During the next four days, a slew of Ohio bands and one group from Japan will perform in several venues throughout Athens as part of Aquabear Legion’s Aquabear County Fair.
Aquabear Legion, an Athens-based group that promotes and supports musicians in Ohio, is hosting the County Fair for the fifth year in a row as a celebration of its mission. In all, 16 bands will perform at three different venues — The Union, Casa Nueva and ARTS/West — tomorrow through Sunday.
“The Aquabear County Fair is our big annual shindig for Aquabear,” said Brian Koscho, co-creator of Aquabear Legion. “We do events and shows throughout the year, but this has been kind of our big annual event.”
With Aquabear Legion backing the show and creating the lineup, local garage-rock band Valleyboys jumped at the chance to be included in tomorrow’s show, drummer Aaron Krumheuer said.
“The Aquabear Legion is just an institution in Athens for cool, independent music, and we were honored when we were asked to get on that show,” said Krumheuer, who is a former Post employee. “So we had to play it, especially since Wheels on Fire and all those other great bands are going to be on that set.”
Creating relationships with bands throughout Ohio and the popular venues in Athens made the task of planning such an extensive event a little easier for the people behind Aquabear Legion, Koscho said.
“Coordinating four shows and 16 bands in four days — I don’t think there’s ever an easy way to do it,” Koscho said. “You want to make sure that all the lineups are good for all the bands that are coming in and have a flow so that they’re good for the crowd.”
The County Fair has grown a little bit each year, Koscho said, with the first year being a one-day event and this year being the first time there has been a Sunday show.
“The one thing that we added this year is the Sunday afternoon potluck show at ARTS/West,” Koscho said. “We’re going to have some food, but we encourage people to bring food, and that show is actually going to be free as well.”
The frequent work Aquabear Legion does with and for bands throughout Ohio gives Athens residents the chance to experience new bands and new types of music, Krumheuer said.
“I think there’s such a huge population of young people here in Athens and everybody loves music, but a lot of times they don’t get a chance to go out and see what’s happening in their own hometown … and Aquabear does a really great job of promoting it all,” Krumheuer said.
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