Local rock band The Simplicity has teamed up with LO-Fi Brewing to hold Simple Fest, a one-of-a-kind day festival complete with music, food and art.
“I was like, ‘Oh wouldn’t it be cool to do this?’ And nobody ever told me no,” said Simplicity frontman John Bias. “So I just kept doing it until we had a festival on our hands. I guess in a weird way it’s our album release party because we never got to do one of those for our new record.” The record he referred to is Dahlin’ released last Valentine’s Day.
Bias and his bandmates Drew Lewis (drums) and Tommy Merritt (bass) love all sorts of music, so it was natural to be all over the genre spectrum when it came to curating a Simplicity-centric festival.
Simple Fest will feature a range of local acts: the synth pop rock of Wolfgang Zimmerman’s Invisible Low End Power, the classic hip-hop of Abstract That Rapper and the techno variations of DJ Normal Girl. The May 14 lineup also includes out-of-town acts J.S. Terry & The Holston Creek Boys, Charlie Boy and A La Mids.
Alongside an art showcase from local community art collective Big Blade Press will be the vendor market that includes Tinted Saga and Thrift Tent. The Simplicity guys also curated their own menu to serve for the occasion alongside Roti Rolls food truck.
“What we’re going for is to have a bunch of different mediums of art in one place, whether that be fashion or music or culinary or visual,” Bias said. “We’re trying to show that South Carolina, that Charleston, is part of this cool new-South movement of artists and creatives. We’re just trying to make it simple and bring it all into one place.”
$25 tickets for the 5 p.m. festival are available through Eventbrite. $25 in-advance and $35 at the door.
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