Buds, bands, and other fun stuff
We’ve already given you the lowdown on what Best Friends Day is all about. Now let’s take a look at what you can expect from this weekend’s festivities. NOTE: It includes nachos. A great big plate of ’em.
For those unfamiliar with Richmond’s annual Best Friends Day, this year’s posters might have you fearful that a franchised South of The Border might be coming to town. Don’t worry (too much) as Best Friends Day just seems to be channeling all the campy fun of everyone’s favorite roadside destination into this year’s event.
Originating in 2001 amongst a group of friends celebrating the summer they’d spent together, Best Friends Day has expanded into a weekend-long, multi-venue festival of music and activities for the rouge set. Attracting visitors from across the country (and reportedly the world), hundreds of music lovers and partiers galore converge on Richmond each year to celebrate their friendships and enjoy each other’s company. With a proclamation of “anyone and everyone is welcome,” Best Friends Day is for old and new friends alike.
For the eighth annual Best Friends Day, affectionately dubbed “The Ocho,” a number of great bands from all across the U.S. will be performing. Shows featuring Young Widows, Torche, Lemuria, None More Black, Off With Their Heads, and Psyched To Die as well as local favorites Strike Anywhere, Ultra Dolphins, Pink Razors, No BS Brass Band, and Wasted Time (plus many more bands) will take place at Plaza Bowl, Hadad’s Lake, Alley Katz, and The Bike Lot over the course of the weekend. The diversity of bands and show line-ups speaks further to the open-minded approach taken by Best Friends Day organizers… not to mention the balance of local performers and those traveling to take part in the event.
Other activities include a scavenger hunt (and this writer must admit to taking part and being tattooed with “BFD” as part of it a few years back), a mammoth lake party at Hadad’s, BMX jump over the world’s largest plate of nachos (hosted by Oderus Urungus of GWAR), and various other debauchery over the four days. Needless to say, those who take part will surely be left with a lot of memories.
Here’s a breakdown of what’s happening when and lots of useful links and info to help you get your bearings…
Thursday, August 20th
7pm at Plaza Bowl: Show & Bowling featuring…
Plaza Bowl is located at 523 East Southside Plaza. There is an $8 cover for this show.
10pm at The Camel: Official Guidebook Release Party featuring…
- Cherry Bomb: Richmond’s All-Girl DJ Collective
The Camel is located at 1621 W. Broad Street. There is an $3 cover for this show.
Friday, August 21st
11:30am at Vinyl Conflict: Scavenger Hunt
- Sign-ups and the official start will take place here.
Vinly Conflict is located at 324 S. Pine Street. There is no charge to take part in the scavenger hunt.
6pm at Alley Katz: Show featuring…
Alley Katz is located at 10 Walnut Alley. There is an $12 cover for this show.
Saturday, August 22nd
11am at Fine Food Parking Lot: Show featuring…
Fine Food is located at 700 Idlewood Avenue. This show is free!.
12pm Hadad’s Lake: Massive Party & Shows featuring…
- Torche
- Pink Razors
- No BS Brass Band
- Gull
- Lemuria
- Wasted Time
- Tubers
- Sexy Crimes
Hadad’s is located at 1140 Mill Road. Admission is $18.
Sunday August 23rd
1pm at The Bike Lot: BMX Jump & Show featuring…
The location of this show is under wraps for various mysterious reasons. BFD organizers are instructing people to “Ask someone!” But, good news, it’s free!
For more information on Best Friends day, check out our story from earlier this week, or visit www.bestfriendsday.net and www.myspace.com/bestfriendsday. To get a preview of the music lined up for this weekend, stop by and see our friends over at RVAMag and take a listen to their compilation podcast, The Music of Best Friends Day “The Ocho.”
(Image courtesy of www.bestfriendsday.net)
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Notice: Comments that are not conducive to an interesting and thoughtful conversation may be removed at the editor’s discretion.
I dont mean to be THAT guy but if you replace African American stereotypes with the Mexican ones that Best Friends Day is fostering it would be terrible – an extremely shocking and distressing choice.
How about a bike jump over 40 ft of chicken wings and watermelon?!? anyone?
Whoa Matt!
I’m just sayin!!!
Except nachos ACTUALLY ARE a Mexican food and not a racist stereotype.
watch out burning man
caliente
That last comment is null and void in so many different ways…
Don’t know why an ill-informed
“How about a bike jump over 40 ft of chicken wings and watermelon?!? anyone?”
is on the opening page of your crappy website,
but you’re all idiots.
@Yo J, the purpose of putting that quote on the front page was to draw our visitors’ attention to a conversation going on amongst our readers.
Hey mattwhite….
haven’t I told you to wipe your vagina before posting?
Now clean that shit up!
“Ooo, racist Neil.”
-David Brent
p.s.
Looking at that billboard makes me wish I had a band named “Time Gull”.
All the songs would be about a seafaring bird that searches for fish amongst the waves of the space/time continuum.
so I know that the BFD crew intended to lampoon the South of the Border billboards and celebrate the kitschiness of the tourist trap, but that kind of subtlety is real difficult to convey. all I see around town and online is a bunch of cringe-inducing posters featuring those unflattering cartoon caricatures of Mexican men (in sombreros, with swirly or x-ed out eyes, etc.) I think that using those images is problematic in this context and I hope the creative minds behind BFD will be more culturally aware next year. you know, maybe it’s not the best idea to use goofy stereotypes of any minority group for entertainment and/or advertising. right? yeah!
all the people raising the insensitivity issues are functioning under the false assumption that the BFD crowd are sensitive to the plight of oppressed minorities. These kids are just the new “thrashers”. Think of the brother in “Don’t Tell Mom The Babysitters Dead” or the kids from “Detroit Rock City.” Some individuals that enjoy or help organize BFD might be socially conscious and active in bettering our world, but most of them are just looking for a good time and couldn’t care less about the problem of subtle racism or the reproductions of rampant hedonism in our culture.
Don’t harsh their gig bra