By Dylan Marsh
EAGLE TIMES STAFF
WINDSOR, Vt. — Windsor arts collective What Doth Life is holding their third annual What Doth Life Music Festival. Featuring hyper local bands, vendors and artists, the festival is set to take place August 27,2022, at the well known Windsor Exchange arts venue.
The free event will feature an eclectic group of musicians coming together to celebrate their shared ideals of “doing-it-yourself.” A founding member of What Doth Life, Kiel Alarcon, said, “It’s the ethos that we share of doing it yourself at your own pace in the way that you want that ties all the groups together from the folks making food to the artists with their displays. No matter who you see at the event, they’re there because of their desire to do things their own way.”
“It’s an honor to be a part of the festival and I’m really happy we are doing it again for a third year. For me personally as I get older the way I try to spend my time is more purposeful, it’s a nice consolidated day and a sense of home. It’s also just a really cool free family friendly event,” said Ryan Hebert, who will be performing in the bands Carton and McCash at the festival.
McCash, one of roughly a dozen bands performing in Windsor, has recently reunited after a 20 year hiatus and features Windsor natives associated with the What Doth Life collective. Other bands that will play include Chodus, which has been described as earnest indie rock from Claremont, New Hampshire in the vein of Built to Spill. Other acts include What Doth Life mainstay The Pilgrims, and Tinkerbullet, a three-piece hard rock group with gay sprinkles.
The What Doth Life Festival could not happen without collaborations from people like Bob Haight, the zoning administrator for Windsor and proprietor of the Windsor Exchange, whose venue hosts a wide variety of entertainment. After fixing up a derelict building and installing an incredible sound system, it has been the premier place for local music. It has also been the site of What Doth Life festivals in the past. The town of Windsor has also been instrumental in bringing this vision of community working together to create art, by graciously covering insurance and logistic costs.
A number of vendors, who also follow the “D.I.Y” mantra will also be in attendance including Hanover Strings, What’s Missing Records, and Covered Bridge Cookies. What’s Missing Records is a collaboration between Matt Mazur’s “Case Of The Missing Records” indie music label and What Doth Life. It will serve as a pop-up, selling albums made by local musicians that have been featured on the label.
“I’m really looking forward to all the bands. Due to COVID venues we used to rely on to see cool weird music aren’t around anymore. It makes it harder to see the local bands that we really love and this is a great opportunity to do it all in one day,” said Alarcon.
The collective What Doth Life started over a decade ago in Windsor as a group of local musicians began forming their own bands. As some bands broke up and members switched and formed new bands, the group of friends thought it made sense to give what they were doing a name. This, combined with a simultaneous need for a practice space, birthed the collective and their dedication to creating local weird art is being showcased for anyone that enjoys free spirited live music.
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