{"id":236398,"date":"2013-08-04T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-08-04T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/independence-day\/"},"modified":"2013-08-04T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2013-08-04T07:00:00","slug":"independence-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/independence-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Independence Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

After a year off, IndieFest is back and better than ever<\/strong><\/p>\n

Logan Broyles | Noticias del Centro<\/p>\n

For the better part of the last decade, Danielle Lopresti and Alicia Champion have been the face of San Diego\u2019s Independent culture with their creation, IndieFest. But all of that almost came to an end when Lopresti was diagnosed with a rare form of stage-three cancer in seven different places throughout her body this past winter.<\/p>\n

\"Danielle<\/a>
Danielle LoPresti is co-producer of Indie Fest and her band is also on the bill. (Photo by )<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

With Lopresti now in remission and things looking clear, IndieFest is ready for its triumphant return after a one-year hiatus. The three-day festival comes to the NTC Promenade at Liberty Station on Aug. 16-18.<\/p>\n

This will be the eighth time that the festival has been held in the last nine years, with 2011 being its first year at Liberty Station after previously taking over the streets of Bankers Hill and North Park. Considering the new location was six times bigger than the previous one, Champion and Lopresti decided to take 2012 off to give them extra time to reorganize for the next time around.<\/p>\n

After fighting through some serious trials and tribulations, the pair has come back with full steam and are ready to pull off what has become the largest local festival that focuses on all things Indie. It will also be the biggest IndieFest to date, with six different stages spread throughout Liberty Station.<\/p>\n

The popular event does more than just promote lesser known bands and filmmakers; it aims to touch on everything it can within the Indie culture, from Independent artists, music, and film, as well as businesses and nonprofits.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe feel really passionate about turning people on to the truly remarkable art and revolutionary ideas that are happening in their own city that they just don\u2019t know about because these entities are usually totally underfunded,\u201d Lopresti said.<\/p>\n

\"Rapper<\/a>
Rapper Talib-Kweli is a headliner. (Photo by Anna Sian)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no money plastering what they\u2019re doing on billboards or making sure their products are right in front of you in line at the grocery store so they go relatively unknown and are relatively broke, even though the art and the work that they\u2019re doing is fantastic and really important to the local community,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

With over 1500 submissions for this year\u2019s festival, Champion and Lopresti had their hands full sorting through it all, and they\u2019re very proud of the final lineup of over seventy-five artists that they came up with.<\/p>\n

The schedule features a broad spectrum of musical acts, from headliners Cake and rapper Talib Kweli, to groundbreaking, out artist and YouTube sensation Steve Grand, and bands like Best Coast, The Heavy Guilt, Ferron, and even a group called Saucy Monkey. Everything from country and folk, to poetry will be included, and there is even a night dedicated solely to EDM and electronica music on Friday, with a headlining performance by noted DJ PhuturePrimitive.<\/p>\n

Lopresti said their goal is to have a couple bands on the bill \u201cthat really excite you\u201d along with 20 other indie bands, artists or nonprofits that you\u2019ll walk away \u201ctotally stoked about.\u201d<\/p>\n

IndieFest started back in 2004 as only a one-day event. The original mission \u2013 which still holds true today \u2013 was to create a sense of community among Independent artists and help them share their resources so that they could get their work out to the public.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe idea that if you\u2019ve heard of a band they\u2019re god and if you haven\u2019t heard of them then they aren\u2019t that good is totally false and it\u2019s one of our biggest goals to prove that at IndieFest,\u201d Lopresti said.<\/p>\n

\"Phutureprimitive<\/a>
Phutureprimitive headlines Indie Fest (Photo by )<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For Champion and Lopresti, IndieFest is part of a larger struggle to preserve the local arts and culture of the city. They want to do their part to support the features that make this city unique.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think most people generally love and appreciate a sense of culture [where they live],\u201d Lopresti said. \u201cAll of that is more important than having the same corporations and the same bands in every city across the country. There\u2019s something special that only exists in San Diego, and if we don\u2019t support the Independent arts and culture, it\u2019s going to go away.\u201d<\/p>\n

The promoters said they fully appreciate the diversity of the event and the crowd it attracts and that is reflected in their headliners.<\/p>\n

Champion and Lopresti are full-time musicians, themselves, and their band Danielle Lopresti and the Masses will be playing on Saturday night on the main stage, right after Kweli and before Cake.<\/p>\n

\u201cIndieFest is going to be our band\u2019s big return to the stage since Danielle\u2019s diagnosis back in January,\u201d Champion said. \u201cShe\u2019s only very recently been in remission, she\u2019s been out of treatment for about five weeks. On a personal level pulling this off was really hard but we\u2019ve got a lot going on this year that we\u2019re really proud of.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lopresti said she plans to do the best she can and hopes her voice holds out. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be kind of a spiritual experience for me,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Contributing writer Logan Broyles is the former managing editor of Pacific San Diego Magazine and editor-in-chief of Construction Digital magazine. He likes to write about music and news, and can be reached at <\/i>broyles@gmail.com<\/i><\/a>. <\/i><\/p>\n

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After a year off, IndieFest is back and better than ever Logan Broyles | Downtown News For the better part of the last decade, Danielle Lopresti and Alicia Champion have been the face of San Diego\u2019s Independent culture with their creation, IndieFest. But all of that almost came to an end when Lopresti was diagnosed […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":236399,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"Independence Day","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11549,11547,11600],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-236398","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-entertainment","category-features","category-sdnews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236398","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236398"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236398\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/236399"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236398"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236398"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236398"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}