ROBBY TAKAC: “It’s really a dream venue for this type of thing.”
Music Is Art Festival returns to the city
After a year at the Erie County Fairgrounds, festival finds a home at Albright-Knox Art Gallery
After a year’s hiatus from Buffalo, the Music Is Art Festival will return to the city. The sixth annual festival will take place Saturday, Sept. 13, at Albright- Knox Art Gallery. The all-day event will feature live music from 28 bands, as well as art displays and dance performances by nine ensembles.
Festival founder and Goo Goo Dolls bassist Robby Takac is thrilled that Albright-Knox Art Gallery welcomed the event with open arms this year.
“It’s really a dream venue for this type of thing,” Takac said.
The MIA Festival started five years ago in the parking lot of Takac’s Chameleon West Studios in Allentown and was held on the same weekend as the Allentown Art Festival. The MIA Festival grew during its four-year run in the neighborhood, and Takac found himself at odds with the Allentown Village Society, which wanted the event to be held elsewhere or on a different weekend than the art festival.
Mounting pressure from both the society and the city forced Takac to find a new location for the festival. Last year, its new home was near midway rides and tractor pulls at the Erie County Fairgrounds during America’s Fair.
Attendance at the new venue went down, Takac said. The fair’s admission charge didn’t help; until last year, the music festival had been free. Takac said that the entrance fee cut down on his festival’s target demographic group.
“They’re called starving artists for a reason,” he said.
Takac said the America’s Fair staff was very accommodating, but he believes the MIA Festival belongs in Buffalo, where its roots are.
Takac said the Albright-Knox fits more with the festival’s theme of linking music with other art forms.
This year’s free event begins at 11 a. m. Sept. 13, rain or shine, on the Lincoln Parkway side of the gallery. The musical lineup includes local bands Klear, Handsome Jack, Johnny Nobody, Dali’s Ghost and Inlite, winner of the 2008 MIA student Battle of the Bands. Live art creation, a kids’ village and a DJ performance area will be included.
