Shabang x Rambler: In Conversation with Founder Greg Golf
In early April, we chatted with core Shabang team member Greg Golf, who’s been involved in Shabang since the festival's genesis in 2014. With the electric San Luis Obispo creative scene crackling, a chance to direct it somewhere special was spotted by a group of college kids. That was ten years ago. Now, Shabang cycles back to its beginnings through warmth and intentionality, time and change.
This article is the first installment of a series in collaboration with Shabang.
Shabang started out as a renegade-style festival, right?
Our roots are in the California DIY scene. Myself and a couple of friends that I still run Shabang with to this day, back in 2014 at the end of the school year, we were like, let’s do one last show on this mountain. Let’s get H Clink, our friend’s band, to play, and we’ll have a sick time. So we did it one time and had 20 people come. The second time, we had a second band come. It’s always been us figuring it out, meeting rad bands from across California and inviting them to play. We book larger talent now, but we’re super stoked on supporting young creators that are fucking awesome and might not have a chance to play at a festival like Shabang.
Alex Zinger of William H Clink, from a 2014 Shabang. Courtesy of Greg Golf.
How has Shabang held onto the DIY ethos while going through, major air quotes here, the legitimization process that just happens when you throw larger-scale festivals and events?
To grow and make things sustainable, you have to do certain things that can take you away from being grounded. For us, every decision we try to make in a silo. What’s the right decision, but also in the context of , does this make us super corporate and lame?
And if we do make a decision, like oh, we can't do ins and outs. So people can't go back to their car and booze because our insurance company won't insure us. OK fuck, well is there something else we can do?
And so there's been a couple of decisions where we build almost everything out of wood. Most festivals just roll everything in and it's all scaffolding and things that you can just quickly build on site. But it wouldn't be us sitting there building the festival for two weeks before it happens and that's not something we're willing to let go of. This keeps us who we wanna be, and it’s kind of the same thing with Battle of the Bands. Gosh, we're booking bigger bands, but every bigger band we book means a smaller band from California doesn’t get booked. How do we change that?
I really liked that. Elbow grease makes these projects true, and true to the way organizers come to understand their own capabilities.
My favorite thing is going on the first day to the festival site and there are the same people that have helped build our festival now for like six or seven years. Seeing those homies and catching up with them feels like a crazy roller coaster. It's worth it at the end of the day.
How many people are on the core Shabang team?
Since the festival first started 10 years ago, all three people that started it. Then we brought on three more people. We have six core people who work year-round on it.
Wow. Since when has Shabang become more of a year-round planning-type venture?
Greg: Starting at about after the 2022 festival. The city basically told us “Hey, we don't have the resources to handle what you guys need at your current venue,” which was a park on city property. That’s when we had to start getting a new venue, working on booking, working on permits. Dairy Creek feels really good for us right now.
Do you have a favorite year out of the earlier years of Shabang?
I would say Shabang Four was really, really special to me. And Shabang in 2019. We call it Shabang Reborn.
What about Shabang was reborn?
I think we were in a little bit of a creative rut. But 2019 was the year that we were like, ok, we can only do one (previously, there were multiple festivals a year) and let's use that extra time to focus on nailing the experience. So people didn't have to wait to pee, and people got there and were immediately able to enter the festival. We added yoga and stand-up comedy, static dance and different shops, just more wholesome holistic stuff. We focused on art.
We had this room that was completely sideways, the upside-down room. We had a secret dinner party in the woods where people who usually were on drugs and just needed to chill would stumble upon this dinner party setup where everything was crocheted. We added a tent where if you weren't feeling good, you could just go in and essentially pet the furry wall. And I feel like after that year we got so much feedback, we kind of understood who we are a little more.
Yeah, hosting is special. It’s something you give to people.
Yeah, we try to look at it as an opportunity and a responsibility and something to be grateful for. We do this big meeting before the festival [where] everyone putting it on meets, and we talk like, “We are a group of people that, over the course of this weekend, are committed to providing people the best experience we can. And this is something we don't have to do. This is something we get to do.”
Men I Trust at Shabang 2023. Photo by @artbygoldie
Is anyone in the core Shabang team an artist in their own right?
Oh my god! Yeah. Our music director Sawyer is spinning a set at the Funk Safari on Saturday. I think he’s on at like 2 to 3 pm. He DJs, he plays in bands.
Our build director Schwinn plays guitar and has played in several different bands over the years. And Alex Schwinn was in the first band that ever played at Shabang, William H Klink.
Nate, our media director, does a ton of videography and experience curation. So he produces and works with a lot of different festivals.
Cassidy, our branding director, is a graphic designer, so she does a lot of art in general.
I’m gathering a for artists, by artists type-deal here. It’s really cool to see. Like wow, this is a festival put on by people knee-deep in this shit. It was great talking to you!
Sincere thanks to Greg , the Shabang team, and folks over at ListenUp for being so receptive to our interest and supportive of our project.
Tickets for Shabang 2024 are currently on sale. Check out www.shabangslo.com for more information. See you there ;)
𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 𓆝 𓆟
Written by : Mac Rogers
Edits: Cadence Baker
Published on: April 28th, 2024
