Harvest of Hope Fest tickets now on sale

By now, you’ve surely heard of Harvest of Hope Fest, a three day festival to benefit and raise awareness for Harvest of Hope, a non-profit organization that provides financial, educational, and service oriented aid to migrant farm workers all over the country. We here at WWH are proud to be a sponsor of this event, but since we can’t post banner ads (bummer) you readers shall be relegated to hearing about this in article form for the next couple of months.

The festival will be happening March 6-8 at St. John’s County Fairgrounds near St. Augustine, Florida. Not only is it for a great cause, and not only is camping loads of fun, and not only is it cheap, but the lineup is awesome. Check out the list of bands scheduled to appear:

Against Me!, The National, Propagandhi, Devotchka, Broken Social Scene, Bad Brains, The Virgins, Lucero, Girl Talk, Monotonix, The Bouncing Souls, Murs, HEALTH, King Khan & The Shrines, Paint It Black, None More Black, Less Than Jake, The Night Marchers, John Vanderslice, Strike Anywhere, Smoke or Fire, Rehasher, The Faint, Kevin Seconds, Ra Ra Riot, The Mae Shi, This Bike Is A Pipe Bomb, Dave Dondero, Grand Buffet, Bomb The Music Industry!, Tim Barry (AVAIL), Fake Problems, Holy F*ck, Wild Sweet Orange, Hamell on Trial, The Flatliners, Grabass Charlestons, Ninja Gun, O Pioneers!, Her Space Holiday, Whiskey & Co., Underground Railroad to Candyland, Bridge & Tunnel, Hollywood Holt, The Tim Version, Paul Baribeau, Young Livers, Brainworms, E.Y.C., FIYA, Eric Ayotte, The Gadabout Film Fest, Ghost Mice, Virgins (FL), Lauris Vidal, How Dare You, Austin Lucas, Halo Fauna, Josh Small, Cheap Girls, Liza Kate, The Failure’s Union, Lymbyc System, Mumpsy, Hometeam, Tubers, Clock Hands Strangle, BLORR, Antarctic, Alligator, The Ones to Blame, Averkiou, Hawks and Doves.

That’s a lot of quality music for a low price. Through January 31, a three day pass for this festival will cost a mere $29.50, after which the price will be increased to $49.50. Campsites are also $29.50 for the weekend. You can purchase tickets at the festival’s website, and after the jump I’ve included the entire press release to give all of you more information on this awesome event.

Harvest of Hope Festival
www.harvestofhopefest.com
When: March 6th-8th, 2009
Where: St. John’s County Fairgrounds- St. Augustine, Florida

The Scoop:
A three day, multiple stage alternative music festival all to benefit and raise awareness for Harvest of Hope (www.harvestofhope.net), a non-profit organization that provides financial, educational, and service oriented aid to migrant farm workers all over the country. The event emphasizes the focus on being family friendly as well as environmentally friendly. The festival will showcase not only a large group of musicians who are donating their time and performances to the cause but also a variety of art shows and films from progressive artists from around the country, non-profits, local businesses and progressive organizations. Most importantly, the festival will be focused on raising funds and awareness for the Harvest of Hope foundation.

Confirmed Bands:
Against Me!, The National, Propagandhi, Devotchka, Broken Social Scene, Bad Brains, The Virgins, Lucero, Girl Talk, Monotonix, The Bouncing Souls, Murs, HEALTH, King Khan & The Shrines, Paint It Black, None More Black, Less Than Jake, The Night Marchers, John Vanderslice, Strike Anywhere, Smoke or Fire, Rehasher, The Faint, Kevin Seconds, Ra Ra Riot, The Mae Shi, This Bike Is A Pipe Bomb, Dave Dondero, Grand Buffet, Bomb The Music Industry!, Tim Barry (AVAIL), Fake Problems, Holy F*ck, Wild Sweet Orange, Hamell on Trial, The Flatliners, Grabass Charlestons, Ninja Gun, O Pioneers!, Her Space Holiday, Whiskey & Co., Underground Railroad to Candyland, Bridge & Tunnel, Hollywood Holt, The Tim Version, Paul Baribeau, Young Livers, Brainworms, E.Y.C., FIYA, Eric Ayotte, The Gadabout Film Fest, Ghost Mice, Virgins (FL), Lauris Vidal, How Dare You, Austin Lucas, Halo Fauna, Josh Small, Cheap Girls, Liza Kate, The Failure’s Union, Lymbyc System, Mumpsy, Hometeam, Tubers, Clock Hands Strangle, BLORR, Antarctic, Alligator, The Ones to Blame, Averkiou, Hawks and Doves.

The St. John’s Fairgrounds:
- 38 acre fenced property w/ 1,000 primitive camping facilities and several RV facilities
- Located a short biking distance from historic St. Augustine and beach with 3 major cities: Daytona, Jacksonville & Gainesville within short driving distance.
-Multiple local and regional food vendors on site with vegetarian and vegan options available.
-Alcohol will be sold on premises.
-Large vending areas selling a variety of items from music, clothing, pipes, art, and literature.
- Surrounded by beautiful tree lines and mostly all covered with grassy pastures.

For more info and an overview map please visit:
http://www.co.st-johns.fl.us/BCC/Parks_1_Recreation/Fairgrounds/index.aspx

Tickets:
Advance Sales: Jan 3rd- Jan 31st:
$19.50-/DAY PASS
$29.50- 3-DAY PASS

After Feb 1st:
$19.50/DAY PASS
$49.50 -3- DAY PASS

Weekend of event:
$29.50/DAY PASS
$49.50 -3- DAY PASS

CAMPING:
Add primitive camping spot – $29.50 for all three days
1,000 primitive campsites available

How the idea formed to do Harvest of Hope Fest:
The Harvest of Hope Fest was created out of the spirit of people from the independent music scene based around the fine folks from No Idea records who are responsible for another successful multiple day music festival called THE FEST (http://www.noidearecords.com). Ryan Murphy, who works at No Idea Records, had been working closely with the organization through his graduate program at University of Florida. Being good friends with several independent and socially active bands such as Against Me!, Fake Problems, Gaslight Anthem, Holopaw, Young Livers, Cobra Skulls, World Inferno Friendship Society, Sage Francis. Several benefit shows had been formed over the years throughout the country, often brought up and organized by the bands themselves. Against Me! alone have raised $18,000 for Harvest of Hope. Ryan (St. Aug) had been a promoter in the St. Augustine area for several years and after the two Ryans had discussed a possible benefit in St. Augustine for the cause Ryan (St. Aug) had started taking over the booking duties for the local amphitheater as well as the St. John’s Fairgrounds. Ryan Murphy then brought the idea of the possibility to FEST organizer and co-worker Tony Weinbender. The two worked on a grant proposal and presented the idea to the St. John’s County with fingers crossed. After months of waiting the county came back with a favorable and generous grant of $50,000 to go towards the event, the most money the county has ever donated to an organization. That money quickly was eaten up with production, sound, and safety requirements but with time and performance donations from several national, regional and local bands as well as services and funding donated from several sponsors the event has the funding to start plowing forth to sow the seeds for a unique spin on the European outside music festival that have been sprouting up all over the states in the past several years. This time for an amazing cause that directly benefits the hard working people struggling to provide for their families while providing ours with food that they have harvest for our dinner tables.

Selling Points:

- The people behind Harvest of Hope Fest are the same people behind THE FEST (www.thefestfl.com) in Gainesville, FL. No Idea Records (www.noidearecords.com) has successfully organized and promoted a multiple day music festival for 7 years! This past year had 270 bands and over 6,000 attendees from all over the world!

- First ever event of it’s size to raise money and awareness for Migrant Farmworkers!

- The cost of admittance is extremely cheap compared to other larger music festivals, making it more affordable for people to take a chance to travel to attend.

- The beautiful outside environment, warm Florida sun, camping and close proximity to the beach will be an added incentive for college students to consider for their spring break.

- Massive promotional campaign to regional and national press and college radio outlets handled by Southern Lovin’ PR (www.southernlovin.com)

- National articles and generous donated advertising already committed by Alternative Press, Spin, AMP, CMJ, Punknews.org, Razorcake, Skyscraper, Beyond Race, Dudes Magazine, Blanktv.com, whatwehate.com, dryinkmag.com, lucky13zine.com, silentuproar.com, thepunksite.com, deafsparrow.com and latenightwallflower.com.

- Regional South East press and advertising commitments from Orlando Weekly, Follio Weekly, Creative Loafing, Reax, and the Satellite.

- Early sponsorship commitment from No Idea Records, Hot Topic, Interpunk, I Heart U Printing, and the Skatepark of Tampa will help spread the word of the event in it’s early promotion stages.

- *Against Me! in the past year have played benefit shows for HOH and raised over $18,000 in donations in the following cities such as Chicago, Athens, and Gainesville.

ABOUT THE FOUNDATION:

The Harvest of Hope foundation was established in 1997 to raise funds exclusively for migrant farm worker individuals and families. The foundation has distributed over $685,000 to migrant farm workers and families around the country for repairs to vehicles, housing, utilities, medical services and bills, food, clothing, funeral expenses and tuition for migrant students attending college. In addition, the Foundation has issued small grants to migrant-related support service organizations.
Federal, state and other public aid to migrant farm workers has become increasingly restrictive, and, in many cases, not available at all. The Harvest of Hope foundation has been called upon to fill in the gaps in service to this most hard working and deserving, yet needy group of laborers.

THE FOUNDATION SERVES TO:

~ Support migrant farmworkers and their families with emergency aid.

~ Issue small grants to programs that assist migrant families.

~ Provide financial aid to migrant students attending college via the Paths to
Scholarships Fund.

~ Heighten awareness of the plight of migrant farmworkers in the country.

~ Coordinate with agencies assisting migrant families and their children with
education, immunizations and medical needs, and social services.

OUR MISSION:

The Harvest of Hope Foundation’s Mission is to provide emergency and educational aid to migrant farmworkers and their families is extremely limited and often not available. Thus, it is the goal of the Harvest of Hope Foundation to fill in the gaps in service to this most hard-working yet needy group of seasonal migrant workers and families by distributing funds to pay for gas, tires, car repairs, rent, utilities, medical services, food, clothing, funeral expenses and educational scholarships.

Eighty (80) cents of every dollar donated goes to provide direct financial aid. The foundation uses 10-12 percent for administrative expenses. A relatively small (8) percent reimburses the foundation president, Phil Kellerman for his work on the foundation.

~ All information on educational services, current expenditures, and financial funds is available at: www.harvestofhope.net