Weapons of Mass Creation, Cleveland’s music-festival-by-way-of-design-conference-by-way-of-art-show, kicks of its fourth annual event on Friday. Jeff Finley, WMC founder and VP of WMC sponsor Go Media, talked with Dribbble about the event’s birth back in 2010.
A month before throwing his first-ever festival, designer Jeff Finley brought in the fire department to look at his venue. Just to be careful. Just in case.
“On a scale of 1 to 10, this [space] is a zero, they said. Then, recalls Finley, they laughed.
Cleveland-based Go Media owns the zero space, the unused first and second floors of a 15,000-square-foot-warehouse. The big black block of building also houses Go Media’s shiny third-floor offices. Finley figured the company’s empty floors for an obvious venue for the inaugural Weapons of Mass Creation. The Cleveland FD disagreed.
“They shut it down right then and there,” Finley told Dribbble. “It was raw warehouse space with one bathroom with no sprinkler system, not up to code.”
Finley scrambled and scrounged, a frantic mix of desperate and determined. He finagled the Cleveland Public Theater’s Parish Hall, pulled together a DIY sound system, paid the bands their gas money, replaced two last-minute speaker cancellations, and hosted himself a successful event (blown circuit aside).
Between those crazy fledgling days and today, Finley made several key volunteer acquisitions: Designer Joseph Hughes (Northcoast Zeitgeist) signed on to procure speakers. Musician Jesse Sloane (Cherry Cola Champions) signed on to procure bands. Event planner Todd Gauman signed on to handle logistics.
With these power-planners in place, the event took off. Last year WMC drew more than 1,300 attendees and attention from local media and NPR. This year’s festival, which takes place at the Cleveland Public Theater from August 16-18, welcomes 20 speakers (12 Dribbblers!), 20 designers (12 Dribbblers!), 40 bands, an estimated 1,200+ attendees, and breakdancing.
Yes, breakdancing. In addition to being a festival founder, designer, author and punk-rocking drummer, Jeff Finley is a Bboy.
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