Clarkston Festival Offers Sun, Suds and Surf Rock
The fourth annual Clarkston Surf Fest, which features food, beer and live surf music, will be held from noon until at least midnight on Sat., May 23 at the Clarkston Community Center, just east of Atlanta. Some of the event's sponsors include Foster Sound, Brockett Pub House and Grill, Kona Beer and Clarkston-based B2B marketing agency MLT Creative.
Clarkston, GA (PRWEB) May 19, 2009 -- It's an event known as Surf Fest - a day-long outdoor affair featuring good food, good beer and set after set of live surf music. The festivities begin at noon at the Clarkston Community Center Field.
Clarkston Surf Fest - May 23, 2009
The festival, now in its fourth year, is the brainchild of Wayne Foster of Foster Sound - a family-run company specializing in live concert sound for small to medium venues - and two of his friends.
It all started when Foster was introduced to the distinctive sound of surf rock.
"About five years ago," he said, "my friend Randy Duke asked me if I would go down to a show at Georgia Tech and see a surf band play."
That Atlanta-based band was The Penetrators, and Foster was hooked.
"My friends and I started talking about how cool it would be to get a bunch of surf bands together and put on a show," he said. "It's just been snowballing ever since -- getting a little bigger each year, and a little better each year."
In addition to Foster Sound, some of this year's other sponsors include the nearby Brockett Pub House and Grill (purveyor of the aforementioned grub), Kona Beer (supplying the suds) and Clarkston-based ad agency MLT Creative, who designed and posted all the promotional materials, such as the surfboard-shaped street banners affixed to telephone poles all over Clarkston.
Billy Mitchell, a partner at MLT Creative and an avid attendee of the annual event, is stoked to see its return. "Surf's up once again in the little land-locked city of Clarkston," he said. "It doesn't make much sense, but it sure is fun."
It sure is green, too. This year, for the first time ever, all of the electricity for Surf Fest will run entirely on BioDiesel, thanks to sponsors Homeless Productions, NetPLUS Technologies and Oreo Ventures, LLC. There will also be recycling bins strategically placed around the festival grounds. It marks the first-ever "green" event the city of Clarkston has ever held.
Surf music, for those unfamiliar with the term, takes traditional rock, rockabilly, country and blues, and infuses it with the influence of Mexican and Middle Eastern melodies. It was pioneered in the 1950s by the now legendary Dick Dale, a surfer who sought to somehow translate the adrenaline-fueled sport to music.
"It's instrumental rock-and-roll with a lot of lead guitar and a lot of reverb," Foster said. "It's just happy music."
Commonly characterized by double-picked, staccato guitar notes distorted by the distinctive crunch of heavy reverb, the surf sound rose to popularity in the early 60s, and has even experienced a resurgence in recent decades. Maybe you remember the instrumental theme song of the popular sitcom "3rd Rock From the Sun," or have seen pretty much anything directed by Quentin Tarantino. A professed fanatic of the sunsoaked subgenre, the maverick auteur has often made use of it in his movies, perhaps most memorably when he set the opening credits of his blood-soaked crime opus "Pulp Fiction" to the tune of Dick Dale's hypnotically cool hit "Misirlou."
Though surf rock is often identified with coastal California, Surf Fest's fully-stocked line-up consists of a talented crop of Southern-based bands. In addition to the aforementioned Penetrators, there are groups like Daikaiju, who hail from Huntsville Ala., or the Norcross, Ga.-based StratoGeezer. Others on hand include the Necronomikids, The Broken Spokes, The Mystery Men?, The Surge! and more.
The festival always draws a loyal, enthusiastic crowd, and attendees are even allowed to bring their own coolers. Take it from Mitchell: "If, like us, you enjoy surf music, Kona beer and a 'beach' full of bohemians, we will see you there."
For more about Clarkston Surf Fest, visit the website at www.clarkstonsurffest.com.
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