The Raven

The first time I was in New York City as an adult, my girlfriend at the time and I were looking for something to do on a Monday night. We were wandering around Times Square and someone gave us a flyer for this comedy club in Greenwich Village. On the flyer were all sorts of big name comedians who would be playing that night. We didn’t believe such big comedians would be playing such a small club but when we went down to Greenwich Village, they were all there. This is, in a nutshell, what the new The Raven festival is like.
When I read about the festival, which took place in 2008 on August 16 and 17, in The Reader and saw that Tapes N’ Tapes were headlining, I figured this was a pretty major festival even though it was its first year.
Contrast this with when I got there and it was a very small neighborhood festival. In Ravenswood (hence the name). Stretching just slightly over a city block, the best comparison I can make on this festival is that if you took Wicker Park fest and put it in a shrinking machine, you’d get The Raven. Though without shrinking the size of the bands playing.
That might be the reason that the organizers underpublicized it so much in 2008 that no one showed up. Still a nice private Tapes N’ Tapes show (my sister has a friend in Chin Up Chin Up who stated, unequivocally, that if Chin Up Chin Up opened for Tapes N’ Tapes at Metro, it would sell out) was nothing to sneeze at.
The festival was set up to raise money to renovate Chase Park in Ravenswood so there were a lot of local families and small children. So family friendly is an understatement.
A negative of the festival is it was put on by Alderman Gene Schulter who is the sponsor of the small gig licensing ordinance. To attend a festival of an alderman who is basically trying to kill local music was a bit disconcerting (maybe that was why no one showed up).
The only other problem was that it was a cash free environment so tickets had to be bought at a booth at one end of the festival or the other. Maybe for 2009 they’ll have more faith in the vendors.
Other than that it was a well organized indie festival outside of the normal boundaries of hipsterville (I kept asking myself, «what is this festival doing in Ravenswood?») and definitely had the laid back vibe of that neighborhood making for a wonderful time with good music.