BRtistic, a music and arts festival launched in 2021 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, will stage its first event with in-person musical performers this weekend.
Last year’s BRtistic presented virtual musical performances at a viewing party on the lawn at the Tin Roof Brewery. This year’s festival, running Saturday and Sunday at Beauvoir Park, is showcasing live musicians and visual artists in the act of making art.
The festival gates open at 1:30 p.m. Saturday with music beginning at 3 p.m., and 12:30 p.m. Sunday with music starting at 2 p.m.
“It started as a COVID-conscious idea to combat stir-craziness,” BRtistic organizer Taylor Bentley, aka Pteryx, said of the festival’s origin.
Bentley, a keyboardist who performs ambient progressive music, is thrilled that BRtistic has in-person performances this year.
“Live music is where I live and breathe,” he said.
The 2022 BRtistic festival features 18 bands and more than a dozen visual artists. Other attractions include out-of-the-ordinary merchandise, food trucks, face painting for kids and a Halloween costume contest. Both festival days begin with a yoga class on the Beauvoir Park lawn.
BRtistic exists to promote local music and art, Bentley said.
“The talent in Baton Rouge is impressive, but many people don’t give Baton Rouge credit for it,” he said. “And the talent is in different genres of music than people are accustomed to hearing at the average bar around town. There’s a wide variety of music on this bill, whether it be indie or electronic or psychedelic rock or jam.”
Bakey’s Brew, a progressive psych-rock band featuring keyboardist Ross Hoppe of Captain Green fame, is one of the festival headliners. Rhinoceros, a group Bentley is especially looking forward to, performs experimental music using synthesizers and projections. Another headliner, Kinky Vanilla, plays surf rock with a Southern edge.
“It’s music that can please Baton Rouge without having to sound like Baton Rouge,” Bentley said. “I’m a big fan of everyone on the lineup, and not just because I’m friends with them. It’s an honor to put their names on this festival.”
Saturday’s music and entertainment includes Kinky Vanilla, Baby in the '90s, Speak Easy, Palomino Darling, Jeff Livingston, Matt Drago, Mirage, 1800HUGME, Rhinoceros and Vaudeville Entertainment.
Sunday offers School Of Rock, Green Gasoline, Bakey’s Brew, Slomile Swift, Southdown Souls, Norbie & the Ladies of the Apocalypse, Sarah Burke, Rachel Natanel and Gabriel Paul.
In addition to musicians performing and artists creating, festival attendees can get in the act by contributing to a communal canvas.
“Anyone can bring their creativity to the collaborative painting,” said BRtistic brand ambassador Rylea Deshautel.
“That was a big hit last year,” Bentley said of the communal canvas. “We’ll have a canvas for each day.”
Bentley and Deshautel see BRtistic as filling a void left by the closing of such long-running local music venues as The Caterie and Spanish Moon.
“Losing the Caterie was a big loss to Baton Rouge,” Deshautel said. “There was a big music scene for local bands there.” BRtistic, she added, “is a festival that promotes the cause of music and art.”
Bentley anticipates that BRtistic, the festival, will be an annual fall event in Baton Rouge. BRtistic, the organization, will present other events at local venues throughout the year, he and Deshautel said.
“Look out for us,” Deshautel said. “We’re putting something together for the first quarter of 2023.”
BRtistic Music & Arts Festival
1:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday; 12:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday
Beauvoir Park, 2834 Greenwood Drive
$30 daily, $55 weekend pass