Welcome to Overeducated and Underemployed, y
'all. We got a really cool episode this week.
If you remember a few months back, I went to
AthFest and talked to a bunch of bands there,
talked to the photographer there. This week,
we're sitting down with the CEO of AthFest, Mary
Joyce. She's also a musician. She was in bands
like Shitty Candy and the Circus Peanuts, Maximum
Busy Muscle, Incendiary, and just... We had a
really cool talk about all kinds of different
things, music, nonprofit organizations, even
touching on adoption and that process. So I hope
you enjoy it. Thanks for tuning in, y 'all. Hit
that subscribe button. And we got a lot coming
up. We got John Neff. We got Jim Kimo West. We
got Tommy Simbazo. Next week, we got Sam Lipkin.
So stick around. We're on Overeducated and Underemployed.
I'm here with Mary Joyce. She's the CEO of Atfest
and among other things. But we're going to learn
all about all those things today. But you're
also a musician to some degree. I've gathered.
So I'm going to ask you the same question I ask
every musician. Okay. To start with. And I think
it's an important question even if you're not
a musician. But what's the first song that you
remember loving as a kid? I don't know the title
of it, but Jeremiah was a bullfrog from the Big
Chill soundtrack. Joy to the world, maybe? One
of my favorite things growing up was putting
on my parents' records. The Big Chill soundtrack
was one of my favorites, and then I would roller
skate around the house. Nice. Yeah. I used to
roller skate, and my dog would pull me. We, yeah.
That's interesting. A lot of people, their first
song that they remember, it seems to have something
to do with a movie. Oh, yeah. It's just something
I've noticed, whether it's like Twist and Shout
out of Ferris Bueller or Bohemian Rhapsody out
of Wayne's World, because that brought that song
back to a whole new, another generation of people.
But yeah, I think it's, did you see the movie
or was it just the soundtrack? Can't imagine.
That my parents showed me the Big Chill. Yeah,
I don't know that I've ever seen it, honestly.
Age seven. Because there is like a suicide and...
Gotcha. Drug use and... It is one of the best
selling soundtracks of all time. It's incredible.
Yeah. I still listen to it now. We would sell
it constantly, even like in the early 2000s at
the record store I worked at. Yeah. It was like
constantly something we would sell and keep in
stock. Yeah, it got me really into it. I ended
up... Getting really interested in canned heat
and Sam and Dave. Oh, cool. A wide variety. It's
also limited to what my parents had in their
record collection, but theirs was massive. So
what did you start to get into when you really
got into music as a kid? Yeah, so I did piano
lessons when I was really young and singing in
the church choir always. And then in sixth grade,
You could choose whether to be an orchestra or
in band. And I wanted to play the trumpet, but
we didn't have the money to rent a trumpet. Gotcha.
But some generous donor had donated drums to
the school. Yeah. And so all we had to buy was
sticks. Oh, nice. So I started learning how to
play the drums. I bet your parents loved that.
They were very... accommodating. Yeah. For sure.
Yeah. I think maybe around 12 or so, I got a
Sears drum set that everything sounded like,
but then eventually, and then eventually as I
kept playing, I think I was 15 when they got
me like a real drum set. Gotcha. Gotcha. So were
you playing in bands? What kind of music were
you like playing along to and stuff when you
were playing drums? So I was playing along to,
I ended up playing a lot along to Lenny Kravitz.
Oh, okay. Cool. Because A, the drummer, she was
like fantastic, but it was also very simple.
Yeah. Yeah. And so my brother's friend. It was
like accessible to you. Yeah. Yeah. My brother's
friend gave me a couple lessons and was like,
listen to her and try to listen to the beat.
And then. have your friend turn the volume down
in the headphones and then turn it back up and
see if you're still in line. Yeah. And so it's
the beats were. So you weren't playing to a click,
but you were like imitating, having like testing
yourself and seeing if you could keep in time.
Yeah. And then I didn't, I was an athlete in
high school. Okay. So I didn't really play it
on my own, but I didn't actually play with a
band until the, my senior year of college. Okay.
And what band was that? How did that go down?
Oh, gosh. What was the name of the band? Something
Waiting for January. Interesting. But some friends
of mine were playing together and we need a drummer.
I was like, I actually. Everybody needs a drummer.
Yeah. I was like, I actually am that and have
those things. And it was not very good, but.
But sometimes, especially with drums, like that's
if you have the things and you show up on time.
That was, yeah, that's the situation. Definitely.
So played with those folks for a couple of years
and that kind of morphed into other projects.
And I discovered very quickly that I hate touring.
Yeah. And it's possible I was. So y 'all started
touring. Tried to. We were very young. It's hard.
It was like a week or two. You know, going up
to New York and back or going down to Gainesville
and back. And I discovered I did not like that
very much. What were the things about it that
you really, like, that you hated? Being around
people all the time. All the time, yeah. And
then especially, like, the second and third groups
I was with. I think a lot of female musicians
encounter this if you're playing with all men,
that you become the person who's managing everything.
I think, yeah, no, I think that's common a lot.
Like even I know several groups that are like
all women, but it always seems to fall on one
person. Yeah. And I feel like the like intrinsic
misogyny in our culture, like it usually is,
oh, yeah, the woman will do that. The woman will,
they'll schedule the thing or they'll do it.
A lot of the executive functioning, I feel like.
Which is honestly not my strong suit. And so
I think I just got frustrated with that. But
more just being around people all day, every
day. Really fun. Really exhausting. I am awed
by the folks that do it for a month or two at
a time out of a van. Shocked. Yeah, I really
like being on the road. Doing this, doing comedy,
even just going to shows. I do think I hit like
a point after a week where I'm like, all right,
this is not. And I wonder like, how do you go
beyond that? And like, still feel like you have
a home or anything like that. And it's just not
something, in some ways, it's not something I've
been fortunate enough to do yet. But I'm also,
it's also scary. Yeah. I think with comedy. It
can be a little bit different though, too, because
you're flying a lot of the time. You're like
going for like a weekend or, and so you're home
like in between shows on off days a lot more
often than a musician might be. But I still,
I can't fathom it. What about just the kind of
having to rely on diners and that sort of, what
was that like for you? So we were all just so
poor. And for a lot of us, it was, we weren't
in a place in our lives where we had paid time
off or whatever. So we were like 20 to 25. And
we packed sandwiches for a week. That was wild.
And I remember around this time, I think it was
the first time I saw Maserati play. Okay. And
blew all of our minds, but from the music, but
then also like they were. in a parking lot and
pulled out like a little camp like a bunsen burner
camper stove and we're like making ramen and
we were like that's so smart we're definitely
doing that so we would like park at state parks
and use their grills and yeah we didn't get to
eat out tons but one of the benefits of being
to the beauty of like small playing like house
shows and traveling around to small venues and
A lot of places, the punk house is going to feed
you burritos. I just heard about this program
that Taco Bell has had for decades, apparently,
where touring musicians can go on and it's almost
like a grant that they get. And they apply with
Taco Bell directly and Taco Bell sends the band
gift cards. That is amazing. Yeah, it made me
fall in love with Taco Bell all over again. I
needed another reason. To love Taco Bell. But
then when you mentioned burritos, I was like,
wait a second. But I don't know if it existed
back then, but I think they've been doing it
for at least like 15, 20 years now. It's amazing.
So at what point did you decide like you didn't
want to be like a touring musician? You didn't
want to be maybe even it doesn't sound like you
pursued music like super hard after that. So
I did. So when I moved to town. There was a point
in time where I was on like three or four bands
at a time and was loving that. But y 'all were
staying here. Yeah. And there was a point. So
one of my bands here, Incendiaries, started getting
a little bit bigger, like asking, being asked
to open for Wild Flag in the Forty Water, like
getting these asks. And I was, I've always known
I wanted to be a mom. And so I was in the adoption
process, like. waiting to be matched, and they
were wanting to do more. So at that point, I
stepped back, and they became a three -piece
called Motherfucker that took off and went to
Europe and all kinds of stuff. Was that name,
like, because you wanted to be a motherfucker?
It was kind of like a one -off where they, like,
Incendiary was so intricate music and, like,
lots of parts and guitar -many and... dual vocals
or trio vocals. And so they were like, let's
just do a yes and band. Whatever somebody writes
is great. We're going to play maybe that riff
and maybe one other. And that's our song. And
they nailed it. Just knocked it out of the park.
And people were like, no, you have to keep doing
that. And so they did. And I think it was just
a one -time name for Slapfest. Little Kings.
Like, we're going to do this one time. And then
people loved it. At that same time, I was playing
with Maximum Busy Muscle, which was like instrumental
math metal. And so we pulled in a second drummer,
Erica Rickson, so that if, because when you're
masked for adoption, like your whole life changes
immediately and you don't have a prep. So if
we were booked for shows or something, we would
either do double drums or if I was pulled out
for some reason, they would still be able to
perform. Yeah. So that's when. This was about
12 years ago, 13 years ago. So that's when I
started dialing back. Let's back up a little
bit here because I feel like we just skipped
a chunk where you're playing drums like at home
by yourself. And you started playing along to
Lenny Kravitz. But what else were you listening
to? What bands were you going to see? What were
you like in college? What were your bands that
you liked? So like in high school, it was a lot
of Grateful Dead. All my brothers really loved
the Red Hot Chili Peppers, but then also like
Belly, NWA, Nine Inch Nails. All over the place.
Yeah. So I graduated in 97. So there was like
a really eclectic. Yeah. Like Nirvana and also
Prince. Yeah. There was so much out. And there
was, it was like this period where the older
stuff was still like, like Prince, Bowie and
stuff like that were still. actively putting
out music, but then also all these new sounds
like Chili Peppers, Nine Inch Nails, Nirvana,
all these. It really was an interesting time
period for music. Yeah. And it was, so I grew
up in Atlanta. Okay. And so it was Lollapalooza
started, I think it was in eighth grade, ninth
grade when those. I started going to music midtown
in 2001. So yeah, I'm, I'm 39. So I, I think
my first one, I was like 15. It was right before
9 -11, I remember. Oh, yeah. And Dylan played,
and it was like one of those notoriously terrible
Dylan sets. Like top 10 worst shows ever kind
of thing. And it made me like swear off Bob Dylan
for a long time. I was like 15. I was like, why
do people care about this? Yeah, interesting.
So I grew up going to Atlanta for shows a lot.
The Masquerade, Tabernacle, even the Cotton Club
when it was. I saw them years at the Cotton Club
when they were like nobody. Yeah. And they only
got to play three songs because the lead singer
cut his lip open and they had to cancel the rest
of the tour. But I loved it. Atlanta was like,
that was my playground. I loved Atlanta as a
kid. Yeah, we would, and this kind of ties back
into AthFest, we would, one of the bands we would
sneak in to places to see was 5 '8". Okay. This
is probably 95, 96. And then when I was in town,
like interviewing for grad school, I like wandered
into AthFest and 5 '8 was playing. I was like
calling my high school friends. You will not
believe what's happening right now. They're still
playing. That's awesome. And they're on a stage.
And I just saw, I just saw them two months ago.
They played like a private event at normal bar.
It was incredible. Yeah. It was amazing. Yeah.
It was really loud. That's a loud room. So then
I got to college and like still Grateful Dead.
Got interested in Bela Fleck. Yeah. So were you
like in the fests and stuff at that point? Were
you going to? Some of them. You were going to
Bonnaroo or anything like that? Okay. No. Got
really into Ani DeFranco. And then my senior
year of college when I started playing music.
And people heard that music and they were like,
oh, you guys sound a lot like Modest Mouse. And
I was like, tell me about this Modest Mouse.
Oh, interesting. So I learned about this whole,
I just didn't really know about this kind of
indie. Yeah. Well, like in the late 90s, early
2000s, like it was right when it was blowing
up. Yeah. Like I feel like their big record didn't
even come out until 2003, maybe 2002, something
like that. Yeah. So learning about like. Modest
Mouse and Cursive and June of 44 and like this
whole genre that I didn't know existed. And I
was like, you're right. We do sound like that.
And I like this. Yeah. I've had a similar experience.
Like I grew up listening to a lot of the standard
of all genres, really. Hip hop, soul, rock, but.
just like the standards uh and then i started
working in an indie record store when i was 18
and it yeah it was getting all kinds of stuff
yeah it completely changed everything i got into
eric bachman and the drive -by truckers and cursive
is one of those bands i got really into for a
while too spoon so yeah yeah no i relate to that
a lot it's like there's a whole world out here
yeah and it was no idea and it was like They
were doing what they wanted to do. That was the
thing that was super appealing to me about it.
It was like, there's this whole world of artists
that aren't controlled by corporate radio. How
much was that a part of it for you? The kind
of independence of it, not just the genre of
music. I don't think I was like aware enough
at the time to fully understand that aspect of
it. Gotcha. Gotcha. It hadn't gotten quite as
evil yet either. Like it wasn't as super apparent,
I feel like, until. Like Napster. Yeah, I think
I had friends who worked at the college radio
station. And I think there was definitely an
awareness around me. I was not in particular
aware human at the time. But you, I guess I bring
that up because I feel like that is part of why
you're so involved in AFFest now. And what got
you into AFFest is like the independent kind
of nature of it all. Yeah. Yeah. I don't think
I even knew that putting on festivals was a job.
Really? Or I just hadn't thought about it. But
yeah, the amazing thing about AFES to me, there's
so many amazing things about it to me, but the
fact that it is, yes, we get some larger names
from out of town or regionally or whatever, but
it is, the whole goal is putting a spotlight
on what we have here locally, Georgia. specifically
in Northeast Georgia. And I love that part. But
yeah, it's interesting. I got to see how the
Athens music scene bleeds out. That first tour
that I went on ever, we went up like North Carolina,
Virginia, maybe Pennsylvania, then New York and
back down. And literally every single house we
stayed at, they were playing in an airplane over
the sea. Yeah. They just come out. Just right.
Yeah. And it was everywhere. It sounds like I'm
exaggerating, but we would walk into a half and
that's what was going on. I was probably selling
a copy of that record every day, like just this
one little indie record store. Yeah. Yeah. So
I believe it. Yeah, I believe it. So you was
that your first at best then when you walk in
and not in five eights playing? Yeah. So. What
happened then? Did you keep coming back every
year after that? Yeah, so I got into the grad
program, and so I moved up here in 2005. And
what were you going to school for? What were
you studying? Nonprofit management. Okay, so
you knew what you wanted to do a little bit.
Yeah, so after school, after undergrad, I took
several years off, like five years off. Kept
ending up in like nonprofit -y jobs, but I was
working two or three jobs and not making enough
to really live on. And so despite swearing that
I would never go back to school, I was like,
okay, maybe if I get some letters after my name,
like I can just have one job. And I am incredibly
grateful that worked out. So I moved here 2005.
And then started playing in bands, going to school.
The first band I got into was called Shitty Candy
and the Circus Peanuts. Okay. Which is all female.
There's one guy. There's been different iterations.
There were. I gotcha. Mostly all female, like
tongue in cheek, comedy, punk rock with confrontational
ballerinas. So there was like. choreography and
we were all dressed up as characters so almost
like performance art not just a bit yeah yeah
and i actually ended up playing guitar in that
band and then eventually found i guess maximum
busy muscle first yeah and then incendiaries
and and you're in grad school at this time too
yeah while you're playing in all these bands
yeah and then i lucked into through an internship
got a full -time job in child welfare for a non
-profit in town gotcha stayed there for 15 years
still playing music and towards the middle of
that end of that adopted my son and so that kind
of cut some things back in terms of the playing
music playing music yeah for sure and at that
same time you're getting like more involved like
with other things in town Like volunteering.
So I was doing work with, I worked with Bike
Athens a fair amount. I really liked that. The
hard part, I think, or a side effect of working
at a nonprofit is that you end up occasionally
donating a lot of your time to that nonprofit.
So the volunteering becomes a bit difficult,
honestly. Yeah. So, yeah, I think Bike Athens
and Jeanette Rankin Foundation were the last
things that I really volunteered with. But during
that time, like playing AthFest, going every
year. And it's interesting. I think I played
in 2012 and 2014. And at least one of those,
maybe both times, I didn't realize that it benefited
a nonprofit. Like I didn't know. Oh, interesting.
And so that. Was some of my interest and kind
of motivation for taking the job is if I didn't
know, like I'm working in the nonprofit field
and I'm playing this festival and I go every
year and I don't know. There's a whole lot of
people that don't know, which leads to a lot
of misunderstanding about finances and that kind
of thing. I think there's just like some fact,
like y 'all do compensate the artists, but at
the level that most of them deserve. Oh yeah,
definitely not deserved, but definitely not the
level of other for -profit festivals are paying.
Yeah, but that's part of the way that bands are
giving back to the community as well. They're
basically paid enough to where they're not going
to lose money by playing, but that's it. Yeah,
and I think having been in the music scene and
now in this role, it is... easier for musicians
and artists to hear that coming from me yeah
and it's easier for me to communicate to the
community about here's where these funds go because
my face operates in both spaces so talk can you
talk about just how you came into that role in
the first place and then and then I'd love to
hear just more about the structure of AFEST and
AFEST educates and like how the relationship
between the fundraising and the grant distribution
and that sort of thing goes. Yeah. After about
15 years or so in child welfare, I got burnout.
It's hard. Yeah. I, yeah, I got real burnout.
You're seeing like the worst of humanity on a
regular basis. Yeah. And the pressure of testifying
in court and that. The things I say go into these
decisions that are, could be life and death or
just whether family is staying together or not.
Like that, it just got to be too much. And so
looking around and also just being a newish mom,
this takes too much. Yeah. Like I, maybe I just
need to be doing like, what do you call that?
Like medical dictation, something. And then this
job popped up or it came across my radar. And
I had known somebody on the board. I met them
through Lead Athens, which is like a program
put on by the Chamber of Commerce to like help
develop leaders in the community. Gotcha. And
she was like, yeah, you should apply. So I applied
and I was really excited most of my life, especially.
Or most of my life in Athens, especially with
the court appearances and the way I had to present
myself. I kept my music life very separate from
my professional life. Like extremely separate.
Do you think that ever affected gigs that you
would or wouldn't take or bands that you may
or may not want to play with? I'm thinking I
can think of like more direct things as a comedian.
where like self -censorship might come into play
if you're in a really any kind of a government
position of any kind or involved in those sorts
of not even working for the government but in
a role where you're constantly interacting with
the public and yeah i can say for sure i'm really
glad that there weren't smartphones or most people
didn't have them when i was playing with shitty
candy in the circus yeah that's the one that
would have been a bit of a challenge. Did you
say they were confrontational ballerinas? Yes.
Can we talk a little bit more about that? Performing
with that group was some of the wildest stuff
I have ever... Yeah. So yeah, they would do audience
interaction and we had songs like Slutty Ballerina
and UTI and Soul Sauce and just... It was wild.
Like we, so the 40 watt asked us not to come
back. They were kind about it. That was more
about, we also threw out candy. Oh, gotcha. So
then there were like gummy bears ground into
the carpet of the stage there. Oh yeah. That's
yeah. Not cool. Yeah. Now I'm like, wow. I'd
be real mad too. We had one, we played the star
bar in Atlanta. Oh no. Yeah. We did jello wrestling
on stage. Or the confrontational ballerinas did.
And we thought we had it set with, we have a
little tarp and then the kiddie pool and the
jello would be in there. This is not, of course
it was not going to stay in there. And the band
after us was like all sludge, like sludge, slow
metal. And they were all in black with like long
hair to their waist and trying to stand like
wide stance. And like slipping on stage. Good
stuff. Really good stuff. There's a lot of bands
that came out in the 90s and early 2000s that
were doing a lot of stuff like that. I feel like
War comes to mind a little bit, but then also
bands like the Infinite Sea Snakes or the Jenna
Torturers. I feel like Lords of Acid probably
did some stuff like that at their shows too,
but I never... Was that just... Were y 'all just
trying to be disruptive? Yeah, I think so. And
because we were all different characters, you
got to exercise some demons out there. Yeah.
And be a whole different person. It's all the
brainchild of this, like, one of the smartest
women I've ever met, Jeannie Wiggins. She's a
dancer. And she wrote a lot of the songs. And
she would do, like, the choreography for the
performances. And, yeah, I don't. It was a wild
time. It was just like anything. Like, oh, you
want to just wear a motorcycle helmet and a tutu
and ram into the wall while you're playing? Great,
let's do it. How can we put glitter on that?
Good times. So did that end because nobody wanted
to book y 'all anymore? No. The drummer went
off to go to helicopter school. I've never heard
that one before. Yeah. Yeah, I think she's back
in town now. I haven't seen her since she moved
back home. And then Jeannie, the singer -writer,
like, leading the driving force. She and her
husband had a kid. We all just, I think that's
a... Settled down and moved to the suburbs. Yeah,
I think it's like a specific time. Yeah. There
was an era of that. Yeah, and that's kind of
what I meant when I was talking about these other
bands. I wasn't trying to imply that y 'all were
doing something unoriginal. It was more that...
there was a culture of this at the time like
it was like a thing that that would happen and
i remember i worked at a venue in the late 90s
early 2000s like it was my first job and war
played there a couple of times and i mean we
would just literally have to cover the whole
venue with tarps like on the inside and then
i'd care i'd be like loading their equipment
and My hands would just be red with dry. It was
like chalky, dried, fake blood. And I think it
was really surreal. I actually just saw a video
of them just popped up on my feed this morning
and I saw it. So it's like on the brain, but
there was like a thing where this wasn't like
so far out of left field that you were being
like destructive. This was like a kind of a cultural
movement of bands that were out of control for
a while. Even like the extreme version of it
would be like Gigi Allen or something like that.
But it was a thing. Yeah, yeah. It's unheard
of now, I think. People were definitely shocked
when they came to a show. But that was why they
came. Yeah, yeah. Or, yeah, I remember having,
it was pretty soon after I got transferred to,
A full -time job from an internship that all
of a sudden my boss showed up. We were playing
like the roller derby. Oh, gosh. I was like,
I have to go change my costume. Just make some
adjustments. And this is kind of the dynamic
that we were getting after. Like when we started
talking about all this, it's like when you're
working in this field where your decisions are
like very heavy. Yeah. Now. With smartphones,
like, anybody can use anything to try and blow
out. But, like, I just imagine, like, a scenario
where somebody, like, is trying to discredit
somebody because of something they do in their
off time or something like that. Yeah. That's
complicated. I don't think, I worked for different
non -profits and the state and all sorts of things,
and I never could have been a comedian before.
not doing those things I feel like it makes sense
it was just like it was like not an option in
my head and so I'm wondering like how did you
wrestle with that you had the experience where
you're like I gotta go adjust my costume but
also I mean was this something was this part
of you backing away from that as well like becoming
a parent I mean maybe some I think But it was
surprising to me, actually, the first year that
I had this job as the executive director for
AthFest Educates. I was picturing like, cool,
I won't have to dress up anymore. Or it'll be
like, so laid back, I just do the job. And that
was not true. And it was a little bit, it took
a little bit of learning curve. There's still
aspects of that kind of professionalism that
I need to display. especially coming in as a
new executive director after someone who did
such an incredible job for years building the
organization up who was that jill helm okay yeah
and so figuring out that line of like when i'm
talking to artists or musicians or vendors to
help put on the festival or club owners or whatever
yes but there is still since it is a non -profit
and My main role is with the nonprofit, the AthFest
Educates, that when I'm talking to donors or
board members or recruiting board members or
community, just like outreach, there is still
that level of professionalism that you have to
wear. You have to present a certain way. I wear
a different hat when I'm doing these interviews
than I do on stage telling jokes. I'm, I'm curious
at what point did, sorry, let me back. I'm like,
I had just had a brain fart. Sorry. I think a
previous question you'd asked was about like
the structure. Right. Yes. So that, no, that
actually is exactly what I was getting. Thank
you. You got me back on track. So what I'm thinking
about is like, you mentioned donors. I know.
So what percentage of like the revenue and the
funding of AFES comes from ticket sales? How
much of it comes from donors? Can you break some
of that down for us? Yeah, so the kind of income
breakdown for AFFest educates the organization.
Probably, I'm just doing the budgets now, so
I've seen these numbers recently. And you don't
have to be exact, but I would love an estimation.
It's like 80 % to 85 % is from the two events.
So from AFFest Music and Arts Festival and from
the AFHF Happy Marathon. And then 15 % from...
Private donors, foundations, grants, that kind
of thing. And that's just what keeps it afloat
in order for you all to raise the money, put
on the event to raise the rest of the money.
Yeah. The individual donations and the foundations
and grants and stuff for the organization, those
go more directly to the funds that we give out.
Okay. So they're not so much covering the overhead.
You cover the overhead with. the events. And
so that money essentially gets funneled through
to directly help. So can we talk a little bit
about some of the grants and some of the programs
that y 'all have funded over the years? And if
you can think of anything notable that I know
there's hundreds at this point of individual
grants and projects that have gone out, but if
there's any, anything that, you know, want to
highlight. Yeah. I guess just first to date,
we've given out over $750 ,000 in grants. That's
amazing. Been able to reach every elementary,
middle, and high school in Athens, Clark County.
All of our grants go to serve public school students.
So that's something that's really important to
us. At this point, we're giving out over $65
,000 a year in grants. Some of my favorites,
let's see. And when they apply for these grants,
they have to be very specific about what they're
going to use the money for. It's a very, it's
not just we need money for stuff. Yeah, so we
have three categories. We give out grants for
arts equipment. So that could be instruments,
amplifiers. One of my favorites from two years
ago. was for a music technology class at a high
school, and they got microphones and software
platforms to be able to record live music or
live interviews to create podcasts or create
YouTube videos. One kid did this amazing podcast
all about his favorite video game. It was like
Sword something, and he explained every aspect
of the video game and why that's cool to the
storytelling that happens in the game. it's really
neat another one of my favorites drums that went
to a school that they utilized initially for
a math class so like kind of that that rote memorization
of addition or multiplication tables like all
of that stuff they would do it to a rhythm making
it easier for the kids and then they ended up
taking those to like a language arts class to
do poetry with and like figure out meter. And
it's really interesting. I love that. Yeah, that's
really cool. This year, one of our grants is
helping to fund a local middle school was invited.
Their orchestra was invited to perform at Carnegie
Hall in New York City. So we're helping to fund
that trip for 50 middle schoolers to go up there.
That's really cool. Performing Carnegie Hall.
Another one is. There's a local nonprofit organization
called Divas Who Win. And they work with folks
who are coming out of like the sex trade industry,
getting out of there and prevention. And so this
is what the prevention with young teen girls.
They're going to do like a summer camp and we're
supporting the arts track. So doing fashion,
they're going to have a fashion show. Oh, cool.
And then some digital kind of graphic art stuff.
So, yeah. Yeah. All kinds of different art, not
just music, visual art, poetry, everything kind
of gets loved. Oh, I'm sorry. I mentioned the
equipment, the other things. Yeah, yeah. So programs
and experiences. The Carnegie Hall would be an
example. Or the summer camp with Divas Who Win.
And then professional development, which is something
that's so hard for teachers to get funded. So
we're sending one teacher to the National Arts
Educators Conference in Chicago and another teacher
to do like a, it's called ORF training. It's
like a whole music teaching method. I've heard
of it, but I don't know much about it. Yeah,
it seems to be like a lot of kind of xylophone
type instruments, but going to get trained in
that and certified. That's cool. Yeah. What are
some of the different types of art that the fest
itself highlights? You have bands playing everywhere,
but there's all kinds of different vendors. And
can you just talk a little bit more about what
would people experience when they come to AthFest?
So coming to AthFest, so everything that happens
outdoors is free to the public, open and free
to the public. So the three outdoor stages with
musical performances. On the Kids Fest stage,
so those are youth performers or performers that
are like directed at youth, like kids bands.
But we also have dance performances there. Then
there's a block -long artist market with anywhere
from 55 to 70 artists that are local or regional
artisans that have, whether it's working with
fabrics, metal work. They're selling their wares
there. It's incredible. We also have affiliated
events. So these are events that happen alongside
or with. So comedy night, that usually happens
Thursday night. Yeah. Nate Ball's comedy. And
then we have the, at UGA, Lamar Dodd, they have
a print and zine expo, I think it's called. Yeah.
Local and regional artists are making scenes
or graphic novels, that kind of thing. This year
we added a poetry reading at the Globe. We usually
have a movie night. So this year it was Weirdo,
the film about 5 '8", and then 5 '8 performed
that Sunday. So we're always like tacking stuff
on. I think we have fire breathers this year
too. I don't get to see a lot. Yeah, yeah. We
were both there and I don't know that we ran
into each other at all. Yeah. So we're always
talking about adding more. I am so lucky in this
job. A, that this job exists and like I get to
do all these different things and wear all these
different hats. But also the previous executive
director and the previous board had to do so
much work. Like the festival has not always broken
even. Probably not until 2018 or 19 was it consistent.
Okay. That it broke even every year. And now
we're raising $50 ,000 to $100 ,000 net. Yeah.
And that's because of the work that they did.
And that means the organization, we've increased
the amount of grants we're giving out each year
30%. I get to be fun because previous folks worked.
their asses off to make it happen. Yeah. So I
get to be the person that says, hey, as part
of our values, if we're showing, if we're trying
to show kids that the arts is a field you could
go into and maybe even make a living, who knows,
then we need to be paying our artists, our vendors,
the lighting, the sound, the musicians. We need
to be paying them more. We need to increase and
catch up. Yeah. I get to say that because people
in the past have, worked so hard. The board also,
several years ago, looking at COVID and if 85
% of your income is from large community events
and there's a pandemic, you got to pivot. And
so what they chose to do, which is brilliant,
is they started an investment account with our
local community foundation. And we have been
this largest of the past several years of raising
a lot of funds. made the sometimes difficult
decision of instead of giving that in grants,
we could give out all that in grants this year.
But what if it happens again? So investing that
and diversifying our portfolio to have money
markets and different things so that our goal
is to, at some point in the future, probably
be like 10 years from now, endow that fund so
that my job is paid out of that. Or if everything
shuts down again for some sort of pandemic, we
can use those funds. Our grants still happen.
The grants still go out, which is the kind of
forward thinking that can be really hard to do
when you're a struggling nonprofit. So I am eternally
grateful to all those folks for making those
hard choices and that kind of work so that I
get to be I get to think how big we can go and
I get to dream big. Yeah, that's. And it's nice
to like, to recognize that too, like the cause
I know that the Fest has always been something
that people loved, but it hasn't always met its
goals. And it's something that the community
always supported, but it took a long time for
it to get to where it is now, where it's consistently
not just providing this awesome event for everybody,
which I think another aspect that we haven't
talked about is it happens in the summer when
a lot of things in Athens are slowed down. It's
hot. It's hot as hell. And there's been people
have wanted to move it at different points in
time. But like one of the reasons y 'all do it
then is to bring this like influx of because
it's really great for the businesses. It's great
for all the venues that host the club crawl.
I've never seen Athens as alive as I do during
AppFest. Yeah. It is a lifeline for a lot of
those businesses. It's not as intense as it used
to be. I think universities are like making kids
take more summer classes and things like that.
I see that a lot at Florida State as well. Oh,
I bet. Yeah. But it's still... It's still, especially
for that side of town. Yeah. So even though...
Not all the students are leaving. A lot of the
ones that stay tend to stick towards the east,
kind of half of downtown where the student -directed
bars are. And so the west side of downtown that
has music venues and such struggles. So can we
talk a little bit about how you, and I don't
know if this is even you that makes these decisions,
but how it gets decided? What bands are going
to play on the outdoor stages? What bands are
going to play in the club crawl? Who the headlining
acts are going to be? I know that there's, even
when you're working with the big headlining acts
that are Georgia -based typically, but not necessarily
like a local band anymore, they're also playing
this festival to give back to the community as
well. So how do some of those decisions get made?
Yeah. So I'm the only full -time staff. We do
have contracts with community members for stipends.
We are certainly not paying them for all their
time. We're not there yet. But basically, AthFest
is put on and put together by a mostly volunteer
committee of about 20 people. We have one event
coordinator, and that is like a paid stipend
person, and then our booking agent. troy aubrey
of aubrey booking or aubrey entertainment in
town he's been doing it for 20 years okay maybe
so my part of that my part of that job is figuring
out the budget here's how much you have to spend
for outdoor stages here's how much you have to
spend for indoor stages and like how many artists
we need to slots to fill or handles more of that
okay But he works with, Troy works with a booking
committee. And that is something that he's done
a great job. It was one of my first pushes when
I started was adding more people to the booking
committee. And he's done a great job of recruiting
from the community, recruiting a couple of people
who work in like booking hip hop shows in town.
And then going to some of the smaller clubs like
Flickr, Bouvet, and getting their booking folks
on. They're going to know who those smaller up
and coming folks are better than myself or Troy
or. One thing I noticed this year, and I don't
want to say that it like stood out versus other
years, but I just noticed it. There was a lot
of diversity in terms of the music, especially
in the club crawl. I got to see punk bands and
Bubba Sparks was the headliner. And I mean, it
was just. It was really a nice representation
of a lot of different kinds of music. There's
some fests that happen at, you know, where I'm
from and I don't want to, I'm not going to, but
it's like they, they act, it's like a representation
of all the local music. And then it's like literally
all middle -aged white people playing blues and
folk. Yeah. And I think that is also, yes, this
year. Like I have to report on the diversity
of our performances for our grants. And yes,
this was the most diverse year by far. And a
lot of that is Troy's work recruiting great folks
for the booking. It makes it a much better experience
too. Like it's not just like a token or something
like this is. It's way better to go see 10 different
kinds of music. than it is to see three yeah
it's just better i think it also speaks to again
that just like the past several years and before
my time being consistently successful we don't
have to stress so much about yes this is representative
of our community but are people gonna pay the
club crawl pass to come see it like we don't
have to we're allowed the freedom So Troy just
trust like they're like, oh, the club crawl is
going to be awesome because we we just know it's
going to be worth the. And it's always reasonable.
Yeah. Yeah. I think this year we increased the
prices a little bit. And I think the highest
cost was forty dollars if you got it like the
weekend up, which for 13 venues, 14 venues is.
Can we talk a little bit about the VIP package
and like how that's emerged and how. you're constantly
you're trying to like add new perks to it or
make that more because i do feel like that is
something that that people buy it mainly because
they want to donate money yeah it's interesting
yeah people buy it because they want to donate
more money when i my first year we like actually
did the math of Your drink tickets, your t -shirt,
your club crawl pass. I did the math and it was
a good deal. And I was like, I think we need
to make this less of a good deal. Yeah, yeah,
yeah. It was still a really good deal. We're
sort of losing money on this. So we upped those
prices a bit and then started thinking about
what are some add -ons. What are some things
that we can do? We got the nice water bottle.
The water bottles are so good. They're really
cool looking too. You don't lose them. They're
heavy and they keep stuff cold all day. They're
bright green. But adding the Morton Theater as
just a place where VIP folks could go to the
bathroom, could sit in air conditioning. We had
the live stream going on inside the theater of
the main stage. So I think we're trying to think
of things like that where especially It's just
going to get hotter every year. And there's literally
nothing we can do about that. No. We're things
very much out of our control. Yeah. So having
things like easy access bathrooms, air conditioning.
I like the VIP seating in the venues is really
nice. Because like I was able to get a seat.
Like I was able to go from venue to venue a lot
easier and not worry about, oh, am I going to
be able to sit down? Yeah. Having set aside seating.
It's also something that we use. Like our new,
the ticket buying platform we've used for the
past two years, it gives us much better data
on who's actually buying what. And so we're able
to look at who's buying VIP tickets. And a lot
of those people are 45 plus. Like 45 to 60. And
so thinking like, we need to think about actual
set aside seating because they might not be able
to hang out all day and then walk into the Georgia
theater and stand. you for me like I was just
a luxury yeah it was but yeah it can be a necessity
for some people for sure can we talk for a second
about I'm having another brain fart I was like
had a question on the tip of my tongue and it
disappeared on me give me one second it'll come
back so I can't remember but that's fine it'll
come back to me I am curious though about how
you saw this as You slowed down your playing
music, but it's always been like a passion of
yours throughout your life. You've been a musician,
you've played in a bunch of bands, but you scaled
that back. And how much was taking a role like
this, you think, vital to maintaining that balance
that you, I think you, it almost seems like you
were recovering. Like there was a time period
there where you're a new mom and working in child
welfare and you're not really getting to be involved
in music or art very much at all. And I, was
that a big motivator for you have bring that
aspect of your life back into in a more like
controlled way? Yeah, not really. I think I'm
playing less music now than I was when I was
just three years ago. Oh, okay. And, but a lot
of that has to do with Like chronic health conditions
and having three teenagers and an aging parent.
But I am thankful that though I didn't picture
myself stopping, I pictured myself playing more
as I took on this role. And that's not what happened.
I'm so thankful, though, because I end up like
I get to see new music. Yeah. So every year we
get over 500 applications. to play at the festival
and somebody looks at every single youtube channel
they link or everything so i go through a lot
of them and going out to see somebody will let
me know hey you really should check this out
going to see that so i've gotten to learn more
about the music scene in athens i think especially
once you get past 40 it can be like harder to
connect like even know where the new puck house
on millage is it's having shows or you just don't
find out about them and so being tapped in a
little bit more that way is really nice i do
remember what i was going to ask you a moment
ago and it actually ties like how when you're
looking at the data for ticket sales especially
and not just vip but overall how much of the
Of the sales are like out of town people coming
into town and how much of it is local, like Athens
locals. Yeah. So it's mostly Athens locals, Atlanta,
some Augusta, but it varies year by year. I would
imagine the lineup has. A little bit. Really?
Yeah. It's hit and miss with that too. My first
year. So 2023 was the 25th anniversary. And that
one we had people flying in from Hawaii. We had
people coming in from all over the country. And
I think it'll probably be the same for the 30th.
Like we're already like thinking of all the cool
things we're going to do. And so I think then
we'll be drawing more people from out of state.
But it's mostly Athens, Atlanta, kind of Georgia.
I know for me, like I, I used to come based on
the lineup and now I just, I'm like, it's going
to be awesome. Like, I just trust that it's going
to, and I feel like that's, that's the kind of
luxury that you're talking about that these people
before you helped build where, where the reputation
is there. The, everybody knows it's going to
be a good time. Nobody's like waiting for the
lineup to decide whether they're going to go
or not. It's more like, who am I going to see?
Yeah. And not if I'm going to go. Yeah, this
year it was really cool. So just like some personal
life stuff this year meant I wasn't as involved
in the like booking or kind of knew where they
were heading or what they were leaning towards.
And this year at the festival, I feel like I
knew like maybe 15 out of 150 performers. Yeah.
And it was great. That's what it should be. I
was so excited having Upchuck on Friday night,
closing out Friday night. That was huge to me.
I can't imagine 10 years ago taking that leap.
Here's this punk band that is just starting to
get really big. But let's put them on the main
stage. On Friday night to close out. Like that
would have been a leap then, you know what I
mean? And now it's just yes. And it paid off.
Yeah. So I just loved not knowing, but having
absolute faith that no, it's going to be great.
Getting to then look through all the folks that
were booked and be like, oh yes, this is really
great. Is there anything else about Affest or
about the story that you've told that you feel
like you. we missed or that we overlooked, or
is there anything else you want to share about?
I think the only thing I would say, like most
of your folks are going to be tuning in about
AthFest is next year, it's a week later. Okay.
So it's June 26th to 28th. And that is because
Juneteenth lands on the weekend before. Yeah.
That's not our space. So it's one week later.
It's going to be amazing. If you can, if you
have extra, donate a little bit when you buy
your passes. Like this year, We were approved
for and completely thought we had like a $35
,000 National Endowment of the Arts grant. And
that was yanked by executive order. So, yeah,
those kind of grants are probably not going to
be available to us for the remainder of this
administration. So the kind of individual donors
or just popping in an extra five bucks when you
buy your pass is going to be even more important
for us to keep. nurturing the next generation
of Athens artists. I hope that the folks out
there help you all sail the seas of fascism a
little bit smoother. There are real world implications
to the things that are happening. And I just
want everybody to understand that. And this is
one of them. Yeah. Mary, thank you so much for
being here. I really appreciate it. Yeah. Everybody
go to AFFest. Yeah. Check out AFFesteducates
.org. I will have. Thanks so much. Yeah. Thank
you. All right, that was my interview with Mary
Joyce. I had a great time talking to her. Stick
around for next week's episode. We got Sam Lipkin.
She is with Flagpole Magazine. Her story is really
interesting. I hope you hit that subscribe button
and stick around for it. Coming up later this
season, we've got John Neff, Jim Kimo West, Tommy
Simba. And next season, we got a whole lot of
other things coming. Thanks for listening, y
'all.