Interview With Anthony Morrow (Fucking Awesome Fest)

Detroit is a great town for local music festivals.  From the Blowout, Blue Moon In June, 4th Street Fair, Dally In The Alley, to The Pure Detroit Stage at Cityfest, Detroit has enough quality local bands to sustain the whole lot and then some. Now add to that list the late summer offering that is Fucking Awesome Fest. From the guy who brought you last year’s Detroit Rock City - Fucking Awesome Fest features 80 bands playing 7 stages throughout the Majestic Complex.  To find out more MotorCityRocks.com recently chatted with Anthony Morrow, current talent buyer for the Majestic and the brains behind what is sure to become the next “must attend” event.

So your know around these parts for putting together some great local music festivals, what’s the thinking behind Fucking Awesome Fest?
I’ve had the idea for the fest for about a year. I knew I wanted to call an event “Fucking Awesome” and I’ve always wanted to see just how many bands I could squeeze into a weekend all within the confines of the Majestic Complex. When I started here in May, I saw a huge hole in our calendar for August. The summer is notoriously void of touring artists so I thought why not throw a big party and invite a shit-ton of bands to play. Plus, I really had the itch to produce another festival. Rock City was last June so I’m a little overdue.

What are the challenges to putting on say a Blowout or Fucking Awesome Fest?
The biggest challenge is making sure you’ve booked the right mix of bands and done the right amount of promotion to get people out. I think the current financial climate has forced everyone to be highly selective with how they’re going to spend their entertainment dollars. It was important to us to offer up a large amount of fun for an affordable price. Logistically, the festival will be a challenge because we have bands firing up sets every 15 minutes and we’re utilizing things like the risers in the Magic Stick as “stages.” Should be interesting to see how it all plays out. The booking for Fucking Awesome was actually the least-challenging part because the bands here in town as well as the national acts were all really into it and incredibly easy to deal with.

Do you plan on making this an annual festival, do you think the name may hurt the local “mainstream press” form picking up on it?
The idea is to make this an annual event. I think the press outlets that really care about the Detroit music scene and want to highlight international bands like Art Brut will look past the name and cover it. My sense is that open-minded individuals love the name and those are the folks coming out to this.

How important is the Majestic to the local music scene?
I think the Majestic is incredibly important to Detroit’s music scene. There’s a deep history here of nurturing bands and scenes. If you just look back at the artists that have played here, hung out here in the Garden Bowl, even worked here, it’s pretty incredible. I was lucky to step into a situation that was built up throughout the last 15+ years by Dave, the owner along with the outstanding string of talent buyers we had here.

How is the new Alley Deck and Majestic Cafe stage working out?
In my opinion, The Alley Deck is probably the best place to hang out before and after a show. I’ve really fallen in love with it this summer. The Cafe is undergoing a radical transformation. It’s going to be super cool to see the room with loads of bands and hot, sweaty bodies during the festival.

** The inaugural Fucking Awesome Fest starts this Thursday night (8/13) and runs on through until Sunday night (8/16) at the legendary Majestic Theater Complex in Detroit’s Midtown area.