This small, laidback, 2-day festival is billed as a “winter festival” which is an interesting idea that I would have never thought possible to pull off, until this weekend! Tickets could optionally be packaged with a discounted lift ticket to the nearby
Steven’s Pass Ski Resort providing the winter recreation aspect, and better incentivizing Seattleites to make the 2+ hour commute over snowy mountain passes.
I would call this a very intimate festival. It definitely was a very small festival with an attendance of “about 1,000 people, which is about what we were expecting” according to
Kevin Sur (one of the main people behind the festival).
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| The town doesn't actually twinkle. This is an "Auto Awesome Photo" effect automatically applied to a my picture courtesy of Google, which I couldn't resist using. |
Leavenworth is a touristy, pseudo ski town, modeled as an extremely ornate faux-Bavarian village, which happens to make for the perfect winter festival locale because of its quaint feeling and over-the-top visual appeal; complete with 100’s of 1000’s of Christmas lights.
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| Leavenworth visual appeal |
We ending up getting a cabin at
the KOA just outside of town, which helped give the weekend more of a festival vibe, as festivals and camping are synonymous in my experience. It was fun, and to quote Tess, “Despite what you think, the KOA is clean and warm." : )
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| Our cozy KOA cabin. |
Venues
The festival was hosted between 3 venues on the main strip of the town.
The daytime shows at
Icicle Brewery and
Munchen Haus were very intimate sets of sitting around fires and listening to chill music. There was basically standing room only with people crowding around to catch the band here and there in between drinks and food. The venues were kind of both inside and outside at the same time, so you had to be friendly when the rain picked up. Unfortunately, we were graced with the annoyance of rain, instead of the aesthetic of snow.
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| Icicle was the official beer of the festival and the brewery acted as the daytime venue. |
Nighttime shows were at a community center called the
Festhalle, which Joseph Giant said “felt like he was playing in a gym” and Telekinesis said was “like playing a prom,” but it seemed like any large music venue and the sound was good. To go along with the wintery theme, each day included a delicious
drink menu for Hot Toddy Happy Hour at the Festhalle.
If you are wondering how much booze 1,000 festival-goers can consume in 2 days, I did a little investigation; Asking the bartenders and the booze-ticketers I got the following intel: ~ 23 kegs of beer (we ran out of IPA on day 1!) and "1,000's" of hot toddys.
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It wouldn't be a northwest fest
without its own in-venue coffee shop: Cafe Vita . |
The Bands
This was the only band to play twice during the weekend, and I managed to miss both sets, so I’m sorry to report...that I don’t have anything to report.
Joseph Giant
Seattle, WA
Alternate-rock with rock-n'-roll & country undertones.
I liked this band a lot. There is something interesting about their sound that I like, which I cannot put my ear on. Their amp started to act up during the set and he kicked it and joked about getting it off Craigslist.
Kind of a fun, pop-punk-ish, piano-rock-ish sound. They sounds like some 90's band that I can't pinpoint (and it's driving me crazy!). Some
Blink 182 vibes in there?? I'll be checking them out some more.
This band is fronted by a scruffy, scrawny, little dude with an incredible female-sounding voice, to the point where I was surprised when I didn’t see a woman on stage. It is quite impressive, and works well with their soul-pop music. It's intriguing.
First of all: I hate the name. HATE it. The music is pretty good though and I may take a liking to it, upon further listens. Their sound is kinda Americana or alt-country. I hear some vocal harmonies which sound
Fleet-Foxes-y, which is very promising to me. I also seem to remember thinking one particular part of their live set sounded a bit like Led Zeppelin..?
This is a talented guy who knows how to make folk song. He has a
Dylan-esque sound in his voice and a Dylan-like rhyming quality to his music and janglin' guitar to go along with it.
Very chill music from this singer-songwriter. Almost put us who were recovering from hangovers back to sleep. It is the kind of music to listen to when you hold your loved-ones close.
She has a very nice singing voice for her chill calming songs. She was joined by Kevin Long for her set which was the perfect music to lull you to sleep. Unfortunately, I was trying to wake up and hadn’t yet had my coffee.
They kicked off their set with a cover of Fleet Foxes,
White Winter Hymnal, which got my attention.
They had some nice harmonies, a cutesy stage presence, and incorporated a lot of novelty instruments including tambourines, kazoos, etc.
The Playoff Game
I have to include the Seahawks - Saints playoff game on this list, because it was just as much a part of this festival as any band. There was a full screening in the Festhalle, to appease devoted Seattleites who wouldn't miss the game. It was a fantastic addition to the festivities, attracting most of the concertgoers.
[WARNING! : This video is LOUD!. Turn your speakers down.]
The final touchdown of the game -> the beginning of a good night!
Following the nail-bitting win, they crowd-sourced the clean-up to rapidly convert from tables and chairs to a rock show. Everyone pitched in to make the quick transition, showcasing the easy-going vibe and common interest of the festival.
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| Crowd-source the clean-up. |
When they came onstage they said that they knew depending on the outcome of the game, they would be playing to “either really
happy drunk people, or really
sad drunk people." Lucky it was happy drunk people! This lounge-y band has a singer who really goes out of his way to play up the lounge-y aspect of the band with his sports coat, goofy antics, and witty back-and-forth banter with the band members. If they don’t succeed as a band, I believe he has a career in late-night TV. But I think they can find a niche with their music.
Try out:
Rock of Calvary
When we walked up, we thought the vocals sounded like
The Cranberries; a compliment to her vocals, but as the set went on, I became less and less impressed by the band as a whole. They are just lacking something to draw me in. They also had an ear-stabbing screeching amp, which unfortunately ruined several songs of the set. They must get their amps from the same dude on Craigslist as Joseph Giant.
This is favorite discovery of the weekend. They have a very pleasant sound and vibe. They do an excellent job of using harmonies, back-up vocals, and percussion precisely when it’s needed. All members of the band play the part of vocalist at some point which I thought was cool. About half of their songs focused solely on the one female vocalist, who although she does have an amazing voice, it kind of sets up a dichotomy in their repertoire. They have several very catchy songs, and I can see them honing their sound to capitalize on those strengths.
Try out:
Zombies
Telekenisis
Seattle, WA
This indie rock band was a crowd-pleaser. They ended the set a super-jam by inviting any by-standing band members to join them onstage, and wrapped up with a crazy drum bashing session. In addition they have some catchy tunes.
They sounded like a toned-down
Mumford and Sons, with less umph. I’m not a huge fan of Mumford, so these guys didn’t do too much for me.
In Conclusion
I have attended many festivals, most of them falling on the scale of mega-festivals, and occuring in the summer, so I was very intrigued about what to expect when ramping up for this small winter festival. I have to say I was very pleasantly surprised at how well produced, thought-out, and smoothly executed this festival was.
TimBRRR! is the winter variant of the
Timber! Outdoor Music Festival and is brought to us by
Artist Home Presents the same crew who also put on
Doe Bay Fest. After looking into the production team a bit more, I am even more impressed at how they do their festivals. They meticulously select the location, bands, and the festival details to deliver a weekend with a
very specific aesthetic and intimate vibe. And they succeeded at doing just that at TimBRRR!. If you get a chance to check out any of these events, I highly recommend them because you are guaranteed an intimate, laid-back, and joyous occasion.
The only thing that I would recommend to the TimBRRR! festival organizers is a coat rack!! (as coats were just piled up everywhere.)
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