The History of Ska Fest
Ska Fest was officially birthed in the summer of 2003 by two high schoolers in St. Louis. It began with mere talk about a lacking ska scene in St. Louis and it soon became the reason for the creation of a "ska festival" to help spread the ska scene back throughout the St. Louis areas. Talk turned to plans, and plans soon turned to action. Seven bands were slapped onto the list and the scene was set at the popular little club downtown known as the Creepy Crawl. The show was set for that following winter in March of 2004 and when the time finally came, the horns were polished and dance shoes were taken out of closets. Months of handing out flyers and spreading the word soon paid off, as the first ever St. Louis Ska Fest 2004 was a huge success. Much to our surprise, Ska Fest was even advertised on the local radio show, Ska's the Limit with Paul Stark (88.1fm), without any request to do such a thing. After all was said and done, the decision was made to make the St. Louis Ska Fest a continual event every year, bringing the kids of St. Louis, and areas around, some good ol' music to skank their hearts out to.
Past Ska Fests
STL SKA FEST IV - Sunday, January 9th, 2006
The middle of winter and it was almost 70 degrees. No snow this winter for the 4th St. Louis Ska Fest but it was just as awesome as the rest. The show consisted of the growing local ska band, Oskaloosa; Indianapolis' skacore powerhouse, No Reason Given; Arkansas' Six Hung Sprung; and the final show for one of the most memorable ska bands of St. Louis, The Monskasities. The show only had 4 bands and ended up being a lot shorter than other Ska Fests, but there were originally 5 bands lined up. The Ceiling Tiles from Oklahoma were gracious enough to make another appearance after their debut show in St. Louis back at Ska Fest III but they had a ton of car troubles for the past few days before the show and were never able to make it out. With only the 4 bands on the list, prices dropped from 10 to 8 bucks to help soothe the chaotic, near rebelling crowd when they found out that the insanely talented Cieling Tiles weren't playing. No near-riots actually, but I'm sure it satisfied some people. The show was a ton of fun and Chris came out again from SkaFreaks.com to film Ska Fest IV, with some new professional audio equipment too, so the video should turn out pretty awesome! With another Ska Fest under our belts, sights were being set on possible future bands like Mustard Plug or MU330 for the summer Ska Fest V. We can only hope, right? It'll be coming up sooner than most people will realize! Besides, 7 months isn't THAT far away.
Check out the St. Louis Ska Fest IV pictures here!
STL SKA FEST III - Saturday, August 13th, 2005
August 13th marked the first ever summer Ska Fest. Over 5 hours of skanking tunes sought shelter from the massive thunderstorm causing over 250,000 people in the St. Louis area to lose power and many still without power for several days later. Talk about a fortunate event that the Creepy Crawl managed to keep their power intact during the storm. Even with the low turnout for the first summer Ska Fest, it was definitely one of the best and filled with some of the most energy I've ever seen despite the incredibly hot and humid temperatures. Seven bands played this show, all for a measly 8 bucks. The lineup went a little something like this: Oskaloosa (opening), The Ceiling Tiles from Oklahoma City, The Pinstripes from Cincinnati, Third Grade Scuffle from Oklahoma City, The Monskasities, The Goners from Texas, and Secret Cajun band to finish off the amazing night of music. The show was the first Ska Fest ever to be recorded for the live Ska Fest CD. Bands seemed to feed off the energy of the crowd as people skanked every song, every band. The show was also recorded on video by Chris from SkaFreaks.com. There were also cool CD giveaways and free water during parts of the show to try and cool people down. The show also marked the end of the amazing reign of The Pinstripes from Cincinnati, OH. This was their last show before they all went off to college and boy was it an amazing one at that. Ska Fest was advertised/plugged on the RFT, Skas the Limit at 88.1fm, STLToday, SkaFreaks.com, STLPunk, and covered live by a new local music zine called The High Note. With over 50 pictures taken from the show now up on the site, and dozens more coming in from spectators of the show, there will definitely be some amazing memories. The Ceiling Tiles' human merchandise, the manpyramid, the monskasities' official call for a skank off...and of course, the monskasities' genuine professional juggling boy to name just a few. What a great time. See you all hopefully (and more) next winter for Ska Fest IV!
Check out the St. Louis Ska Fest III pictures here!
SKA FEST II 2005 - Saturday, January 8th, 2005
Ska Fest was finally back. Back and big, known as the 2005 St. Louis Ska Fest II. Location? Creepy Crawl. Bands? 8 rockin', skankin' bands. Price? 8 bucks flat -- no surcharge. This rockin good show was smack dab in the middle of winter: January 8th. Although it was quite chilly outside, the massive 6 1/2 hour indoor sauna made outside feel like the best thing ever. We had some new bands this year join the list, and boy were they incredible. The show consisted of The Skascrapers (opening), Swift Kixx, The Reactants, No Reason Given, Third Grade Scuffle, The Monskasities, Secret Cajun Band, and Psycho Dad to close out the show. We were so fortunate to have two amazing out of state bands play this show, Third Grade Scuffle from Oklahoma, and No Reason Given from Indiana. Amanda and I and the rest of the skankers there were even able to hear the amazing tunes of Secret Cajun Band, who has been around longer than when I even knew what the word "ska" ment. This show was definitley an incredible show to be at and everyone seemed to have a blast. We were fortunate enough to have some great resources that were available that helped out the show. The new website worked out great with different polls, email lists, updated news, and not to mention the awesome street team (props to you guys). Amanda and I also discovered a rad article in the RFT talking about the Ska Fest show, listed under the Music section of "Critic's Picks". We were also fortunate enough to grace the presence of Paul Stark - radio host of Ska's the Limit on 88.1fm and do a plug for Ska Fest the night before the show. All in all, the show went great and it seemed like everyone had a great time. Amanda and I thank everyone for coming out to the show and supporting ska bands, local and out of town alike. And we're looking forward to throwing another one of these parties, come August where it'll be our fist summer show, starting the tradition of 2 Ska Fests a year.
Check out the 2005 Ska Fest II pictures here!
SKA FEST 2004 - Saturday, March 6th, 2004
The first ever Ska Fest was played at the Creepy Crawl on a beautiful Saturday afternoon and into the evening. The band lineup was (in order) LHD, The Reactants, Soma, The Monskasities, The Chupacabras, and Pyscho Dad to close out the night. The place was packed and the kids had a blast skanking their hearts away at the first ever ska fest. There were a few unexpected things that happend that night, which was definitely great for an experience to learn from (trying to stay positive). The band The Klean Kut Kids never showed, which I later found out why: their car broke down on the way there. There weren't any phone numbers exchanged so there was no way to get in touch. The other interesting occurance was when we found out at the show that 1 of the bands wasn't even "ska" because of some sort of random awkward miscommunication while setting up the show between the band and Amanda and I (that's the best I can explain it). Even with those interesting little twists, the show was still definitely awesome, and led the way for a 2nd (much bigger, much better) Ska Fest in 2005 and many more to come after that.
Check out the Ska Fest 2004 pictures here.
