Before the windswept chaos of the holiday season and in the midst of a cold December rain, Bread Box hosted their Dilly Dally Fest at Rittenhouse Filmworks in the great city of Philadelphia. This fest was a two-day DIY hardcore extravaganza with a lineup of bands so incredible it sold out long before the film studios doors were open to concert-goers. Put together with the heart and soul of so many delightfully kind artists who had a passion for the music and the community they served, Dilly Dally Fest was an incredible mosaic of creativity and cohesive artistry.
Put on by the incredible booking collective, Philly’s very own Bread Box, this fest was designed with real hardcore fans in mind. I had the pleasure of attending the Bread Box’s location when it was a venue in Philly and not only a booking collective so I was well aware of the excitement in store for a two day fest. Many of the shows put on at Bread Box’s location were just incredibly refreshing insights into Philly’s DIY scene that could not be denied or hidden even after the venue was forced to shut its doors. I knew from the first show I attended there that the communities backs that built those shows were far richer and joyously in love with the music than any other venue I had spent my time at.
With a lineup of over twenty bands from all over the region, Dilly Dally Fest was stacked with unbelievable musical talent. Each set hit harder than the one before in a room full of fans who truly were there for the enjoyment of the music and the connectedness that follows with collective artistry. The crowd was full of ecstatic excitement in a celebratory spirit of the culmination of so many outlets of creative expression. Some songs tethered the crowd together in a tight knot of screaming people while others expanded the room to dynamic movement. Regardless of the energy that each band brought to the stage, the crowd of Dilly Dally responded in suit and shared the space for the musicians to tell the story of their songs. Words make it difficult to describe the inclusivity and innate glee that was present in Rittenhouse Filmworks for the entirety of this fest as it was simply unparalleled to any I had ever seen.
In addition to attending and photographing this beautifully crafted festival, I had the honor of interviewing the many prolific minds that put together an event of this scale. I was so interested in knowing the behind the scenes challenges and triumphs that went into bringing something this beautiful to fruition and I hope you find their answers to these questions just as compelling as I did. The following answers were shared with me on behalf of Bread Box by the lovely Mark Mooradian so thank you to them for sharing the culmination of experiences that pieced together Dilly Dally Fest.
How would you describe the vision behind Dilly Dally?
To answer the question of what Dilly Dally is about you have to go back to the origin story of Bread Box to begin with: Dove and Aloe went to a local show that was grossly oversold, with no seating, the attraction seemed to be the bar just as much as the bands, and that featured a bunch of stairs / steps. It was at that moment the idea for bread box was formed from frustration: make an accessible venue that was also substance free, all ages, and took into account the comfort of the attendees more so than a profit margin. I (Mark) had a meeting with Dove and Aloe shortly after and we pieced together the original Bread Box ideas. These were the morals that were factored into Dilly Dally as well, a lot of times show booking can be a “cool-kid” club where you’ll only be booked once the promoter thinks they can make money off of you. We rebelled against this.
Putting together an entire weekender festival is no easy feat, who was the team behind masterminding Dilly Dally Fest?
It was a group effort to pull off Dilly Dally, handling the financials, sponsorship, securing a venue / food truck and all of that was Aloe. All the credit goes to them in my opinion. They did all the tedious stuff so myself, Dove, and Kayleigh (also from Pyre like Dove) could focus on booking the bands. We all helped secure volunteers and we also had the most active group chat of all time to facilitate this.
What was the most rewarding part of putting this fest together?
Short answer here but the most rewarding part of putting together the fest was the self actualization of “oh – we can have a goofy idea, see it through, and it ends up being a success”. Also putting together a fest that we wanted to actually attend was super rewarding.”
What was the most challenging part of organizing a DIY fest?
I’ll let Aloe (or Dove) mostly answer this but I do remember when we were venue shopping they’d rightfully ask questions like “Is there your first fest? Have you ever done anything like this before?” – even though we ran our own venue and have collectively been booking shows for a decade plus we had indeed NEVER done anything like this – I think with year 1 selling out a month in advance we won’t have that issue moving forward.
Were there any points in putting this event together that made you think it wouldn’t be possible?
The only time I personally was afraid the fest might not happen was when we lost the physical location of Bread Box. We have since shifted into being a booking collective but at the time I was nervous about it. I don’t think anyone else was though as we had already done a lot of the leg work and booking at that point.
How was the lineup selection process carried out?
The lineup for Dilly Dally 1 was curated by a group of individuals, the main players being Dove, Kayleigh, and myself. It was all handled almost exclusively through group chat and we’d each respond with “___ just confirmed!” We looked mainly for bands that we were personally stoked to host, but that had also done a lot for their local scenes.
During the event, at what point did it finally connect that this event that was once an exciting idea was now a beautiful reality?
For me there were two points where it all seemed real: 1- when I walked in and saw the stage setup for the first time. My band Kiande Amedha opened the whole fest, meaning we played first on the first day, but I didn’t have time to be nervous about the performance aspect, I was mostly worried about the fest running smoothly. I’d say mid way through day 1, after I saw everything was running as should that’s when moment 2 happened. It all seemed real and I was suddenly no longer anxious, in my brain we had pulled it off at that point.”
What were some of your personal highlights from the fest?
“Personal highlights for me (besides the fact that we had actually pulled it off) were: Massa Nera x Quiet Fear battle set, In Loving Memory playing their first out of town show in 20 or so years, Dreamwell, and Hundreds of AU. I’ve seen Hundreds several times but seeing them at a space where they could really go in was extra special to me.”
After successfully hosting such a cool event, how does this shape Bread Box’s future for planning and creating events?
We certainly have been asked to book more skramz / adjacent shows since Dilly Dally has ended. I’m all for that. As far as looking to the future we plan to leverage the success of this year to help us facilitate this fest as an annual establishment. Bigger and better is the move in my opinion.
I would just like to close here with a very big thank you to Bread Box for having me cover Dilly Dally Fest and also thank you to all bands and artists for their incredible talent shared over the two days!
