This past weekend, Shattuck and I rep’d ThisTulsa at DFest. To be honest, my expectations of this festival were not that high in the beginning. I was a little prejudice to how well big-time artists would be received by the Tulsa crowd. Man was I wrong…

The headliner for the closing night of DFest was The Roots. A hip-hop band that really needs no introduction, put on a show that I thought was nothing short of stellar. The band, who recently dropped their 10th album Rising Down, rocked the house at Tulsa’s annual DFest downtown. Since ThisTulsa was recognized as a “legitimate” news company, we had the ability to snap some great shots of their performance and hang out backstage while the performance rocked on.

Hopped up on RedBull, Justin and I took gigs of photos over the weekend. You can find them in various locations like Flickr; here and here as well as the bottom of every ThisTulsa web page.

How do you think DFest did this year Tulsa?

Last weekend is likely to be remembered as one of the most rocking weekends presented to our community. Friday afternoon, I stopped by the Dfest media tent to pick-up our staff writers’ press badges and related materials. Later, we arrived downtown to begin capturing the moments from some extremely marvelous bands.

The night immediately began with a killer performance by Paramore; however, we missed the amazing show (so-we-heard) from Danelle Phillips’s band Congress of a Crow. Although we missed Congress of a Crow’s performance, we did not miss the opportunity to socially network and have a chat with Danelle Phillips, their lead singer. We even persuaded her to throw up the 918, in support of both our website and the local community she represents. “Thank you so much!” she exclaimed as we presented her with a memory card for her digital camera so she could capture the moments herself.

Given the opportunity to sit backstage and converse with the bands and the other members of press was more than a great experience; it was an opportunity for us to show our wealth to the community. Even something small and generous like giving away AA batteries to a random fan backstage of Paramore or giving Danelle a memory card was our chance to be positive. This feeling was more than reciprocated throughout the event. All of the bands were generous with their time and words.

The All American Rejects blasted fans away with a pretty long performance with all their current and previous hits. We met a few great fans and captured some pretty sick shots of the group. Throughout the night we continued to snap photos, take names, and try to mentally note the performances and performers. We did a pretty decent job, from talking to Doug, a 12 year old fan who was leaning against the railing jamming out to “Move Along,” to four random guys we met while picking up refreshments.

Meeting up with Anthony a.k.a. PDA Friday night and being personally invited to his show Saturday at the Blank Slate stage was a great feeling. He has read our website (thistulsa.com) before and was more than supportive of our small-time publication here. Friday night ended with a small party at Brad’s house with some friends and family of PDA and ourselves.

We continued to rock out Dfest Saturday with Sworn Against, PDA, The Roots, Zappa Plays Zappa, Colourmusic, and the crowds backstage.

The parties were great, crowds polite, people awesome, performers excellent, and overall left a definite hole after it was said and done. More about each individual band and their performance soon!

There is a whole-heck-of-a-lot of information surrounding this years Dfest, however the staff here at ThisTulsa.com are in-the-know and prepared to deliver every thing we know to you. Need a quick reference sheet as to whats going on and what is not? Check it out!

What is Dfest?

The most comprehensive music conference and festival in the Midwest—will feature 140 artists and 20 musical genres on 11 stages in downtown Tulsa’s historic Blue Dome District. Headliners include: All American Rejects, The Roots, Clutch, moe., Phantom Planet, A.M., Jacob Fred Jazz Oddessey, Ty England, Ravi, The Apples in Stereo, Joshua James, Paramore, Ghostland Observatory, Zappa Plays Zappa, Helmet, The Disco Biscuits and Edison Glass and over 120 unsigned artists.

The two-day festival will also include a conference comprised of music industry panels, a tradeshow, music clinics and mentoring sessions designed to educate working musicians and music enthusiasts in any stage of their career. The conference will take place at the Crowne Plaza Hotel downtown, just walking distance from the Blue Dome District.

Panelists include Ken Abdo (V.P. Lommen Abdo Law Firm), Stephanie Adware (Furgang & Adwar), Tom Alexander (AEG Live), Craig Alvin (Producer), Holly Anderson (Eventful), Martin Atkins (Tour Smart Invisible Records), Daryl Berg (Fuel TV), David Codr (micSpace), Mia Crow (Visionworks Music), Jon Delange (Tinderbox Music), Dan Efram (The Musebox), Damian Elahi (Interscope-Geffen-A&M Records), Erica Forester Rhino, Jim Halsey (Halsey Institustite), Carrie Hughes (Reflection Music), Chris Jackson (E! Televsion), Paul Kriegler (94.1 The Sound), Keith Lacock (Tinderbox Music), Justin Levenson (SESAC), Catherine Lieu (Eventful), Mike Locke (Rhino Independent), Max Luces-Tucker (Bunim/Murray Productions), Tomy Mc Donald (Warner Music Group), Mollie Moore (Atlantic Records), Shawn Murphy (ASCAP), John Nicholson (Hollywood Records), Eavan Porter (Nettwerk Management), David Preston (V.P. BMI), Scott Perry (New Music Tipsheet), David Ponak (Rhino Entertainment), Ravi Artistic Integrity, Steve Robertson (Atlantic Records), Joe Rudge (ABC), Jon Schroeder (Producer), Jack Shapira (Unison Studios), Wil Sharpe (Sharpe Entertainment), Madalyn Sklar (GoGirlsMusic), Rob Spinelli (Bodog Music), David Teegarden (Artist/Engineer), Larry White (Larry White Management)

* some of the links above are to personal and/or corporate websites

When

July 25-26, 2008

Where

Conference held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel
Festival at Blue Dome District, Tulsa Oklahoma

Who will be there?

More than 60,000 attendees are expected.

How do you get tickets?

Festival passes valid for both days are $30 in advance, $40 at the gate. Price does not include service fees.
Conference badges good for both days are $100 in advance, $150 at the door. Conference badges include festival admission.
VIP tickets, good for the music festival only are $150.
All Dfest tickets are available at www.okctickets.com.
There are NO REFUNDS and NO SINGLE DAY TICKETS

The hours

Conference Hours:
Friday and Saturday: 11 am to 630 p.m.
Festival Hours:
Friday and Saturday: 4 p.m. to 2 a.m.

More random facts

• 7th year of Oklahoma’s largest music conference and festival
• 20 different genres of music
• Over 140 Bands
• 3 Countries are represented on Dfest States
• Dfest was founded by Tom Green and Angie Devore-Green
• Several Dfest acts have gone on to national acclaim (Including American Idol’s David Cook.)
• More then 1,000 bands applied for the 120 unsigned artist slots
• 11 stages of music are available
• The largest music festival and conference in Oklahoma

The history of Dfest

Tom Green and Angie DeVore-Green created DFest in 2001 to help their band Ultrafix win a Jim Beam/Rolling Stone Magazine Best Unsigned Band contest.

The couple came up with several marketing ideas to rally support for the contest. The one that took shape was the idea to host a small festival at Cronie’s Bar downtown consisting of other local bands. Their hope was to gain voting support from as many fans possible.

The event rained out and only 150 people turned out for the 12 booked bands. Fortunately, Ultrafix went on to win the contest. Later that year the Greens were asked if they were doing the Dfest festival again. They decided to make it an annual event, and in 2002 Dfest moved to the Boston District where it remained for the next four years.

In 2007, the festival made a new home in the Blue Dome District of downtown, giving it much needed space for growth. With the help of headliners Leon Russell, Shiny Toy Guns and Norman’s own Flaming Lips, Dfest drew over 40,000 fans.

In 2008, the festival plans to grow on that success and expects a crowd in excess of 60,000.