swerve_wrapup_report..

September 28-30, 2007 Los Angeles, California
2007 Wrap-Up
Report
www.swervefestival.com
2007
OBJECTIVE:
Create a new annual youth culture festival
celebrating film, art, music and action sports in
Los Angeles, California.
RESULT: The first ever Swerve Festival had a
projected audience of 8,050 over the three day
event. In detail 2,000 people attended film
screenings at Barnsdall and Vista Theatres, 1,800
attended evening parties and events including
the Award Show and over 2,000 people attended
each day of events at Barnsdall Art Park.
The festival received 454 film submissions from
around the world vying for 47 slots. The festival
was anchored by five feature film premieres:
Surfwise, Control, The Good Life, The Man
Who Souled the World and Beautiful Losers.
Three short film programs and one music video
program included a mix of live action, animation
OBJECTIVE/RESULTS
and documentaries, many of which were either
award-winning or premieres.
Over 20 acclaimed bands and DJs performed
at Swerve Festival. Headliners included We Are
Scientists, DeVotchKa, The Black Angels and
Bonde do Role. Surprise sets from St. Vincent,
Spankrock and D-Styles were added over the
weekend.
The festival’s popular art show eschewed
traditional gallery setting and was an interactive
outdoor experience. The art programming
included work from 44 different artists in 6
different sections: Listening Trees, a Sharpie
Tattoo booth, carnival-style photo booth, large
scale murals, pre-screening photo slideshows and
ten 15-foot high Pinwheels.
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2007
STATISTICS
35 million media impressions
4,000 Swerve pocket guides distributed
8,050 attended the three day event
2,000 Swerve program guides
5,000 people joined the mailing list
454 international film submissions
143,568 unique page views
422 unique votes for the Web Award
70,000 Swerve Festival flyers distributed
100 VIP Gift Bags
10,000 Swerve promotional DVDs
150 Control Gift Bags
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Schedule
2007
28th Friday
Vista Theatre Doors open 7pm
5:00p - 7:00p VIP Happy Hour
8:00p Surfwise
10:00p Opening Night Party with NASA
29th Saturday
30th Sunday
HOLLYWOOD ROOSEVELT
10:00a Filmmaker Breakfast
Barnsdall Theatre
Doors open 12 pm
Barnsdall Theatre
Doors open 1pm
12:00p Music Videos
2:00p Shorts Two
4:00p Art in Action
2:00p Beautiful Losers
4:00p Shorts One
6:00p Man Who Souled the World
8:00p The Good Life
10:00p Music Videos
Great Lawn Stage
2:00p Illinois
3:15p Snowden
4:30p Foreign Born
5:45p The Black Angels
Festival Village
12:00p - 7:00p Swerve Café
1:00p - 7:00p Activities
2:00p, 3:30p, 5:00p CreateAskate
Echoplex
9:00p DJs Franki Chan + Paparazzi
10:30p The Toxic Avenger
11:30p Juiceboxxx
12:15a Bonde Do Role
1:00a LA Riots
Great Lawn Stage
1:00p Thee More Shallows
2:15p St. Vincent
3:30p Oh No! Oh My!
4:45p DeVotchKa
Festival Village
12:00p - 6:00p Swerve Café
12:00p - 6:00p Activities
2:00p, 3:30p, 5:00p CreateAskate
Vista Theatre
Doors open at 5p
6:00p Control
Echoplex
8:00p Pre-show with DJ Kiino Villand
9:00p Festival Award Show
10:00p DJ D-Styles
10:30p We Are Scientists
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2007
SCHEDule
FRIDAY
The first day of the festival kicked off at the
Vista Theater with the US Premiere of Doug
Pray’s Surfwise, a documentary featuring
the life of the legendary surfing family, the
Paskowitzes. There was a pre-screening
VIP Happy Hour held at Rudy’s Barbershop
followed by a packed, sold out screening,
a dramatic Q&A and then an after party
with a live performance by DJs NASA. The
entire Paskowitz family (all 11 of them) was
in attendance which made the evening truly
memorable and special.
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2007
SCHEDule
FRIDAY
6
2007
SCHEDule
SATURDAY
The second day of Swerve Festival was jam
packed with happenings from morning till
night. At 10am, a Filmmaker Breakfast hosted
at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel featured
29 filmmakers and artists in attendance. At
noon, doors opened to Swerve Festival’s main
venue, Barnsdall Art Park, which kicked off
with a flurry of spectacular activities including
the sold out premiere of Aaron Rose’s
Beautiful Losers screening, the opening of the
specially curated art exhibits and a variety of
live music performances.
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2007
SCHEDule
SATURDAY
Swerve’s Saturday night featured a
jam-packed dance party at Echoplex
featuring Brazil’s Bonde Do Role, LA Riots,
Juiceboxxx, The Toxic Avenger and surprise
Spank Rock.
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2007
SCHEDule
SUNDAY
The third and final day of Swerve Festival
continued on its fun-filled streak with
screenings, live music and activities at
Barnsdall Art Park and culminated at the
Vista theater with the much anticipated
West Coast premiere of Anton Corbijn’s
Control, a biopic about the late Ian Curtis
of Joy Division.Anton Corbijn’s Control,
a biopic about the late Ian Curtis of Joy
Division.
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2007
SCHEDule
SUNDAY
Swerve Festival was capped off by a
raucous awards show at the Echoplex
hosted by actor Jason Lee and Fuel TV’s
own Chris Pastras. The awards show also
featured a live performances by We Are
Scientists and special guest DJ D-Styles.
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2007
CELEBRItY ATTENDANCE
CELEBRITY ATTENDANCE
Giovanni Ribisi (actor), John Frusciante (Red
Hot Chili Peppers), Tony Kanal (No Doubt),
Mark Sovel (Mr. Shovel on Indie 103), Brent
Bolthouse, Scott Caan (actor), Donal Logue
(actor), John Dragonetti (composer), Orian
Williams (producer, Control), Jeordie White
(A Perfect Circle, Nine Inch Nails and Marilyn
Manson), Toby Kebbell (actor, Control), David
J (Bauhaus, Love and Rockets), Barbara Bestor
(Jury Member and acclaimed architect),
Adam Silverman (co-founder X-Large), Rose
Apodaca (style journalist), Neil Feineman
(founding editor, RayGun, Beach Culture
magazines), The Silversun Pickups, Helen
Stickler (filmmaker, Stoked), Craig Stecyk III
(journalist, artist, photographer, writer of the
Z-Boys articles, creator of the Dogtown cross),
Spank Rock, Jason Lee (actor and award
show co-host), Michael Ross (co-founder
and president of Delicious Vinyl Records),
Bod Boyle President, Dwindle Distribution,
Cheryl Dunn (photographer/filmmaker),
Sage Vaughn (artist/filmmaker), Doug Pray
(filmmaker), Mike Hill (filmmaker), Ace
Norton (filmmaker), Cat Solen (filmmaker),
D-Styles (DJ), Sam Spiegel (music producer/
spike’s bro), Chris Pastras (artist and award
show co-host), Martyn LeNoble (Porno for
Pyros), Pete Weiss (Thelonious Monster)
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2007
FESTIVAL VILLAGE
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2007
FESTIVAL VILLAGE
PARTNER
BOOTHS
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2007
MARKETING CAMPAIGN
Swerve Festival was marketed nationally but
had an international reach. Most marketing
efforts were focused on Los Angeles County
via radio, print, online, hand-to-hand and
outdoor.
1500 Swerve Festival full movie sized posters
were put up in 75 high traffic locations around
Los Angeles.
140 lamppost banners were hung in high
visibility areas around Los Angeles
Festival print ads were run in Anthem
Magazine, The Onion, Filter Magazine,
LA Weekly, Transworld Surf, Transworld
Skateboarding, Readymade Magazine.
Radio spots were run on KCRW and indie
103.1. Additional radio promotion was done via
Little Radio, Andy Dick’s Sirius radio show and
college stations at UCLA, UC Riverside and
LMU.
Online advertising and promotion was done
via Flavorpill, Myspace, Metroblogging,
Juxtapoz, The Daily Swarm
MARKETING
1500 11x17 posters as well as flyers were
placed in key retail shops in Downtown LA,
Hollywood, Abbott Kinney, Los Feliz, Melrose,
Silver Lake, Orange County also including
corporate headquarters for Rip Curl, Vans and
Quiksilver.
Swerve was promoted at industry trade
events and conferences in LA, Las Vegas and
San Diego including ASR, Agenda, MAGIC,
PSFK Conference, Newstoday/QBN Sessions
Conference, Wired NextFest.
Key live music events that were targeted
with hand-to-hand flyer distribution included
Sunset Junction, Underworld at Hollywood
Bowl, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club at Greek
Theatre, Spoon, Built to Spill at Henry Fonda
Musicbox. Cinematic Orchestra at the El
Rey, PDA/Ladytron, Artic Monkeys, Rufus
Wainwright, St. Vincent at the Wiltern, The
Volcom Tour at Roxy, Air at Greek Theatre,
Peter Bjorn And John at the Wiltern.
Street teams promoted at key art events at
Billy Shire Gallery, Barry McGee at RedCat
Gallery, Corey Helford Gallery, Tom Sachs at
Gagosian Gallery, Merry Karnowsky Gallery,
Chung King Road openings, Downtown
Art Walk, BLK/MKT Gallery, New Image Art
Gallery
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PRESS
2007
PRESS QUOTES
“Swerve Festival flaunts a gleeful willingness
to traipse across traditional boundaries
between music, filmmaking and visual
art. With a calculatedly mischievous bent,
this multimedia festival features a slew of
screenings, music performances and an
interactive open-air art experience designed
to engage audiences in nontraditional ways.”
-Los Angeles Times
“Swerve brings films, music and art together
and will appeal to people who like surfing
and skateboarding in their documentaries and
wild experimentation in their rock bands”
- LA Weekly
“Squeeze into those skinny jeans, bust out
that American Apparel top and don’t forget
the fedora: September 28th marks the start of
the first annual Swerve Festival, a three-day
celebration of all things film, art, music and
action sports.” - Metromix Los Angeles
“Swerve took place atop the very gorgeous
Barnsdall Art Park - a grass-covered hill
with a scenic view overlooking the famous
Hollywood sign and Griffith Observatory. With
a gentle breeze and the sun squeezing out
the last rays of summer, it felt like a laid back,
end-of-summer backyard party.” - MTV News
Despite the good people watching, cultural
festivals usually leave me flat. Either the
brazen corporate message gets in the way of
the art or the execution is too unimaginative.
But this weekend’s Swerve Fest has us pining
for next year’s installment. The folks at FUEL
know the board culture inside and out, and
they offered a program of music and visual
arts with an underlying green theme that
made for a gorgeous afternoon
- Rose Apodaca
Pop culture and style journalist
co-owner of A+R store
co-owner of Beauty Bar
“An exciting new multiplatform festival for
arts and culture-lovin’ Angelenos” - LAist
“A weekend-long explosion of art, skate/surf/
dirt culture, and all things uniquely West
Coast.” Transworld Skateboarding
“Pretty much the hippest thing happening in
L.A. this weekend” - Fishbowl LA
“a rare and much-needed celebration of
West Coast culture mixed with spectacular
panoramic views of Hollywood.”
- Label Networks
“Swerve Festival have recognized just about
every cool thing going on in action sports,
music video and short film.” -MelodyTrip
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