LouFest: Midwest's Best Fest

By Nick Garcia

Despite my phone’s inherent desire to autocorrect LouFest to *loudest* every time I text or tweet, LouFest is still indeed the best Midwest fest. Perhaps “loudest” would be an apt description as LouFest cranks out enough decibels to fill the spacious Forest Park. It’s the ideal stage and there is no greater big-small town than St. Louis to welcome a substantial amount of interested persons and notable bands while still having the elbow room to not wait an hour for a band tee or vegan cookie.

LouFest is a good look for St. Louis; environmentally conscious and cool. Leave it to Brian Cohen to put St. Louis on the major festival map and bring buses of out-of-towners here to soak in the vibes. Brian used to be a documentary filmmaker. Now he’s created something worth documenting: an indie music festival in River City USA. In this fourth year LouFest has taken a wild turn with the help of C3 Presents, topping consecutive ticket sales from past years in its first day alone and expanding from two to three stages to make room for giant bands like Wilco, The National, Alabama Shakes, and The Killers. Have a look-see at all the 2013 action!

Kentucky Knife Fight
Jukebox The GhostVegan CookiesFitz and the Tantrums The National Jim JamesJim James preaches to a sea of cell phones,“State of the art technology, supposed to make for better living, but are we better human beings?”