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Today, our EiC Steve emailed me to let me know that the Loyal Earth Festival was now following us on Twitter. Not the Earth Day Festival, but Loyal Earth. Huh? Curious, I went to their website. It turns out that Davide and Gina Weaver, the very busy couple behind ArtDimensions, Taste of St. Louis and the ArtDTour have somehow found yet more time in the day (!) and are staging a very ambitious Earth Day festival downtown. What's more, the musical headliners are freakin' Medeski, Martin & Wood, who will perform not just one, but two sets. The rest of the lineup's a bit more akin to what you'd see down at Camp Zoe (which isn't bad in the least, but hailing as I do from the West coast, and having been surrounded by jam bands on campus and elsewhere, I have burned up most of the enzymes required for metabolizing 10 min+ guitar solos). Since the Weavers are involved, there will also be a heavy visual art element; and of course, this is an Earth Day event, so expect lots of eco-educators to be on hand as well.
Now, you may be thinking the same thing I am: How in the hell did they actually get good bands for a downtown music festival, and not some burnt-up old top 40 act from 20 years ago? Well, remember that Taste of St. Louis booked The Roots for ToSTL 2006 ... and this isn't exactly a free downtown music festival. A pass for the whole five-day run is $75, with single-day passes at $10, which is actually not a bad price at all. The festival kicks off on April 16 and runs through April 20. You can get all the pertinent details (tix, times, etc.) at their website.
Speaking of their site, as I was poking around there, I wondered: what's this Loyal Family business? I zipped over to the URL at the bottom of the page, loyalfamily.com, and discovered they are live music promoters who are collaborating with ArtDimensions, so (aha) Davide and Gina are not pulling this off by themselves. (Though I would never doubt their ability to do just that.) In fact, -- tarnations! -- it appears the two are also collaborating on hugely ambitious project on Cherokee, Shop Loyal, which will essentially be a ginormous local-goods emporium, with a gallery and lounge on the top floor:
"Loyal Family & Art Dimensions are proud to announce a new exciting collaboration @ 2720 Cherokee, in the historic neighborhood once known for its shopping, architecture and culture. When complete, the first floor of this 20,000 sq ft building will be home to Shop Loyal, a 7,000 sq ft retail store with local arts, crafts, music & clothing as well as live music & art performances, snacks & even adult libations. The top floor will host the new Art Dimensions Gallery and an urban lounge for private parties, social events or just hanging out enjoying the atmosphere.
Join us Saturday April 4th for 'Open House on Cherokee,' where we will open our doors to the public for the first time and give a glimpse of what is to come. Live music by The Northwoods + Throw Pillows which features members of both Messy Jiverson & The Feed. Free no cover, please tell your friends to join us on Cherokee to celebrate a movement of art, independence and free enterprise."
So this gives me yet another reason to make it down to the neighborhood soon, because, unlike my colleague Bryan Hollerbach, I haven't even been to Binge & Purge yet -- much less the new Cranky Yellow storefront. And after watching three new stores open up in this neck of the woods just in the past two months, I am very, very much looking forward to standing on a streetcorner and hollering, "What recession!?" --Stefene Russell
