Get the latest Syracuse news delivered right to your inbox.
Subscribe to our newsletter here.

Last year, Mike Boccuzzi remembers looking over the Redfest crowd and being astonished by what he saw; the typical SUNY ESF stereotype that danced shoeless and free, fraternity brothers and sorority sisters, graduate students, older Syracuse residents and one person with a yellow and white boa constrictor. He marveled at the sight of a diverse crowd who collected in one backyard to experience joy through great music.

“It was really an environment where anyone could feel comfortable in because there was no sort of niche crowd that was there,” Boccuzzi said. “It was everyone there all at once.”

Redfest, a music festival run by ESF students at a house on Redfield Place, had been an ESF annual tradition since before 2012 until the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020. Foster Valle, a current ESF student, helped to bring it back in 2022 with the help of alumni and his fellow current students.

Valle and Boccuzzi restarted the event with the help of house resident Tucker Couch as well as Sam Stehle and Will Harrington, who previously ran their own music venue. With their experience playing in their band Pop Culture and presence within the ESF Music Society, they felt confident they could bring Redfest back in a different and better way, Valle said.

While Redfest had primarily been an event for ESF students in the past, Valle said that they want to make it more inclusive of Syracuse University students, as well as the broader community.

“It had really been an ESF thing before and now we’re trying to make it a community thing,” Valle said.

Unlike previous years, this year’s band lineup consists of both SU and ESF artists. The group has advertised with tabling, flyers and ticket selling on both campus grounds. They also put flyers up and down Wescott and downtown, planning to bring in vendors that do not attend SU or ESF. Valle said that they want to make the space one that welcomes not just college students, but people of all ages who want to enjoy good music.

Students crowd porches and rooftops as they huddle to enjoy Redfest 2022, which marked the event’s return after the COVID-19 pandemic. Event organizers began their set up at 7:30 a.m. and did not call it a night until 17 hours later.
Courtesy of Sam Stehle

Along with the goal of creating a lasting memory for students as the semester concludes, an annual Redfest mission is to fundraise for the chosen charity of the year. The organizers selected UNICEF due to the war in Ukraine last year, donating $5,000. This year, Valle and Boccuzzi went local, choosing the Food Bank of Central New York.

Siddharth Motwani graduated from ESF in 2018 and attended five consecutive Redfests. During his third and fourth years, he was inspired to play with a band and became one of the lead organizers for the event in 2018. During that year, there were 12 people who were a part of the organizing group.

“Redfest planning starts as soon as you come back from winter break,” Motwani said. “You identify a team before then and it just happens naturally.”

Since its beginning, Redfest was created to act as a spring semester finale and be a stress reliever before finals, Motwani said. The event became an inherent part of the student culture.

“It was just a big way for us to celebrate the end of the year, get together, say our hellos and goodbyes to people that we may not see again,” Motwani said.

Although five years have passed since Motwani graduated, he still sees many people that he attended Redfest with in New York City and continues to make music with ESF and SU graduates who he either played with at Redfest or knew through another band.

“The people that lived at the house did organize it and then they had some other folks that they worked with, but when the pandemic hit, we lost all of those connections and had to start from scratch,” Boccuzzi said.

Scott Scrobin, an ESF alumnus who has attended six Redfests, has been Boccuzzi, Valle and the other organizers’ bridge between the past and present. They’ve used his advice, as well as sifting through old archives and YouTube videos of previous Redfests, in order to understand how the event is supposed to run, Valle said.

“This year is really well organized back to the basics of what it used to be,” Scrobin said.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Redfest was noticeable based on the number of people on their roofs and porches playing games, Scrobin said. Rather than being an event at one particular house, Redfest was intended to be a block party. The organizers want to bring that back this year.

“That’s what Redfest is supposed to be. You’re at the very bitter end of the semester, and we’re out there to let loose for a day,” Scrobin said.

The Redfield house was a perfect place for this event because it had gained popularity through its prominence in the party and music scene. Those who rented the house knew to pass it down to others who wanted the responsibility year after year, Scrobin said.

While pre-pandemic Redfests consisted primarily of heavy metal, punk and hard rock bands, Valle said the pair brought in more variety, including rappers, folk artists, jam and folk indie bands.

At the same time, they have brought back previous bands to play some new stuff. This year, Boccuzzi said they want to provide an opportunity for younger acts to play to a large outdoor audience and bands that have played for a while.

“The community fostered us and grew us as we started out,” Valle said. “We’re the older guys now, it’s time for us to help out some of these younger acts.”

Valle and Boccuzzi are excited to highlight younger bands like the Shwegs, Dogs Playing Poker and Rhodes Corduroy, while also bringing back bands like Pop Culture, OTC and Backhouse.

They are also bringing new elements, such as vendors like Pit’s Vintage and Selfloved, food vendors and porta-potties. While investing in these differences, Valle and Boccuzzi are also aiming to restore traditions of pre-pandemic Redfests. Valle said their plan is to make the event just as large as it was before. They’ve notified the entire block and are aiming to revitalize the block party sensation of Redfest.

“Once you leave college you don’t really get to do this kind of stuff anymore, it’s just not the same,” Valle said. “ So when you can be there in the moment enjoying yourself and loving what you’re doing and who you’re with, that’s really what stuff like this is about.”

Published on April 27, 2023 at 12:07 am