FWB FEST books Caroline Polachek, Jacques Greene, Yves Tumor for 2023 edition

How has FWB grown or changed since RA last spoke to the group? Alex Zhang: When we last spoke, FWB was a token-gated group chat in Discord, exploring the notion of an internet-native community with its own currency, the $FWB token. Hundreds of events later, millions of Discord messages sent, and thousands of friendships formed, we realized that in a sense, FWB has always been a kind social network, but one without allegiance to one specific platform. So, as a group of designers and builders, unsatisfied with the current landscape and limitations of Discord, our biggest directional shift has been on the focus and development of our own post-Discord platform, a platform that aggregates all the emergent activity that happens in our bottoms up network, from community-organized events to details about our annual festival to governance proposals that the community is voting on and discussing. It’s meant to be a cozy space for creatives who value quality or quantity, meaningful discourse over chit-chat and authentic relationships. It's our hope that creating our own means of production will allow us to expand FWB in a thoughtful and meaningful way, meaning more events, stronger relationships, and higher degrees of connectivity, connected through the $FWB token. Aside from the festival, how closely is music linked to FWB and its mission? Raihan Anwar: FWB was started by a crew of musicians and music-adjacent folks, not tech people. For us, music isn't just sonic wallpaper for capitalism, it's the backbone of our respective scenes. At a more tangible level, our goal—from day one—has been to support artists experimenting with these new tools. In an era when folks are looking at streaming platforms' profits and the minuscule share to artists, we've always prioritized giving artists a more independent and financially sustainable pathway. What made you want to start a music festival, and what makes FWB Fest different from a "regular" music festival? Paul Tao & Kaitlyn Davies: We've always thought of and have put FWB Fest forward as a middle ground between a traditional conference and the kind of subculture-focused music festival that many of us in FWB have been to countless iterations of. From Sustain-Release all the way up to Coachella, music festivals are a place for people to find, meet and create community. When FWB was growing and we started thinking of ways to move beyond our online chat roots, we knew we needed to create an in-person experience that was able to capture that same feeling of community. A music festival was the right lens to see that through, from a format perspective. We wanted to create an experience that is uniquely FWB, but also accessible to those that are just curious. FWB FEST has had the unique pleasure of emerging from our community, co-creating a programme that not only represents us, but is us. Everyone who shows up to FEST is a collaborator, whether they're just entering the FWB universe or helped build it from the ground up. Esoteric community vibes aside, we also pair our music lineups with extensive speaker and workshop programming that you won’t find anywhere else. At the end of the day, FWB Fest aspires to be different in that it will always remain small and intimate, collaborative and community originated. We've drawn a lot of inspiration from emergent, decentralized gatherings from many different eras—one where the programming and content is originated from its attendees forming something that feels more like a temporary city than a scripted, televised performance. We want FEST to feel more like a multi-day wedding of your best friend than a traditionally overwhelming and over programmed music festival. How did you go about curating the lineup—what kind of vibe are you going for? Zach Tetreault: The vibe is cosmic, otherworldly, psychedelic and also honest, without ego. When we thought about the performances for FEST, we asked ourselves: what artists are really pushing the boundaries, while staying authentic to themselves, and would truly lean into the uniqueness of the Idyllwild campus in the woods? Caroline Polachek or Yves Tumor could easily be aliens from some distant planet where all music induces goosebumps, while Vieux Farka Toure's West African grooves make large swarms of people dance in sync without thinking. Ultimately I think the lineup is a nice mixture of ingredients to enjoy under the stars on top of a mountain, surrounded by pine trees (with friends).