The Daily Tar Heel

Issue date: 7/10/08 Section: Diversions

Media Credit: DTH/Rachael Oehring Andrea Nell, of the Chapel Hill band Birds and Arrows, plays at Jack Sprat on July 8. The band opened the six-day Club is Open Festival to benefit Carolina for Kibera. The festival spans many local venues for the remainder of this weekend, closing out July 13 at Cat's Cradle.

As the sweat began to bead on his forehead, fresh from a hot and humid July morning spent pushing flyers on sleepy-eyed students and overwhelmed C-TOPers, Rusty Sutton walked into Cosmic Cantina and ordered a Dos Equis.

For all the work he has done in the past few weeks, he deserved it.

As any good business man would, Sutton saw a hole in the otherwise thriving Chapel Hill music community, and took it upon himself to fill it.

"I just thought Chapel Hill has all these great bands, why are there no real festivals?

"It really just started out as a void that I thought needed to be filled."

Originally hatched as Sutton contemplated a move from Chapel Hill, his brainchild, The Club Is Open Festival, now consists of six nights of music, which started Tuesday and will continue through Sunday, at six different Chapel Hill venues, featuring 24 bands from across the Triangle.

"I was planning on moving and thought it would be cool to have a going away show for my band, Rat Jackson," he said.

"So, I started making a list of all my favorite bands around here who I would want to play that show, and it turned into about 50 bands."

Sutton is a fixture in the Chapel Hill scene, working as a sound engineer at both Cat's Cradle and Local 506. So, suffice it to say, he knows people in bands.

"I used some of my contacts from the Cradle, you know, pulled a few strings."

And it worked.

Almost without a hitch, the festival's bill began to fill up, venues were contacted and agreed to host the shows, and the promotional wheels started turning.

"I tried to get bands that had some influence, bands that would make other bands say, 'Oh, if they're playing it, then we have to play it,'" Sutton said.

Durham's Red Collar was just the band he had in mind, and the band's singer/guitarist Jason Kutchma was quick to respond.

"I really like the idea of local festivals," Kutchma said.

Beth Kutchma, Red Collar's bassist and Jason's wife, got involved on a much deeper level.

Carolina for Kibera, a nonprofit organization working in the slum of Kibera outside Nairobi, Kenya, will receive proceeds from the festival.

Beth Kutchma, who serves as CFK's vice president, said she sees the festival as a reflection of the tight-knit community of musicians.

"Whenever a community comes together, wonderful things can happen," she said.

In a press release, CFK Program Officer Laura Williamson said the help couldn't come at a better time.

"In light of some of the recent events in Kenya, the organization's needs are greater than ever."

The organization will be selling raffle tickets at all of the festival's shows for a Michael Jordan autographed basketball, something Beth Kutchma said she hoped would attract a more diverse crowd than normal.

"I want to draw people who may be big sports fans and big music fans," she said.

Sutton agreed, pointing out that though the fest was originally conceived as a going away party for him and his band, it also can serve as a great introduction to people who might not be familiar with local music.

"At a lot of local shows, you see the same 50 faces. I think this can reach people who aren't in the scene," Sutton said.

"I hope this will help people branch out and hear new music. We'll call it a study guide."



Contact the Diversions Editor

at dive@unc.edu

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