The passing of the autumnal equinox, the chilling of the morning air, the shortening of the days—all signs point to the shifting of summer into fall in Southeast Michigan. Now entering its third year, Ypsi Freak Fest’s arrival is yet another sign of the changing seasons.
Ypsi Freak Fest returns for three nights of music on Oct. 3-5. Wyrd Byrd, Ziggy’s, Riverside Park and Hyperion Coffee Co. will all host shows featuring an eclectic mix of musicians from Southeast Michigan and beyond.
The festival is the brainchild of Shawn Gates, owner of the Wyrd Byrd record store, Keelan Ferraiuolo, booking agent at Ziggy’s and Austin Donnelly, promoter for the Wee Wah Productions punk collective. Gates said part of his desire to start the festival in 2023 came from wanting to celebrate the local music scene.
“I rarely leave Ypsi for shows these days,” Gates said. “There’s just so many good local bands and so much great stuff happening in town. And of course I want to foster that.”
The freaky branding of the festival certainly befits the approaching Halloween spirit, but Ferraiuolo said she was drawn to the name because she sees it as a call to be yourself entirely. It also helps her pay hommage to her late partner Dan Pond.
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“When I was a child, I was always encouraged to fly my freak flag high,” Ferraiuolo said. “Be as obscure and out-of-the-box as I need to be for myself and no one else. My late partner and I always used it as a term of endearment.”
The festival’s creation was a way for Ferraiuolo to heal and move forward after Pond’s passing. Around the same time, it just so happened that Gates had opened Wyrd Byrd and Donnelly had recently begun promoting shows for Wee Wah Productions at the Regal Beagle. When the three came together, organizing a festival just made sense.
“We all have a deep appreciation and passion for the art of music, so I thought we should throw a music festival and bring the community together,” Ferraiuolo said.
The festival has grown significantly since its inception, and Gates said he hopes to see it continue growing. One of his inspirations is the Roadburn Festival that takes place every year in the Netherlands. While he does not expect Freak Fest to reach the same size as Roadburn, he said he would like to see more Ypsilanti businesses and venues get involved in the way that Roadburn’s host city comes together around their festival.
The Velvet Snakes are one of the local bands who will play Freak Fest for their third year in a row. Logan Belz, the band’s guitarist and vocalist, described the group as “high energy, psychadelic garage rock with some grunge influences.” He said he and his bandmates asked for a spot on the bill as soon as they heard about it in its first year.
“It’s just cool to see something like that [festival] happen in that community because Ypsilanti doesn’t get a lot of permission to do stuff like that,” Belz said. “So it’s kind of like the one time a year you can see all the musical talent just kind of out in front of everybody.”
Ypsi Freak Fest is no longer just limited to local Ypsi talent, however. Both Gates and Ferraiuolo cited Tijuana-based hardcore punk band Hong Kong Fuck You, playing Oct. 3 at Ziggy’s, as one of the acts they most look forward to seeing this year. The band needed a last-minute tour stop, and the festival organizers jumped at the chance to fit them into the line-up, Ferraiuolo said.
For attendees who don’t know which bands to see this year, Gates, Ferraiuolo and Belz all made a few more recommendations: CAD & The Peacetime Consumers (Ziggy’s, Oct. 3), Seahag (Ziggy’s, Oct. 3), Dear Darkness (Ziggy’s, Oct. 3), Rawhide Girlfight (Ziggy’s, Oct. 3), Loss of Life (Riverside Park, Oct. 4), and Detroit Party Marching Band (Riverside Park, Oct. 4).
