HATCHfest: Now I Get It!
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In the weeks leading up to HATCHfest Asheville, which took place around downtown Asheville from April 15th - 19th 2009, I found it difficult to gauge my expectations. I didn't understand the festival, and it wasn't for a lack of effort. I had watched the promotional video several times, spoken to several HATCH organizers including Greg Lucas of Music Allies and Jon Elliston of the Mountain Xpress. I even wrote an article for the site about the festival. Despite my best efforts, I had absolutely no idea what to expect.
Photo by Camilla Calnan
Now that HATCHfest Asheville has passed for 2009, I can say without hesitation that it exceeded the vague expectations I had, and would have exceeded them regardless of how high they had been.
On Thursday, the second day of the festival, I attended a panel called Marketing for the Creative Professional at the Hatch Innovator's Lounge. The Innovator's Lounge, HATCHfest's primary venue for panel discussions, was a masterful re-design of the typically pedestrian events space at Jubilee! on Wall Street. The simple act of walking into this exquisite space caused a light to go off in my head, "this is what HATCHfest is all about."
Photo by Yarrow Kraner
The panel of Asheville locals included event and entertainment promoter Erin Scholze of Dreamspider Publicity and Events, local SEO Paul Van Heden, and local artist Jenny Bowen of Poetry Alive, all of whom are masterful social networkers and art promoters. They offered real world examples and straightforward advice for artists to get started or expand their social networks. These tangible marketing tips were broken occasionally by deeply personal observations in the raspy voice of local painter Jonas Gerard, whose passion and energy were almost enough to make me take up art as a career. Here is my favorite quote from the panel.
Jonas Gerard on artistic motivation:
"Doing it for them is death, doing it for yourself is life."
Part 2: Friday at HATCHfest w/video by Scott Pagano
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About the Author - Justin Belleme
Contact Justin Belleme:
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Mike - Saturday, April 25, 2009 @ 1:04:48 pm
Thanks for this explanation. I didn't really get it either. All I went to was the photo show, but it sounds like there was other cool stuff to check out.