them, he reflected on how great it would have been to see all three shows. DIY Fest made sure to address that — making most of its venues a short walk away from each other in the Commons. What’s more, virtually all of the bands from that fateful night performed at the festival, fulfilling the wish that inspired people like Petrucci to organize DIY Fest.
The idea of featuring only artists who had ties to Ithaca was also a big draw for many attendees. The festival’s Ithaca-only nature made the event feel much more community-focused. For bringing the Ithaca community together, some concertgoers remarked, “I’m surprised that there hadn’t been a DIY Fest before.” With the rise in new artists not only at Cornell and Ithaca College but also in the local community, we needed to have a DIY Fest for people in Ithaca to experience the music around them.
Many of the bands involved in DIY Fest are made up of students from Cornell or Ithaca College, like the Cornell bands After Six, Good Head, Vaguely Familiar, Irish Goodbye, Spit! and Cottonmouth. Additionally, many of the volunteers running the event also hailed from the two schools. In this sense, DIY Fest reflects a growing pattern of collaboration between the two student bodies in the realm of live music. Petrucci acknowledged that historically the bond between each student body’s music organizations was indirect and unofficial. But that could change, he noted, as demonstrated by DIY Fest.
The local Ithaca community itself, however, played an instrumental role in making DIY Fest happen. After all, they let DIY Fest use their venues, volunteered, donated to support the festival, helped promote DIY Fest, came to watch the shows and helped make the merch. The people at Pudgie’s Pizza even provided food to the artists and volunteers.
I only partook in DIY Fest as an attendee, but I still saw something special. As I stood toward the back of the venue, I saw all kinds of different people freely enjoying themselves. Cornell students, IC students, townies — all of them danced to experimental hip hop and swayed to folky guitar strums. I saw blossoming friendship in the circles of concertgoers outside getting breaths of fresh air. I saw people who might never get to enjoy each other’s company bob their heads to the same indie rock band.
The sheer variety of music especially stood out to me. A cover of Radiohead’s “Bodysnatchers” and a local hardcore band’s latest single shared the same roof and audience. Whereas many music festivals are united by a common genre, no such barrier divided Ithaca’s rappers and indie rockers. It was evident that the volunteers and attendees of DIY Fest love music as art, regardless of style.
I can only imagine the Ithaca community would like to see this event happen again next year. Those who attended — both volunteers and concertgoers — showed up en masse to support local artists, and had a lot of fun in the process. For the people who volunteered, their experience with DIY Fest no doubt strengthened their connection to Ithaca and deepened their appreciation for the local music scene. After all, participating in DIY Fest meant, by proxy, participating in Ithaca’s music scene. Plus, seeing both familiar faces and complete strangers connect with each other shows me that DIY Fest really has helped foster a broader sense of community in Ithaca. Though next year’s organizers would have some big shoes to fill, the legacy DIY Fest has established is almost sure to make a similar event next year successful, one which I’ll be sure to get more involved in. I only regret not getting involved sooner.
Gustavo Ponzoa is a member of the Class of 2029 in the College of Arts and Sciences. He is a contributor for the Arts & Culture department and can be reached at gap87@cornell.edu.
