Raising the Bar in the DIY Scene
How a local company organized a music festival with The Buttertones headlining
By Diana Martinez Staff Photographer
Heartcore Productions, a local production company based in Whittier, organized a music festival called BizFest ll featuring 21 local bands and vendors on April 29. This isn’t the first time they’ve thrown a sold out music festival, but it’s definitely their best yet. Their line up included The Buttertones as their headliner as well as D.I.Y favorites such as The Red Pears, The High Curbs, Ariel View, Gold Vine and Espresso.
Heartcore is the brainchild of Dylan Alva. It started as a fun thing to do with friends but turned into a project that has raised the creative bar in the D.I.Y music scene. Each show they throw has qualities details that make it stand out from other D.I.Y shows. This festival was no different. Alva and his dad designed the stages to use for the fest. They also had BizFest ll pre-sale tickets sold online, VIP packages and merchandise made for their one-day festival.
The festival was held at an American Legion Hall in the city of Paramount. At 3 p.m. there was a line forming outside waiting to be let in. They had three stages with organized set times that began at 4 p.m. and ended at midnight. Two stages were outside in the parking lot and one was inside the Legion. Heartcore staff stuck to their D.I.Y roots and put up their own chain link fence outside to help control the crowd. They had their own security, portable restrooms and even a Snapchat geotag for people to use throughout the night.
Having The Buttertones headline their sold out festival was big step for Heartcore. The Buttertones are an up-and-coming indie band from L.A. The five piece band is made up of guitarist/singer Richard Araiza, bassist Sean Redman, drummer Modesto ‘Cobi’ Cobiån, guitarist Dakota Boettcher and saxophonist London Guzman. They recently released their third album “Gravedigging.”
The restless crowd was full of fans wearing merch and holding vinyl as they waited for The Buttertones to start their set. They played their songs “Bad Girl,” “Sadie Is A Sadist” (off their new album) and ended the night with their most popular hit off their sophomore album “Orpheus Under the Influence.”
Two days before BizFest II, the venue Heartcore booked to host the festival cancelled on them. This was their second time looking for a venue, but regardless of these major setbacks the Heartcore team was able to pull through.
As of now, Heartcore has eleven official staff members that help put together shows each month. The staff include different roles such as booking, sound, visual arts, reception and security. It takes a great deal of teamwork to organize an event like BizFest and even more to make sure everything goes smoothly the day of. Music festivals and other shows put together by this creative community are a perfect example of what hard work, dedication and teamwork looks like.
Having a well-known and loved band like The Buttertones was an exciting milestone for this particular D.I.Y team. It’s only going to get bigger and better from here.
