Building a Gathering: A Look Inside the Tinderbox Music Festival

WILLIAMSBURG, BROOKLYN: Seems like there’s more and more music festivals in New York City, and this is a good thing.

What lights up new festivals like Tinderbox?

There are too many local/regional sonic gatherings — already past and still to come this year — to list them all. Just a few include Northside Music Festival, Celebrate Brooklyn, Electric Zoo, Camelfest, Hillstock/, moe.down, The Blue Note Jazz Festival, Rock the Bells, the Dave Matthews Band Caravan, Escape to New York Festival (cut short by weather), Music to Know (cancelled outright), September’s upcoming Brooklyn Indie Music Fest, CMJ, Brooklyn Electronic Music Festival, next month’s Portishead-curated All Tomorrow’s Parties, Camp Bisco, Blip Music Festival, Summer Stage, River to River, Make Music NY, Governor’s Ball Music Festival, New York Musical Theatre Festival. Need another?

OK, here’s one more! Tinderbox Music Festival. Being held on Saturday, September 10th at the Knitting Factory, it offers a good look inside an emerging NYC festival. Now in its second year after being launched in 2010 by Founder/Director Alyson Greenfield, Tinderbox presents a diverse lineup of all-female artists. A multi-instrumentalist songwriter herself, Greenfield’s idea is to foster collaboration and connection, seriously stimulate audience eardrums, and empower female artists by donating 100% of net proceeds to guidance organization Girls Write Now, and the Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls music and mentoring program.

Is it worth the work to be a face in this crowd? Read on for a cross-section of one of the NYC area’s music festivals, and find out from Greenfield what makes one of these tricky but highly satisfying endeavors tick.

NYC has a lot of music festivals – why did you decide to start another one? What hole do you feel like the tinderbox music festival fills – who do you benefit, who do you book, and what’s the fan experience you aspire to?
I decided to start another one because there was so much talk when Lilith Fair came back in 2010 among many women musicians I know. A lot of them were talking about how they would love to play Lilith Fair, but they were too small to play something like that.

It got me thinking about all these amazing women musicians I knew from different genres who wanted a bigger platform to share their music, but felt like the opportunity wasn’t available for them. I also wanted a bigger platform for my own music too, so I thought, “Why don’t I just try to create a space for emerging female artists to showcase their stuff?”

That was the initial idea, and then once I started getting it going I wanted to add another element so it wouldn’t just be a show, but it would give back to a community of young women that might one day want to play on the Tinderbox Music Festival stage. We then decided to give back proceeds to NYC nonprofits empowering young women through the arts, including Girls Write Now and The Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls.

One of our big goals is to represent a wide variety of original music that current emerging artists are creating. This year some of the genres include, Indie Folk, Hip-Hop, Americana, Post Punk, Prog Rock, Garage Rock, Experimental, Cabaret Punk, Soul, Electronica, Folk Rock, and more — the fan experience Tinderbox aspires to is one that helps fans discover new music.

We purposefully put artists from different genres on the bill next to each other so we can get artists and fans together who most likely would not be on the same bill or attend the same show. Mostly it’s all about musical discovery, having fun, and walking away from the show with at least one artist fans have never previously heard of that wowed them, and who they are so excited to have discovered!

Brooklyn artist Alyson Greenfield started the Tinderbox Music Festival in 2010.

That’s a good approach to the bill. On the organizational side, starting up an annual music festival seems like a big undertaking. Why start a regular festival when you could just put on a show?
It is a huge undertaking! I don’t think putting on a show has the same weight to artists, to press, to the music industry, to fans, etc… Starting a festival, for me, meant possibility. It meant that it can keep growing in all sorts of ways, which it is starting to do: This year we have a bigger team, we are able to showcase more artists — over 20 — and we have also started a songwriting program that brings together professional female NYC musicians, some of whom played at the music festival, with young women who want to learn about songwriting.

Basically, since a festival has a bigger scope I think it allows for more things to happen than a regular show would, and it helps to actually build and sustain community. I think when it’s done right fans do feel that sense of community, excitement, and togetherness. We are still extremely small compared to many other festivals, but there is the momentum of bringing people together and building on that.

Those are good points about show vs. festival. When you put on the first one last year, what did you think it would take to pull it off? And what do you know now that you didn’t know then about running a festival?
When I started the festival I really didn’t know what it would entail! I think that’s one of the reasons I was actually able to succeed — I had no blueprint and no cynicism from ever trying to do something like it before or being burned by clubs or artists as a promoter/organizer.

I think my naiveté helped me just go for my goal instead of worrying about how something like this is “supposed” to happen. I pretty much know a million things now I didn’t know before and I’m still learning so much: From basic things to getting a business certificate and opening a business bank account to contacting booking agents, managers, clubs, sponsors, press outlets, dealing with contracts, publicity releases, managing interns and volunteers, corresponding with artists, etc…

I’ve learned that so much of this business is about negotiating. I just try to be upfront and honest and have the most positive negotiations I can have. The biggest challenges are fundraising, and scrambling to do so much with a small amount of people who are volunteering their time in between their other paid work.

Soooo, the big event is almost here! Who do you have lined up, and is there a common thread among the artists you’re booking?
I’m so excited about the lineup this year! This year something we changed was we had a Submissions Committee consisting of people in the music industry, and not people who were internal parts of the Tinderbox Team. We picked a group of people we respected, they listened to every single submission and came up with an awesomely diverse lineup.

Our headliners are indie folk artist Holly Miranda and hip hop artist MC Eternia. A lot of our lineup consists of local acts including EULA, Charlene Kaye & The Brilliant Eyes, The Debutante Hour, Kalae All Day, Mira Stroika, WYATT, Sweet Soubrette, Annie Fitzgerald, Sarah Aument, WOJCIK, Rebecca Jordan, and White Wave. This year something that’s exciting is that we also have regional East Coast acts including Miss Geo, Sarah Walk, Canyon, and Helicopria. We also have two acts traveling from farther away including Pepper Fandango from West Virginia, and Natalie Farr from New Mexico. It’s really exciting to have artists traveling to be part of the event.

Let’s welcome them to NYC with open arms! After the shows are over, what are you hoping will be the lasting result of this year’s Tinderbox?
Definitely a sense of excitement, community, and growth. I hope the festival keeps growing and I also hope we get to have more songwriting and other creative arts programs that engage artists in the community with young people. I also hope we create, build, and make things happen that I never would have guessed would happen– basically I hope we surprise ourselves in the years to come.

Well said – we like that! Finally, what are the challenges and opportunities you’re anticipating as you continue to grow Tinderbox? And are the rewards worth the pain of starting a festival on a shoestring?
I think a challenge for running a big event is always securing funding to put it on and make it happen the way you want it to happen. Another challenge could be keeping it fresh and keeping it interesting as the years go by. But I think since the festival focuses so much on innovative emerging artists, there will always be new artists to discover.

— David Weiss

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