Every year for the past four years (this year marked the fourth and counting), Ryan and Austin Eilbeck of the DIY punk group Delay, as well as a few others, take on the task of organizing Berea Fest: a two-day event featuring more than 30 bands from around the United States who gather in the dining hall of St.Paul's to bust out everyone's favorite punk and folk tunes for an enthusiastic and appreciative crowd who've traveled far and wide to hear their favorite groups. Ryan once told me that the whole reason they started organizing shows, and later the fest, was because they were tired of being turned down by venues and wanted to create spaces where people could play for their friends and on their own terms.

It's an unusual event in the sense that the network of DIY groups around the country is closely knit although usually spread out, so organizing in one place is a rare occurrence.  

Those expecting a Bonnaroo or Pitchfork will be sorely disappointed.  Because Berea Fest isn't organized just for music, but to bring a community together — something you can feel in the groups who gather in the parking lot between sets to chat or the dedicated few who donate and cook vegan fare for weary bands who have traveled from opposite ends of the country to gather on the shores of Lake Erie.

I'm always disappointed that many tend to look at the punk scene with a mix of trepidation and romanticism- rejecting at the same time the exclusionary 'damned-be-all-attitude' of supposedly what it means to be "punk" (not entirely undeserved, and many of the self governing philosophies of the DIY punk movement do go against mainstream political and economic mind frames).

And yet looking around the tightly packed room, you start to notice something. Ghost Mice is finishing their set and, as everybody stands around, the feeling of solidarity is palpable. These aren't people who've come to see their favorite bands not to destroy equipment and not to start fights. They come not as fans, but as friends. And in the end, that's what Berea Fest is all about.

Lara Gabrielle Blanco Heintz