The first annual Snoopfest music festival took place at The Fledge in Lansing this Sunday, hosting ten bands and over 100 audience members during the show's nearly nine-hour span.
Kieffer Norton plays bass in Tequila Mockingbird, one of Snoopfest’s ten performing bands, was heavily involved in the event – they scheduled the venue and booked the entertainment, which included ten bands and four art vendors.
Although Norton owns a Lansing music venue called The Goblin Zone, they wanted to collaborate with The Fledge, a church-turned-community center that typically holds outreach programs.
Norton and others took several risks planning Snoopfest, they said. They only began planning Snoopfest three months before the event, a shorter time frame than usual for setting up a music festival. Most shows take place on weekend days other than Sunday, but Norton wanted Snoopfest to align with a bandmate’s birthday. They also invited bands from outside the Greater Lansing Area, with Addicus driving seven hours from the Upper Peninsula and Manor Gates traveling from out of state.
Norton believes Snoopfest provided a good sample of Michigan’s current DIY music scene.
Named after the iconic cartoon canine Snoopy, Snoopfest hosted No Problemo!, AllmyfriendsaregothandIdrc, The Dartmoors (all from Lansing), Normal Park from Ypsilanti, Clipboards from East Lansing, Manor Gates from Columbus, Ohio, Tequila Mockingbird from East Lansing, Addicus from Marquette, Former Critics from Detroit, and Lansing's FinalBossFight! served as the headlining act.
“All of my shows are a little bit different in that we bring safety and inclusiveness to the forefront … a little bit more than most people do at their shows,” Norton said. “We definitely go out of our way to make sure everyone knows there’s a standard expecting to be kept.”
Art vendors were also present during the festival. Norton invited four businesses to sell their creations, ranging from crochet mushrooms to butterfly bracelets to sweaters resembling tapestries.
Ava Crosslin of the art shop Smashed Baby sold handmade jewelry and paintings at the event. Crosslin, having been to The Fledge before, enjoys the atmosphere and was happy to have a table at Snoopfest, she said.
“It’s a good crowd – some old faces, some new faces,” Crosslin said. “I get the vibe a lot of (audience members) weren’t expecting to see art vendors … but I think they enjoy different aspects of art: music, drawings, jewelry, crochet.”
Crosslin said she would love to be a vendor at Snoopfest again next year.
MSU journalism sophomore Finn Mills and environmental geography sophomore Kilo Haver attended Snoopfest together after a friend encouraged them to attend the festival.
“We thought it sounded fun,” Mills said. “We went to a Fledge concert in February and saw FinalBossFight!”
Mills’ favorite set at Snoopfest, however, was Clipboards. He liked the sound and thought they performed well.
“There’s more people than I would’ve thought,” Haver said about the show's attendance. “My favorite band was Former Critics, because screamo is my favorite genre and they were kind of screamo.”
Mills and Haver would “definitely” attend Snoopfest again next year, but for now, they’re excited to explore more aspects of Lansing’s music scene.
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