BrightestYoungThings: Tangent: Harvest Of Hope Fest

There's something absolutely wonderful about hundreds of kids freaking out under a tent in the middle of a fairground to Bomb the Music Industry! at the exact same moment as Tim Barry sings about heartache and getting drunk to beard rockers, while simultaneously, about 200 yards away, hipsters are going completely insane in a dust-filled dance party with Girl Talk, and on just the other side of the fairground, folks are skanking to Less than Jake.

This was my Friday night.

These four performers along with over a hundred other bands and thousands of festival goers came together this past weekend for three days in St. Augustine, Fla. for the inaugural Harvest of Hope Festival.

King Khan

The Harvest of Hope Foundation has given over $700,000 in direct suport to migrant farm workers over the past twelve years and strongly believes in transparency. On their web site they have a list of recent expenditures so you can see exactly where the money is going and what it's being used for.

Murs

Phillip Kellerman, president of the Harvest of Hope Foundation hoped that the festival would enable them to start an endowment fund and help generate awareness about this invisible population.

Black Kids

Some popular misconceptions about migrant workers:

1) They are not all illegal immigrants.
2) They are not taking away "American jobs."
3) Farm work is extremely hard work.
4) Without migrant farm workers you wouldn't be eating that orange/tomato/apple/etc.

Against Me

For the cause (and for the music) bands appeared from all over -- both physically and musically. Politically-fueled Propaghandi from Canada played right after Omaha's indie-pop sweethearts Tilly and the Wall on Saturday. On Sunday, hip-hop stars Murs, Kool Keith and KRS-One performed along with Jersey's punk rockers the Gaslight Anthem, Jacksonville's Black Kids and DC's own Spoonboy.

Bouncing Souls

The weekend was jam-packed with eclectic tunes, kids dirty from moshing to the likes of Paint it Black and Strike Anywhere, sunburned arms, very reasonably priced beer ($5 Stella at a festival!) and a general vibe of cheer; everyone could feel good that all this was going to a good cause.

Kool Keith