The event director says the event promises to be an alternative to corporate-backed, mainstream festivals
By JACOB ANDERSON — arts@theaggie.org
“Operation: Restore Maximum Freedom,” the KDVS-run music festival that’s been happening since 2005, will be on April 30 at 212 15th Street, the Red Museum, in Sacramento. More than a dozen musicians from Davis, Los Angeles and elsewhere will be giving their best onstage and supporting the local music scene.
Event Director Claire Tauber, a fourth-year student studying sustainable agriculture and food systems, told The Aggie over email that she hopes the event will “be many students’ first exposure to a DIY music festival post-COVID. We’re really excited to be able to revive that tradition.”
She said she hopes the event will help provide an alternative conception of what a music festival can be, opposed to the onslaught of mainstream festivals like Coachella, which host only mainstream, corporate-backed artists.
“In this sense, we are trying to ‘restore maximum freedom’ of creative expression for music lovers to enjoy,” she said.
Tauber also spoke against being a bystander when it comes to local artists — in her eyes, it takes active participation from the community for a local music scene to survive and grow.
“I think Operation: Restore Maximum Freedom has benefitted the Davis community because it exposes people, many of whom are from other states or countries, to new up-and-coming artists who may not get coverage otherwise,” she said. “Having a thriving music scene is something that has to be actively cultivated, and throwing festivals like ‘Operation: Restore Maximum Freedom’ can get people excited and encouraged to participate in that creative community.”
Among the artists who will be at the festival are Valley Palace, Pork Belly, Beast Nest, Maya Songbird, Cryogeyser and Toner. “Cryogeyser and Toner are both fantastic,” wrote Tauber. “Cryogeyeser is a shoe-gaze-y indie act out of LA that was one of my most listened to bands of 2021, and Toner is a band out of Oakland that is guaranteed to blow you away. We have some KDVS DJs performing as well, like Big Sammy!”
In terms of running the event, “Operation: Restore Maximum Freedom is 100% a group effort,” Tauber said. “We truly could not do it without the dedicated help from the rest of the KDVS staff and the Red Museum.”
Operation: Restore Maximum Freedom promises to offer a full 11 hours of music, from noon to 11 p.m., and might be the first opportunity for many students to experience the joy of live independent music since the start of the pandemic.
Written by: Jacob Anderson — arts@theaggie.org
