By Giselle Mazur, June 2008

It was a beautiful autumn day in 2003 and The Fest 2 was well under way. The streets of Gainesville were abuzz with the usual Fest underground punk rockers and delinquents as Sean Carlson, then 17, looked around and thought, I could totally pull something like this off in Los Angles. 

Thus the F Yeah Fest— formerly the Fuck Yeah Fest but lovingly censored for all the moms who weren’t too thrilled about the posters decorating public lampposts— was born.

Working with Keith Morris, lead singer of the Circle Jerks (formerly of Black Flag), Carlson took the basic design of the Fest and expanded on it. He turned the event into a showcase of music of all genres, and even included stand-up comedy and fine art, mediums he feels are intimidating to younger crowds. “I thought [The Fest] was really cool…but it was mostly punk … I put on the first F Yeah Fest and it was 26 different bands, none of which sounded alike, 12 comedians, 40 artists showed their work and it was at multiple locations all walking distance from each other.”

So why should Gainesville care about some festival that takes place on the other side of the country? Because this year, for the first time, Carlson is taking F Yeah on the road, and June 22 the event hits The Atlantic featuring Matt and Kim, The Death Set, Monotonix, Team Robespierre, comedian Jonah Ray and art from 1026 Space, a Philadelphia-based art collective.

Taking F Yeah traveling was always the ultimate goal, Carlson explains, it just took time to build a reputation and put in all the work. He was barely legal when the first festival came to fruition, and to call it chaotic would be an understatement. Expecting about 400 people, he was shocked at the 2,000-plus in attendance. Morris was set to perform a spoken-word piece, and said that just to walk from the back of the venue to the stage alone was a 15-minute ordeal. But the craziness was not in vain. In fact, it was that out-of control punk rock spirit that attracted Morris to the project. “[At one point I] was like a block and a half away from [F Yeah] and there was just people everywhere,” he said. “People in the parking lot drinking. People having premarital sex in people’s front yards. That’s awesome ya know? I mean nobody does anything like that. That was what attracted me. That was the thing that drew me to it.”

While the tour is a one-show-at-one-venue-per- city production (as opposed to a weekend-long affair), it is expected to be full of its own absurdities. The entire lineup (sans Matt and Kim who have their own transportation) will tour 28 cities in 28 days, all while riding in a 44-passenger, 92’Blue Bird Bus like the ones you would see school kids or a church group riding in. How the posse will fare under those conditions is anyone’s guess, but Matt Johnson of Matt and Kim has his own opinions. “[It] just seems like a total nightmare,” he said, laughing. “I mean, I don’t deal well with the heat. I grew up in New England. And uh, Florida [in June], isn’t it really hot there? It’s gonna end up being a bunch of really sweaty, smelly dudes. You’re probably not gonna want to go near that bus.”

While Gainesville has age laws that force FYF to be an 18+ event, most of the shows on the tour are all-ages, and Carlson is reaching out to the younger audience. Each night the U.S. Campaign for Burma will be tabling to raise awareness about the desperate need for aide in the cyclone-stricken country also called Myanmar, an issue Carlson said young people do not know enough about. There will also be places for concert-goers to register to vote. “I hope that at each show that I can give a group of kids encouragement to do whatever their goal is,” he said. “Just go out there and do it yourself, and find a way to make it happen rather than sitting around waiting for opportunity. That’s not gonna happen. You gotta make it.” 

In December, FYF is going global with completely new tours in Australia and Japan, and then Europe in the spring. And don’t forget about the original F Yeah Fest in Los Angeles Aug. 30-31.

Matt said, “I think these shows, the events, will feel really special, and won’t just feel like something you’ve gone to a bunch of times before and that’s really important…it should hit somewhere in the realm of epic, I believe.”