San Diego IndieFest finds new home at Liberty Station
Goodbye North Park, hello NTCPromenande at Liberty Station, for annual music marathon, which will be held March 12-13
Originally published January 25, 2011 at 4:30 p.m., updated January 25, 2011 at 4:52 p.m.
K.C. Alfred / Union-Tribune
Sitar player Rama (left) and San Diego IndieFest co-founder Danielle LoPresti were among the draws at last year's festival. This 2011 edition will be held at the NTC Promenade at Liberty Station in Point Loma, a site that afford more room.
San Diego IndieFest has outgrown North Park, its home for the past several years. The 2011 edition, the festival's seventh, will feature more than 80 acts, including We Are Scientists and AWOLNation, on five stages at the NTC Promenade at Liberty Station in Point Loma. Last year's festival drew the largest crowds in the event's history.
"It's a huge move for us," said San Diego indie-music mainstay Danielle LoPresti, who launched IndieFest in 2004 with singer-songwriter Alicia Champion.
"The new Point Loma site has great growth potential -- the park there is the size of three football fields -- and we could be there for 10 years. We're excited to bring as much of an Ocean Beach feeling as we can to Point Loma."
The full lineup of the festival will be announced next week. However, the two confirmed national headliners are the bands We Are Scientists and AWOL Nation. Also on the bill is "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" actor-turned-musician James Marsters and the group Love Darling (which contributed the theme song to the Showtime TV series "The Real L Word"). They'll be joined by such San Diego-based acts as VoKab Kompany, Monette Marino Keita and LoPresti and her band, The Masses.
The first day of the festival will feature live music on five stages, with admission free to three of the five stages. There will also be film, poetry, interactive art activities, dance, comedy, indie designers, art classes for children and adults. Food and drink will be available in the festival's expanded, 21-and-up area. The second day of the festival will focus entirely on film.
While LoPresti and Champion said they will miss North Park, the larger new venue in Point Loma appeals to them. So does the creative vibe of Liberty Station, which is home to a number of diverse arts and cultural organizations.
"We had a serious capacity issue last year with people trying to tear down fences and standing on every level of an adjacent parking complex to see our main stage. So we knew it was our last year in North Park," Champion said.
"We looked at several possible new venues, including in La Mesa, at SDSU and at the Embarcadero Park area. What it came down to was that the folks at Liberty Station were courting us quite heavily. Once we toured the space and saw what a huge nexus of arts and culture it's becoming, we were convinced. Plus, we couldn't resist all the grass, which will give the event much more of a festival feel."
Ticket prices for the all-ages IndieFest are $25 for general admission and $22 for students., seniors and active military with ID, and include admission to both days. Kids 12-and-under will be admitted free. For more ticket info, click here.
The theme of this year's fetsival --"No Safety in Sameness" -- was inspired, LoPresti said, by the festival's goal of "trying to get people to see how much art exists outside the lines of where they normally look for it, and how worthy and phenomenal that art can be.
"We want to challenge the notion that something has to be famous to warrant your attention. That's not true anymore and some of the bands and films we have are phenomenally inspiring.
"We also strive to bring straight and gay audiences together, along with people of all ages and backgrounds. So 'No Safety in Sameness' really resonates with what IndieFest is all about. Also high on our minds is that this is a scary time for a lot of people who are struggling with the economy. It's a challenging time and Indie Fest is always trying to shake things up and offer new ideas and different ways of seeing things."