They are the DIY musicians, poets and artists performing in venues and more intimate gatherings across the country. Their names may not be familiar to those outside the indie music scene but they have a loyal following and many of them are headed to Williamsport this weekend for the Winter Wind Down Fest.
This is the fourth year for the festival, although only the third in person due to COVID.
The brainchild of Josh Mozug, who with his wife, Kendra, hosts house shows at their Loyalsock Township home, the fest brings together indie performers from various parts of the country to meet in community and share their talents. In all, 31 acts are expected, coming from 12 different states. About 11 are local acts. Featured will be indie folk, a few pop punk acts, Americana, emo musicians and poets, and one hip-hop artist.
“We’ve tried to incorporate some type of other art. We wanted it to primarily be music and poetry performance based, but the first year, we had a story time when we actually did like a cooking tutorial. This year, we have a couple of Visual Arts workshops on Saturday – one, that will be jewelry making. People can just sign up at the festival for them, and those come with admission,” Josh said.
“We want to cultivate community through people sharing their art, primarily with music, but also incorporating some other mediums as well,” he added.
The first fest was held in 2020 and then COVID changed everything, with the next year’s festival in 2021 held virtually. The last was held in person in 2022.
“We’ve revisited the conversation every year, but this was the first year, I think, with the stage of where we are with the kids’ ages and life pace that we wanted to give it another go, and we’d like to continue it beyond this year. We have no intention of this being like the last one, but as of right now, we’re saying not quite annual, just because all that goes into it as well. So not necessarily wanting to commit to that, but at the same time, we would love to do it annually or biannually,” said Josh.
“We have continued to host house shows at our place, and we were doing that every month before the pandemic. The last few years, it’s been once or twice a year that’s been by nature of a lot of the artists even that are playing this year, were touring full time. Some of them have scaled back, and just a lot has shifted in the arts in general, but with live music, with DIY music in particular, a lot of artists that we knew were the majority of the year are no longer. Some of them aren’t playing music anymore, and then others are, but just to a different extent and a different scale. So it’s been really cool to piece together this year and have a lot of returning acts from those past years, as well as a lot of fresh to us artists,” he said.
About 15 years ago, when he was living in Michigan, Josh started hosting house shows with local friends who just enjoyed playing music.
“There are just a lot of people that really prefer the intimate feel of playing in a living room. And I know people who played in bands that were playing, like big festival stages, even smaller stadiums, that really enjoy playing in someone’s house, and just getting to know the few people that are there, whether it’s a handful or a couple dozen,” he said.
“So over the course of starting to host, I would start to be contacted by people that I was hosting. So quite a few that are playing are people that I met more than 10 years ago, when I was hosting, when I lived in Michigan. But it’s just like a very small world. So many people just know each other, and when you’re hosting things on a small DIY level like that, I feel like there’s a lot of just internal talking, where people just connect to one another,” he said.
He explained that some of the acts this year were recommended by friends, but that they also receive submissions from acts.
“We reach out to artists directly, but we also take submissions for people that just have heard that we’re hosting a festival and would like to play,” he said.
Each act, except for some of the Saturday evening ones, is allotted 20 minutes of time to perform. With such a tight timeline, the team organizing the event sorts through the acts they know as sort of an invitation starting lineup and who of those are available.
“Then we go through all of the submissions and from that list identify the remaining time slots,” Kendra said.
“So, we essentially had most of the spots filled, but then we always want to leave it open to people that just hear that we’re posting something and might be interested in playing. Maybe we don’t have any connection to, but they just would like to have a chance,” Josh said.
“A handful of people that were performing this year, we connected through those means,” he added.
There is also a brief open mic Saturday afternoon for people who would like to perform.
“That will just be registration in person to give people a chance to play a song or two who are not on the lineup but might be interested in sharing some of their art,” Josh said.
The look of indie music may have changed with the ability for performers to produce their own music and get it out to the public because of the revolution of technology, but the Mozug’s both are advocates of the more personal style the fest offers the artists.
“The reality is with the current state of technology and everything, creating and capturing music is easier than ever, but at the same time a lot can be lost in the shuffle with that. And I do think that, like through the pandemic and a lot of things shifting for a lot of folks, I’m really excited about the current state of indie and DIY music, because I feel like a lot of people that have continued are in it for the long haul,” Josh said.
“I feel like people that were making art before have kept with it, and have had to overcome, and get past a lot of barriers in order to continue. I feel like people that are still making art and music this sort of really proves their passion and their longevity with it, and we want to support that,” he added.
“I would say the opportunity to have live music and to participate in live music as an observer, as a performer, the enthusiasm is still there, the passion is still there, and it’s why we’re excited about doing this,” Kendra said.
Doors open for Winter Wind Down Fest at 5:30 p.m. Friday and the last act performs at 9:30 p.m. Saturday, doors open at noon with the afternoon session running until a dinner break at 5 p.m. Saturday’s evening session starts at 6 p.m. with the last act performing at 9:30 p.m.
Tickets can be purchased online or at the door.
The event is considered kid friendly with some activities being offered for children.
It is being held in the social hall at the old First Baptist building where City Alliance Church currently meets, 380 West Fourth St. Kendra noted that this is not a church event and features all types of music.