Bleeps and Bloops
Moon Over Salem 2024
Megan From Work drops into Bit Bar at Moon Over Salem.
Radio Compass, Jude Ivy, ladybug, and Sailor Down drop a few quarters into the slot.
Goodbye Hope Fest, hello Moon Over Salem.
Moon Over Salem is a partial benefit for two artist scholarships. So says MOON:
“We aim to support the community by raising funds for local scholarship programs.
“A portion from the proceeds from our annual festival will go towards awarding two scholarships to students pursuing music or the arts in college.
“Each school year, the scholarships will be awarded to one NAGLY youth, and a Student from the Greater Salem area, helping to nurture the next generation of artists and musicians.”
The one-day music festival Moon Over Salem, FKA Hope Fest, shined on a hustling & bustling Saturday in Salem.
Were we still in September? You don’t even want to know what kinds of crowds come out of the tourist woodwork closer to Halloween. As it was, a beautiful day and night of music, tightrope-walking the line between summer and fall, with more than thirty bands performing at seven stages.
And if you had one of those little green cloth wristbands (don’t overtighten them!), you had a front row seat for the entire moveable feast.
ladybug at Bit Bar
Bit Bar was the kind of Moon Over Salem destination with plenty to do besides listen to music. In fact, you might have lost the music festival plot with the endless arcades bleeping, flashing, beeping vintage games inside the bar-cum-arcade, a barcade.
Get yourself an adult beverage, a cup of tokens, and guide Donkey Kong to save the damsel-in-distress.
Wait, serious question: is the damsel-in-distress from the original arcade Donkey Kong an early prototype version of Princess Peach? Turns out, nope! It’s a character named Pauline, who was apparently Mario’s first love interest.
Sailor Down
The bill at Bit Bar was an afternoon-only affair, winding up a little before 6PM. Sailor Down, who just released a new album called Maybe We Should Call It A Night, opened as a four-piece of jingle, jangle indie rock.
With over thirty bands scheduled to perform at the fest, you expect a few to drop due to unforeseen circumstances. As far as I heard, which was not that far, Happy Just To See You couldn’t make it at the last minute. Hope Fest veteran Megan From Work filled in with a solo set, and flip-flopped spots with alt rockers ladybug.
Megan From Work at Bit Bar
Jude Ivy was scheduled to follow, with Radio Compass as closer. The entire bill wrapped up in time for dinner.
Bit Bar gets deliciously sloppy in the weekend evening hours, full of manhunting bachelorette parties and preteens high on their older sibling’s vape pens. Not that music venues can’t be rowdy, but there needs to be some baseline-level of focus directed towards the performing artist. Which you didn’t get at the late night Bit Bar set for last year’s Hope Fest. So maybe it was best that Moon Over Salem called it a night.
What’s next for Moon Over Salem? You’ve got to ask the organizers, MOON. Seems like they’ve created a kind of template for a locally-supported fest. The inaugural edition of Moon Over Salem was a success, and if the local support is there, it’s a success that could be repeated for years.
But you don’t want to just repeat an event, however successful. You want to grow it, develop it, refine it, nurture it, cultivate it, tend to it lovingly like a prized Tamagotchi Pet. What are some areas in which Moon Over Salem could grow?
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