In Case You Missed It: Spit Fest

Juniper Wolff

Local Music Journalist

In a dusty parking lot on a late October night, guitars roared, crowds moshed, and community came together. With the shutdown of Alchemy Records and Private Park, finding shows has been more than difficult. Spit Fest came in to save the day and restore community during these difficult times. Featuring live music and several vendors, Spit Fest hit the mark with creating a fun space for people to meet their fellow freaks. This high energy environment was a spectacularly spooky start to October. 

The Music 

The most exciting part about the festival that many were looking forward to was the music. Kicking the night off, Ussen’s harsh, emo vocals and screeching guitars set the mood for the rest of the evening.  HoneyBunny followed with a fantastic stage presence, doing everything from jumping around to laying on the floor. The energy was explosive. Deerspine soon followed with speakers blasting a guttural cacophony of noise and screamo. After Deerspine wrapped up their set, Corpus Cristi’s Wenge brought a unique take on shoegaze as the night grew darker. The most popular band of the night, Arranged in April, kicked off their gig with a familiar sounding screamo previously heard from Deerspine. Ending off the high energy, fun filled night was Day Eater. They ended the night with dreamy, guitar-led psychedelic rock. Day Eater brought a perfect ending to the long night filled with music, moshing, and comradery. Throughout the sets, there were enough genres to satisfy even the most niche music tastes. 

The Vendors 

Contrasted with other local venues and shows of recent memory, Spit Fest hosted several different booths that you would see at a major festival like Coachella. Several booths offered black and white face painting to match the Spit Mutant branding, while others provided water and free Spit Mutant zines. Hand-printed t-shirts, pins, and patches were sold to the crowd of dozens. The booths were a perfect stop for concertgoers in between sets. Creating this fun, communal environment wasn’t easy. 

Who was Behind It All? 

Spit Mutant, curator of the zine “Black Star,” was behind the scenes for every step of the festival process along with frontwoman of Deerspine, Evelyn. Spit Mutant placed fliers all around campus alongside her recent issue, advancing the word of an upcoming festival. The true purpose of Spit Fest wasn’t to just celebrate Black Star’s one year anniversary, but to create a queer safe space to come together and find likeminded friends.  

Spit Fest as a whole was a major success. It brought dozens of people together to celebrate a zine that brought many together. Spit Mutant and Evelyn of Deerspine conducted the creation of this noisy festival, dedicating a ton of their time to bring community together. Community in San Marcos has been relatively difficult to bring together since the shutdown of several popular venues. After Spit Fest’s success this October 4th, here’s to hope that Spit Fest becomes an annual rendition, fostering community for years to come.