Community, diversity and wildlife at BLED FEST

This Saturday, May 27th, hundreds of people will gather in what once was Hartland High School to attend BLED FEST, an annual music festival in Howell, Michigan that aims to bring together performers and attendees of all ages, races, genders, and orientations alike to express their love for music. Past headliners for the festival include Every Time I Die, Andrew WK, Modern Baseball, and Grand Rapids’ own La Dispute. This year, sharing the stage with The Fall of Troy and Detroit post-hardcore legends Bear vs Shark, La Dispute is returning to BLED FEST, planning to play their second studio album Wildlife in its entirety as well as other selections from their discography.

Released in 2011 and written and recorded over the course of two years, the fourteen-track album is a collection of personal anecdotes and fictional accounts that form a raw, emotional journey for the listener. Compared to La Dispute’s previous album Somewhere At the Bottom of the River Between Vega and Altair and their debut EP Vancouver, Wildlife marks a turning point in the band’s writing.

“It’s like a transitional moment where I think that we finally felt like we knew how to be a band; we knew how to write together rather than just being a spur-of-the-moment, entirely impulsive punk thing,” said Jordan Dreyer, vocalist and primary songwriter for La Dispute. “It’s cool and it’s frustrating in the same sense,” he said, “because it’s a perfect distillation of that moment, so we can’t ever write that record again.”

The album “acts like a film,” creating a narrative that discusses internal struggles, loss, a changing environment, and attempting to cope with it all. Many of the songs include imagery of Grand Rapids and memories of living in the city from Dreyer and other members of the band.

“There were some (songs) that were fabricated based on things that were happening in close proximity to me that I thought spoke to a certain aspect of being,” Dreyer said. One of the most notable examples of this on the album, “King Park,” documents the drive-by murder of a young boy and the following suicide of the shooter in Grand Rapids back in 2008. Other tracks describe the story of a family struggling with mental illness and parents that lost their son to cancer.

Although Wildlife is riddled with hardships, the track “All Our Bruised Bodies And The Whole Heart Shrinks” is a powerful crescendo that brings listeners together, “a dialogue between us (the band) and the people that come to see us,” Dreyer explained. The lyrics offer a sort of camaraderie and support for those who are suffering: “Tell your stories to me, show me your bruises/Let’s see what humanity is capable of handling.”

“Everybody, more or less, experiences tragedy,” he said, “and there’s a way to get through it.”

Dreyer said he is excited to perform the album in its entirety at the festival, even though writing and initially performing these songs were “emotionally draining.”

“It’s fun to keep things close to the chest for special occasions, I guess. It’s like looking at a photo album.”

Now approaching its thirteenth incarnation, BLED FEST has evolved into a music festival that makes community and inclusion its top priorities. The folks at Fusion Shows and Dime Detroit that are hosting and organizing the day-long event have worked tirelessly to ensure that the festival is a safe, supportive, and substance free environment for people of all walks of life.

Nate Dorough, the Lead Talent Buyer and one of the founders of Fusion Shows, wanted to make it a point to showcase more diverse musical acts this year that span a wide range of genres. After reviewing lineups for past festivals, the Fusion Shows team realized that there wasn’t much diversity in the performers, and that they had the opportunity to not only help people of all ages discover music they may not have listened to otherwise, but to provide a space for artists of different races, genders, sexual orientations, and genres to express themselves and gain exposure. This year, over sixty acts from around the country will be playing across six different stages in the old high school, with music ranging from the experimental rap of Nnamdi Ogbonnaya to the indie-punk jams of Cayetana.

A new addition to the festival this year is a series of panel discussions that will be held throughout the afternoon. These discussions will serve as a space to examine the music and DIY communities and discuss important topics within them, such as “Finding Your Place in Your Music Community” and “Safe Spaces, Not Boring Spaces." The panelists will include musical artists taking part in the festival as well as founders and representatives of the many charities and organizations that help put BLED FEST together, such as Punk Talks, which “aims to provide free mental health assistance to bands, industry professionals, and fans while also educating and raising awareness of mental health and self-care.” Dorough explained that hosting these sorts of discussions was the next logical step in building and maintaining a strong community in music. While the panel discussions may not be a permanent addition to the festival, Dorough said he is excited to see what positive changes they can bring to the table.

To see the full lineup, set times, and more information on BLED FEST, visit www.bledfest.com.