BLANKFEST 2015

With: Cromagnum & Sharp Shooter & Massacrity & Scud & the Grimes

Blank-Fest is an annual benefit concert, usually held one-to-two weeks before Christmas, which raises blankets for the homeless. It was founded in 1997 in Nyack, NY (a suburb approximately 20 miles outside of New York City) by Kenn Rowell who is the frontman for the NYC-based band, The Baghdaddios.
Rowell, in previous interviews detailed how he had always wanted to do "something charitable" on Christmas Eve. Among the many things he considered were keeping the disabled father of an old neighborhood friend company, singing in the children's ward of a hospital and collecting blankets from friends to dispense amongst New York City's homeless on Christmas Eve. Doing just that, for the first time in 1996, he enjoyed the experience so much that he decided to do the same thing again, next year. It was at that time that his friends told him that they had no more blankets to donate saying that Rowell had "cleaned them out" from the previous year.
Upon further reflection Rowell arrived at the idea of holding a benefit concert where people attending could contribute one blanket of any condition in lieu of a cover charge for admission to the show. These donations were intended to be delivered by Rowell and several volunteers, directly, to the City's homeless on Christmas Eve. The first Blank-Fest was held at a local club in Nyack called Mai Place and netted 40 blankets. The next year saw 70 blankets donated at the same club, since renamed The Loft. After that local entrepreneur Chuck Debruyn convinced Rowell to move the show up the road to Bruxelles a bar-restaurant that he had recently bought into. Debruyn reasoned that there would be more room for parking, plus a guaranteed walk-in crowd. The show has been held at this establishment ever since.