I once broke up with a girl because she liked comfest and I didn't. I joined her on a Saturday afternoon there, I got agoraphobia and went to Staches after about two hours. She came to my house around two am and puked on my floor. I broke up the next day. I never enjoyed the festival mostly due to said agoraphobia and I also thought if you want to support local music then you see the bands every other weekday (end) of the year. During the "hey-day" of Columbus in the 1990's, the Turks, Cheater Slicks, Gaunt and Slave Apts were never asked to play until they had a "name", i.e. they were mentioned in a glossy magazine you could pick up at your local convenient store (Jenny Mae's first album was actually reviewed by Hustler). I never liked the politicking of local bands to play so I never went. That being said, I think it is cool that people who have jobs or children that require them to be up at six am can go see free music, buy food and see how the other half lives once a year. I tried to take my daughter a few years ago on a Sunday and some asshole was blowing weed discharge on us, so I decided it wasn't family friendly enough. But, I have taken her to the parking lot blowout every year. The idea that Comfest is a way to "break" a band is ludicrous but Columbus has a nice long history of supporting local acts from the Parking Lot Blowout, to the CDR cookout, Donewaiting stuff and back in the nineties we would do an Anyway Fest with some local and national acts whom we shared an affinity with (the Oblivians, Six Finger Satellite, Brother JT, Prisonshake and Bill Fox all played the fest at one time or another.) Go, if you enjoy Comfest, don't go if you don't enjoy it. But please, don't bitch about it. It ends up just making you look insecure and whiny. The whole idea of being a part of the underground was because you don't need validation. -Bela
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