Today we bring you news of something very big happening at Black Sheep this summer. Is it Black Sheep Fest? No, but it’s close. We actually will be putting on two big festivals this summer. We will have Black Sheep fest on August 3rd this year in the later summer. But also happening this summer on Saturday, June 15th will be DUMB FEST.

What is DUMB FEST? The idea came about because every summer we have Black Sheep fest where we have bands all local to Springfield play one giant show together. However, we didn’t really have a fest where we can have bands from towns outside of Springfield play along with some bigger national touring acts. That is where DUMB FEST comes in! DUMB FEST will still have plenty of your favorite local bands but it will also feature some bands from surrounding Central Illinois cities and also a few other surprises. When picking out bands to play this fest we focused mainly on the punk and hardcore genres that Black Sheep was founded on, but we also ended up with a pretty wide range of types of bands. Why is it called DUMB FEST? We are not sure, it was Kevin’s idea. And here’s a message from Kevin:

Everybody here at Black Sheep is very excited to host a regional fest. We’re looking forward to seeing a lot of people from all over the area come out, and we are excited to see some great music. This is a whole new tradition we are kicking off and we are stoked to say the least! Stay tuned!

– Kevin

There will be around 20 bands playing DUMB FEST, all have already confirmed. Oh yeah, did we mention that half of the bands will be playing next door on the ramp of Skank Skates? We plan on announcing all 20 bands with four separate announcements from now until the end of this month. Today we bring you the first announcement with five bands that are playing. Ready? Here they are…

BIG EYES from Seattle, Washington
ANGRY GODS from Chicago (featuring members of Harps of Tartarus and Scouts Honor)
SAY SOMETHING local to Springfield (featuring members of Don’t Mess With Winkie)
HORRIBLE THINGS from Champaign (featuring members of Hospital Job)
TRAUMA HARNESS from Belleville (featuring members of Egg Chef and Lumpy & The Dumpers)

UPDATE: you can find a facebook event for the fest right here.