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The Space Coast Music Festival logo. (Photo: Courtesy Steven Spencer)
Organizers say the upcoming Space Coast Music Festival — featuring 68 bands on six stages across Eau Gallie — will be the largest showcase of Brevard County-based musical acts in at least a generation.
“I’ve been in Brevard 20 years. I thought it was big at 60. Now, I’m hearing it’s 70. We still have three weeks to go,” said Steve Keller, a co-organizer who plays drums in Best Supporting Actor.
“It’s like an expectant father when you find out you’re having twins, or triplets — or septuplets now,” Keller said.
Steven Spencer, who sings with SFG, is organizing the Space Coast Music Festival. (Photo: www.lucasfoto.com)
Set for Saturday, Nov. 2, the Space Coast Music Festival will feature outdoor stages at the Eau Gallie Square pavilion, a Highland Avenue municipal parking lot and the Intracoastal Brewing Co. beer garden. Indoor stages include Not Quite Right Improv, Standard Collective and FM Pizza Oven. Admission is free.
“I truly believe in our music community here,” said Steven Spencer, festival organizer. He sings in the punk-Southern rock band SFG, which will perform in the parking lot — aka the Against the Grain Tattoo Stage — at 5:35 p.m.
“In the last year or two, this EGAD area has really developed, starting with Intracoastal, my friends Traditionals (Cuts, Shaves & Brews), Salty Fox. It became a place where we can do something like this,” Spencer said.
Organized from 2010-15, the Space Coast Music Festival brought musicians to Manatee Sanctuary Park in Cape Canaveral and various venues across Cocoa Beach — but the event went dormant.
Spencer said talk of resurrecting the festival emerged during the 2017 Robot Love art-music mashup at Adventure HQ in Palm Shores.
He and SFG also performed during the 2017 DeLand Original Music Festival, which bills itself as “the largest one-day independent original musical festival in the Southeast.” This year’s version next month will showcase 160 independent acts on 23 stages, Mainstreet DeLand reports.
“DeLand is great, and we’ve played there as well,” Keller said. “They open it up to the state. This, by hook or by crook, is strictly Brevard music.”
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Anja Conklin performs at Open Mike’s Coffee Lounge in June. (Photo: Arron Lampkin/For FLORIDA TODAY)
Spencer is the founder of Harbor City Local, a Brevard entertainment organization that has released two compilation CDs featuring 41 musical acts. Most will perform during the festival.
“The main stage is anything you could hear on the radio, anything that is accessible to the public. The Against the Grain stage is just that. It’s against-the-grain music: punk rock, heavy rock, some of the metal-type bands,” Spencer said.
“The Intracoastal stage is lite rock. Just because it’s lite rock doesn’t mean it’s not interesting — it’s more family-accessible bands. And then the FM Pizza stage has some singer-songwriter stuff on there, as well as that bar-garage rock feel,” he said.
“The Standard Collective stage has some of the more alternative side, a little different than the radio. The Not Quite Right stage is pretty eclectic. It starts off with some of the up-and-comers, some of the younger bands. And then it gets into more of that rock-original feel,” he said.
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The Pat Travers Band performs during the 2014 80’s in the Park music festival at the former Wickham Park Pavilion next to Eastern Florida State College-Melbourne. (Photo: TIM SHORTT/ FLORIDA TODAY)
The Pat Travers Band will headline the main stage at 8 p.m. Best Supporting Actor will kick off the main stage lineup at noon.
FleaGad Market will provide vendors and food trucks. As during its predecessor beachside festivals, proceeds from alcohol, T-shirt and raffle sales will benefit a Brevard County elementary school music program.
At 15, Anja Conklin was the youngest performer at the 2015 Space Coast Music Festival, taking the stage at Coconuts on the Beach. The alternative songwriter will sing at 1:20 p.m. at the Eau Gallie Square bandshell.
“I’m really excited to experience it. I’m going to be there the entire day, watching the other bands,” Conklin said.
“I’m just excited there is an event like this where it is just solely Brevard musicians,” she said.
Space Coast Music Festival schedule
Mustard’s Main Stage (Eau Gallie Square, 1452 Highland Ave.)
Best Supporting Actor and friends (noon), Men Against Fire (12:40 p.m.), Anja (1:20), Sky Club (2), Weep (2:40), The Devil’s Dues (3:20), Iron Will (4), The Spring (4:40), Zeddemore (5:20), Beneath the Bell (6), Easy Uzis (6:40), Gary Lazer Eyes (7:20), Pat Travers Band (8)
Against the Grain Tattoo Stage (municipal parking lot, 1390 Highland Ave.)
Whisper to a Riot (12:15), Atlas (12:55), Vex Vox Populi (1:35), Skatter Brainz (2:15), Noxious Profit (2:55), Queen Vulture (3:35), Subculture Threat (4:15), DTHKRVSHR (4:55), SFG (5:35), Seed (6:15), URN (6:55), Who Was I (7:35)
FM Pizza Oven (1437 Highland Ave.)
Josh Doyle (2), Chuck Van Riper (2:45), Waterline 42 (3:30), Tracey Coryell (4:15), Mondo Tikis (5), Karalyn and the Dawn Patrol (5:45), Radio Flyers (6:30), IHB Funk (7:15), Indigo Beige (8)
Intracoastal Brewing Co. (652 W. Eau Gallie Blvd.)
Slackadaisicals (noon), Thirsty Servant (12:40), Surf Ninjas (1:20), Ryan Blount (2), Tru Phonic (2:40), Adam Azar (3:20), Hot Dog Force (4), Jacie Madison (4:40), Nightfly (5:20), Paging Mr. Herman (6), John Giles (6:40), Dunies (7:20), Never Ender (8), String Daddy (8:45), Higher the Mountain (9:45)
Not Quite Right Improv (587 W. Eau Gallie Blvd.)
Fields of Saturn (2), The Impressionist Party of America (2:40), Character Witness (3:20), Deserted Will (4), Sike (4:40), Harbour Escape (5:20), Positive Chaos (6), Hott Mess (6:40), Now or Nevers (7:20), Cosmic Songbirds (8)
Standard Collective (559 W. Eau Gallie Blvd.)
Grimm Ghost (2), Black Planet (2:40), TBA (3:20), TBA (4), Anchors Up (4:40), Sounds of Nebula (5:20), Dull Blades (6), Speerbot (6:40), Max Overdrive 1986 (7:20)
Pre- and post-festival events
On Friday, Nov. 1, a Space Coast Music Festival pre-party starts at 7 p.m. at Iron Oak Post in downtown Melbourne. Bands include October’s Flame, Backstabberpunk, The Longest Hall and Hunting with Dick Cheney.
Standard Collective will host a pre-festival all-star jam featuring Diamond D & the Destroyers from 7 to 11 p.m. Nov. 1. The next night, singer-songwriter Kristen Warren and friends will perform during a festival after-party that starts at 8 p.m.
Neale is the South Brevard watchdog reporter at FLORIDA TODAY.
Contact Neale at 321-242-3638 or [email protected]. Twitter: @RickNeale1
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