“Tell us about your dream.”
The large white board greeting guests at FIve07’s Creative Fest asked attendees to make note of their dreams and aspirations. At the beginning of the day the board stood tall, clean and white. By the end of the day people had covered with different ambitions scrawled in yellow, magenta and blue markers.
Five07 hosted the festival at King Gillette Ranch in Calabasas from 1 p.m. to 9 p.m on Saturday, Aug. 24. The main area consisted of a stage atop green grass surrounded by trees providing shade to guests. Vendors and picnic tables sat on the perimeter of the area; patrons could enjoy food from D’Amores Pizza, Karma Baker and Pinch of Flavor Tacos, among others. They also had a coffee bar serving classic Five07 drinks.
Their want to highlight southern Calif. culture and community inspired Five07 owners Sean and Amber McCarthy to put on the festival.
“We just have been to so many festivals, and we just didn’t feel like the community and love that should be around them was there,” McCarthy saind. “People … are creating amazing companies and brands and designs. [We are] just giving them a platform to speak from.”
Every forty minutes, a new musical act took the stage. This included up and coming artists such as Hot Flash Heat Wave, Winnetka Bowling League, La Bouquet, UFO UFO, Miles Hardt, Tiffany Stringer Matthew Dean, and headliner Yoshi Flower.
“I’d never heard of [Yoshi Flower] before but they’re actually pretty good… I enjoyed it,” Five07 employee junior Kiara Benioff said.
Each artist had a unique sound, look and attitude. Tiffany Stringer jumped around the stage during her cover of No Doubt’s “I’m Just a Girl” as the audience matched her enthusiasm and danced. UFO UFO, an indie band from Los Angeles, brought a more relaxed presence to the stage while still maintaining the crowd’s energy.
Photo » Natalie Venable » The Lancer
In addition to music and live painting, artists Sima Benson, Adonna Ebrahimi, Karen Payton, Isabella Preisz, Isabella Rose, Alyssa Reece, Mary Lippert, Mouserawk, Brinley Ribando, Shannon Celia and Tanya Thoma showed their pieces.
While there were some families there, few Thousand Oaks Highschool students were in attendance.
“I definitely think that it reached an older age group. A big part of the festival was about craft beer and stuff like that,” Benioff said. “I also just think that since it was at this really cool location, tt was kind of, not far away, but it was definitely a drive… but the drive was worth it. It was really pretty.”
In light of highlighting community, Eastwind Screenprint, the company printing the Borderline Strong shirts, had a booth at the festival. 100% of the proceeds from the shirts go to the families of the victims, and they are currently designing a shirt that will help Borderline owner Brian Hynes rebuild.
“Now it’s time to help Brian and rebuild Borderline again. Because he’s the one who lost his business, … it’s gonna be nice to get him back on track,” Rich Bucera of Eastwood Screenprint said. “That’s what we’re working on now is the new design, I’m thinking maybe the slogan ‘ Stand Strong, Move Forward, Rebuild.’”
Five07 went from small coffee shop, to popular hangout space, and now they have hosted their own festival.
“[We] just hope that this inspires other people,” McCarthey said, “if they have a vision or a dream to do something to do whatever it takes.”
