The city’s sprawling, eclectic, 11-day all-arts event starts Thursday night

By Lindsay DePietro

This year’s Buffalo Infringement Festival is just around the corner and you’re in store for a crazy mix of musical performances, dancing, visual art, theater, film, literary events, and just about any display of art and performance you could imagine. 

This, of course, is the way of the Infringement and what festival goers look forward to each and every year.

As always, events are designed for everyone to be able to attend, so all acts are either low-cost, free of charge or PWYC (Pay What You Can). 

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Check out Infringe This!, Ron Ehmke’s look back at the roots of the Buffalo Infringement Festival.

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From well-seasoned performers to first timers, the Buffalo Infringement Festival accepts almost anyone who wants a slot in the 11 daylong event. 

In a 2022 infringement festival documentary, John Blake from the band Green Schwinn said that the Buffalo Infringement Festival was the “emperor king of open mics.”

RELATED MEDIA: “Buffalo Infringement Festival 2022: The Movie”

“I absolutely love that sentiment because we accept everyone who signs up and I think that’s vitally important to what the festival is, because every other festival in Buffalo picks and chooses who they get,” said Ryan Gurnett, Infringement Festival music coordinator. “You don’t give smaller, younger bands a chance to grow if you’re not going to let them play because they’re not good enough.”

The festival performances will kick off on Thursday (July 24) with the opening ceremonies beginning at 9 p.m. at Nietzsche’s. Closing ceremonies will take place at Milkie’s Elmwood Lounge on Sunday, August 3, at 9 p.m.

“The Buffalo Infringement Festival is a non-profit-driven, non-hierarchical grassroots endeavor bringing together a broad range of eclectic, independent, experimental, and controversial art of all forms,” according to its website.

As a volunteer, Gurnett has dedicated the last eight years to helping coordinate the festival. The first six years he said he was in charge of a bit of everything, but for the past two he has been the Infringement Festival music coordinator.

“I listen to all the music, I schedule the music, and then once that happens, I coordinate where volunteers are going to be during the festival, what venues need PA systems. Right now I’m working on flyers and event pages for everything. So my job kind of encompasses a little bit of everything that’s involved with the music for the festival,” Gurnett said.

“This year, we’ve got about 100 musical acts, performing about 200 to 250 times over a span of 11 days at 30 different venues,” he added.

Gurnett said that every year he tries to go out of his way to find new people and acts that haven’t participated in the festival before. “We’ve got a bunch of infringement rookies this year, and I’m excited to see what they have to offer.”

There are a handful of new bands from Fredonia that are coming to perform in the festival this year. One new act, Turf N’ Turf, involves a man performing solo blues music in an eight-foot-tall collapsible chicken crate, Gurnett said. Turf N’ Turf will be performing from 10:45 to 11:15 p.m. on Friday, July 25 at Milkie’s Elmwood Lounge. 

Although everyone looks forward to seeing new performers and artists every year, Infringement also counts on its long-time participants.

Some individuals that have been contributing to the festival for many years include Cat McCarthy, El the Mime, Melissa Campbell and Velvet Al, who is back after his hiatus, said Pamela Swarts, a volunteer and coordinator for the Buffalo Infringement Festival.

Gurnett said some other longstanding festival performers include the band Goodbye Metro, YAWNi (a musician who travels from North Carolina every year), the Sonic Wranglers (a band who does installations with music, art, dance and video) and Green Schwinn, an acoustic due that Gurnett said the festival wouldn’t be the same without.

“Both BloodThirsty Vegans and MC Vendetta have been a part of the festival, I think, maybe since it’s started. So, they’re always a huge part of what we do. They’re always on either opening or closing ceremonies,” he added.

As an Infringement festival volunteer, “It’s my responsibility to make sure all those people have the resources they need and a place to perform,” Swarts said.

Swarts herself has been involved with the festival for around 20 years, close to the start of it all. She started off as one of the performers before becoming a volunteer when other festival organizers needed help.

When asked what event she is personally looking forward to this year, she said “Wet Dreamland is always a lot of fun.”

Gurnett said that people who have never even performed before often decide to join the festival. They just pick something and roll with it.

“We had a guy one year who wanted to do Neil Diamond covers and then just ended up arguing with the crowd the whole time. But yeah, a lot of people see it and they’re like, ‘I’ll throw my hat in and I’ll just see what I can do.’”

“As long as they show up and perform, I’m happy,” he added.

There have been bands that were formed specifically to play in the Infringement Festival that ended up staying together years beyond their first performance for the festival, Gurnett said. 

Swarts said there are multiple new venues involved in the festival this year. New venues include Trinity Church, The Mothership, Evening House Books, Buffalo Bicycle Shop, 26 Allen, 169 Allen and El Coquito. Allen Street Hardware is also one of the venues this year, which is not particularly a new venue, but one that hasn’t been a part of the festival for a while. 

This year they’re even “using my backyard as a venue, which I think is going to be a lot of fun,” Gurnett said.

Swarts said a venue she enjoys going to is the Nickel City Housing Cooperative, aka “Ol’ Wondermoth.” They always host a lot of the festival’s acts and it’s all outside which is nice as long as the weather permits it to be, she said. 

“I think a lot of people, myself included, found their friends, their people, who they want to hang out with, through doing things, through the Infringement Festival. For me, it’s all about that kind of unity that we create and the opportunities that we provide anyone in Buffalo who wants to come out and do something,” Gurnett said.

Swarts shared the sentiment. “It’s just a lot of memories, you get to meet people, you get to make friends with people, like I’ve made friends with touring musicians that come back,” she said.

She pointed out that the Infringement Festival is not only a big event for Buffalonians, but for people from all over. There are performers and artists who travel from out of town and across state lines to participate in the festival. 

“My favorite aspect is anybody who signs up gets to do their thing,” Swarts said. “We make a spot for them, and it helps people get connections in the Buffalo scene, it helps people meet other people. In some cases, maybe these people were shy, and now they know people, or maybe they needed experience. Sometimes you find fantastic new things you’ve never seen because someone took that leap.”

Gurnett said that one complication with the festival is that they need more volunteers to help out. He also said that after this year’s Infringement Festival, he will be stepping down from his role.

“I wanted to try and find someone who might be able to take over for me. And it’s such a huge job, that like no one wants it to be honest,” he said.

“This is my third time quitting and the reason I think I keep coming back is that feeling of fulfillment I get when I see everything happening … Just kind of sitting back and looking at everything, seeing how much fun everyone is having, and just being like, I made this, me and my friends.”