Nashville, get ready! There’s a brand new music festival coming your way and it sounds pretty exciting: SoundHarvest is a one-day rock and pop music festival in October, featuring headliners such as The Flaming Lips, Allen Stone and Benjamin Booker. A second stage will highlight Nashville’s own talent: a sweet taste of our diverse local music scene. But it doesn’t stop there. Many additional fun festival elements are promised to get people in the best mood. To find out more, read BLANK’s recent interview with Monica Copciam, Festival Director of SoundHarvest.
BLANK: What is your vision for this festival?
MC: We really want to highlight the new music scene here in Nashville because it’s evolving. There’s still country music, but rock is starting to become really big here.
Our vision for the festival is to create the full festival experience in just one day. We want to make it something really special that the Nashville community can be proud of. So we have headliners like The Flaming Lips, Allen Stone and Benjamin Booker and I think they bring a really cool aspect to the festival. So do all the bands. But we want to create something that is interactive for the fans. So we’re planning on having some interactive art installations there, of course the artisans are going to be there in the vendor area, so people can buy cool little knickknacks like at other festivals. And we will have food tents instead of food trucks, which I think is different for most festivals in Nashville.
We’re just trying to create a really cool, fun vibe. Something that everybody is going to really enjoy and look forward to for years to come. We’re starting out with just one day and we will see how it goes and hopefully, if it is successful, we can make it into multiple days and have more people there in the future.
BLANK: The website says you want to “highlight the evolving cultural landscape of Nashville by featuring local food, beer, art and music.” What are some examples? And how do you plan to tap into that cultural diversity?
MC: We’re hoping to have a more local vibe and to get more local artisans involved. And in addition to regular festival food we will have local food by getting local restaurants involved as well.
I think the bands are a really important part of it. I feel like not a lot of people outside of Nashville really understand that there is more than just country music here. So we are going to have a good mix of the bands and we’re also trying to highlight the local music scene. Our second stage is all going to be local bands from Nashville. We are really excited to have that because that can be a good mix of people.
BLANK: What’s your recipe for a good festival?
MC: Honestly, I think it’s having amazing bands with great performances and with great stage presence. And having a really great vibe at the festival. It’s our goal not to just throw people in a field with some stages and that’s it; we want there to be interactive displays; we want something for everyone to do and have a good time. We’ve been talking about getting back to everybody’s roots – really playing off people interacting with each other and playing with each other. I know that sounds kind of childish, but we want it to be fun to where people can not have their phones out and be able to do other things and actually be present and in the moment.
And then of course something I look forward to at festivals is the food. So we want great food there. People will be there all day long, so we want something that people will enjoy and really look forward to.
I should also add that we’re working with the city: Metro Parks and Recreation. This is the first time a full-scale music festival has been held at Centennial Park, which kind of sets us apart from the rest. It’s a cool accomplishment for us. The people over at Metro Parks and Musicians Corner have been incredibly supportive and we are so thankful for that. We have this great support system behind us and I think it’s going to help make this event successful.
BLANK: You’ve announced the full line-up for the main stage. With October 17 approaching soon, when can we expect to see the line-up for the second stage and a full schedule?
MC: We should have the bands announced in a couple of weeks. And we will probably have the schedule at the end of month.
BLANK: How did you decide what kind of line-up to put together? What makes a good line-up?
MC: In my opinion, I think it’s good to have diversity musically. I love the bands, which are able to connect with the audience and make it really special for the audience. I think that’s something that is really important to us and it’s why we got the bands that we did. You can not go wrong with really good talent. In my opinion all the bands on the SoundHarvest line-up are incredibly talented. They all have something unique to offer to the fans. So I think that’s what makes a good line-up: bands that can really touch people and put on a great performance and make people cry or laugh, all of that.
BLANK: How many attendees do you project?
MC: Six thousand would probably be a good conservative number.
BLANK: How will you address parking needs?
MC: Making parking really easy for the attendees is a big goal of ours. We explored all kinds of options. There will be limited parking in the park, but we’re also trying to create a partnership with one of the ride-sharing apps, so that we can get a special code for SoundHarvest. So if we could work something like that out, I think it would really help. We’ve been talking to some of the local businesses around there, but I don’t know how that’s going to work out just yet. But we are working on it and trying to make it as convenient as possible.
BLANK: Are there any plans for an official after-party?
MC: We’re hoping to do something really fun. We’ve been talking about different options of who we want to perform. There is kind of a cool little electronic scene here that people don’t really tap into. So if we could get some cool electronic artist at the after-party, I think that would be really cool. But we’re still playing around with that a little bit.
We’re talking to a couple of venues, but we haven’t confirmed anything yet. We’re still trying to figure out that part.
BLANK: What do you hope will be people’s take-away?
MC: We’re hoping that people leave the festival and they’ll say: “Wow I can’t wait for SoundHarvest next year.” We want people to really enjoy themselves and Nashvillians to be proud of this new festival we’re bringing in. Honestly, it’s intimidating to start a new festival because there is so much live entertainment here and we’re bringing in something new. So we just want people to accept it and by tying in a lot of the local stuff we’re really hoping to connect with all the locals here.
And we have our non-profits involved as well. And I think that kind of provides a cool aspect for it. We want to give back to the community. So we want people to walk in, be able to have this incredible experience, have a lot of fun and maybe leave with a little more understanding of their community and a little more knowledge of the non-profits we have.
SoundHarvest, a music festival created by Bluewater Music, will take place at Centennial Park in Nashville on October 17, 2015. The doors will open at 11:00 am. SoundHarvest will feature two stages with live music from noon until 11:00 pm. For more information and ticket sales, click here: https://soundharvest.com/.
