Awesomefest

Awesomefest Tumblr

2010-03-05T09:12:00.000-08:00

This is going to be the place to get weekly updates as well as hear new Dirty-Harry-themed songs. Check it.

Updates

2010-02-26T15:31:00.000-08:00

I hope everyone is having a good year so far. I just wanted to update you on a few things.

The first is that Awesomefest will be held at the Wild Goose Creative again. The date will most likely be around mid-August. I will let you know as soon as we have a concrete date lined up.

Second, Colin of Hard Labor design is hard at work on this years Dirty Harry-themed shirt. Don't know about you but I am super excited to see what he comes up with. Keep checking in over the next couple weeks for a preview of the shirt.

And finally, my friend Shawn gave me the heads up about a charity ride that is raising money to build fresh water wells in Kenya, so if you have an itch to help out or just to get back in the saddle again, chek em out here.

Video Recap of Awesomefest 2009

2009-09-01T12:52:00.001-07:00

Buy More Shirts!

2009-08-23T12:06:00.000-07:00

We now have an online shop where you can buy your own Awesomefest 2009 official tee! Visit our store here:

These are a bit different than the originals. There is no sponsor list on the back and these aren't oversize screens (the official tees are still available in LG and X-LG for a limited time through the Paypal store). But they are still gorgeous thanks to the amazing design work by Colin Rigsby of Hard Labor. You can order mens, girls, and children tees as well as onesies! Each shirt sold gives $10 to Asia's Hope so buy a few. They will make great gifts for sure.

-Nick

Post Fest

2009-08-17T14:03:00.000-07:00

I just want to begin by thanking all our sponsors. Thanks to the kind donations from Seagull Bags, Roll, Paradise Garage, Cafe Brioso, Midwest Photo, Drexel Theaters, Starbucks, Pabst Blue Ribbon, Hard Labor shirt design, Element, Spindle Studios and Wild Goose Creative we had a great year! And as for the money we raised for Asia's Hope, we may pass the $2,000 mark after we sell off the rest of our shirt supply! That said, buy more shirts! I am ordering more smalls and mediums as they went much quicker than I anticipated. They will be in stock in about two weeks or so. We currently have large and x-large shirts.

We had 45 people come out this year! This is a BIG jump from last years 18. The gold medal goes to the trio who came all the way from New York. The silver medal goes to our new friends from Pittsburgh. We also had people come from all over Ohio including Kent, Cleveland and Cincinnati. It is so cool to see how people are embracing this fest!

The rides went well despite us being pulled over by Worthington Police. Yes, that's right. They pulled over all 45 of us. After a brief public service announcement by the kind and forgiving officers (they just didn't want to have to scrape any of us off the road, understandably so) we were on the way.

The films started off with a bang with the first Jaws film. They limped on with 2, 3 and 4 (bad, BAD sequels). The tattooing also went GREAT thanks to all the kind folks at Evolved. They had seven artists on deck to ink us. They tattooed over 15 of us and had us wrapped up in about 3-4 hours!

The afternoon was filled out with bike polo. Minus a few scrapes everyone had a good time. Thank you to Caleb and David for heading up that part of the day. And lastly, Rad Dog hot dog cart hooked us up with a fantastic dinner. Thanks Tawd!

I will have a video of the days events edited and posted in the next few weeks so keep your eyes peeled for that. And start getting your Awesome recharged for next year. DIRTY HARRY is coming for Ohio in 2010.

-Nick

Final Updates

2009-08-03T13:17:00.000-07:00

First I would like to wish you all a happy Shark Week. It is pretty cool that Awesomefest is happening at the end of it! What a way to cap off the best week of the year.

It looks like we are going to have an amazing turnout this year. We could have anywhere from 30-50 people coming. That said, we need you to register as soon as you can so we know how much food to get and so the tattoo artists know how many people to expect. We will allow registration at the door but we can only allow so many people due to space. I have only had 26 people register so far. The other reason to register before Saturday is that you will save money. Registration will be $40 at the door.

Also, bring your IDs (for the tattoos) and bring your helmets. The bike route we will be taking will be on the road with traffic. For the most part it will be in quiet sections but we will be on busy roads for a couple miles. Also, for the bike polo section of the olympics, helmets are required.

Finally, remember to bring money for the auctions. We will have stuff from Midwest Photo Exchange now as well in addition to donations from Roll, Paradise Garage, Drexel Theater, Cafe Brioso and Seagull Bags. Awesome! And we will have some extra Awesomefest 2009 shirts for sale (in limited supply) if you need an awesome gift for a family member or friend.

Drexel, PBR and Cable TV.. Oh My!!!

2009-07-30T12:20:00.000-07:00

We are about a week away and we are still growing in awesomeness. Tonight my interview with WDEM cable channel 17 will air at 10 pm. You can watch it on their website here.

Secondly, Pabst Blue Ribbon has decided to sponsor our humble marathon of awesomeness with free beer! That's right. Thank you Bob Miller, PBR rep, extraordinaire.

Third, Jeff Frank, president of the Drexel Theaters, contacted me asking if we would like a bunch of movie passes, shirts, posters, etc? Hell yes we do! If it wasn't for Mr. Marathon himself and the name he built for himself and the Drexel Theaters, Awesomefest wouldn't exist. I have been attending their 24 hour Sci-Fi marathons since 1997.

Finally, the shirts have arrived so order your extra shirts today as they are going QUICK.

See you guys in 9 days!

Nick

Buy Extra Shirts!

2009-07-24T07:52:00.000-07:00

Our insanely awesome shirts will be arriving this next week and we have some extras for sale! They run $25 apiece and the proceeds are going to Asia's Hope. Buy yours today! When you purchase one, include your size in the order.

A Few More Tattoo Sketches

2009-07-22T10:36:00.001-07:00

Here is another batch of tattoo designs that are available. There will also be one last sketch that will be available. It is a coat of arms that will be a bit larger in scale. That is the piece I will be getting. Jay (the co-creator of AF) actually came up with the idea for the piece and Andy Ringo is developing the sketch.

Also, though it isn't yet official, its looks like PBR will be sponsoring Awesomefest 2009! I think it is a great fit. After all, free beer is pretty awesome.

Finally, keep an eye open to our media coverage over the next couple weeks as Awesomefest has write-ups in the Columbus Dispatch, 614 Magazine as well as an interview on WDEM TV!

Timeline

2009-07-13T04:37:00.000-07:00

Hello all

Here is the tentative schedule for this years Awesomefest, subject to change:

Registration @ Wild Goose Creative (2491 Summit St, Columbus, Ohio 43202) (coffee will be there courtesy of Cafe Brioso): 8:00-9
Jaws: 9-11
First Ride: 11-12:30 (route TBD, 15-18 miles)
Lunch: 12:30 (at WGC)
Jaws 2: 12:30-2:30 (tattoo appointments start at Evolved: 1906 and 1880 N. High St, Columbus, OH 43201)
Bike olympics: 2:30-6 (at Medary elementary: 2500 Medary Ave, Columbus, OH 43202)
Dinner/ Jaws 3D: 6-8 (at WGC)
Second ride: 8-9:30 (route TBD, 10-15 miles)
Jaws: The Revenge 9:30-11 (on Gay St. outside at dusk, courtesy of P2 Pedal Power)
Afterparty at Tip-Top: 11-?

Secondly, pay your fees this week! The early bird fee has been extended until Friday. It will go up to $35 after that.

See you in a few weeks!

Nick

First Batch of Tattoo Designs

2009-06-22T06:44:00.000-07:00

Here is a handful of designs. There will be a couple more added in the next week or so. Any of these pieces can be done any size. They $50 price size is about 2" in diameter. If you have an idea for a design, email me and I will forward it on to the artists. They are open to ideas. And now the way we are doing the tattoos is that any artist is going to tattoo any of these designs, even if they weren't the one to create the design. That way everyone gets their first choice and we get the day moving along smoothly with plenty of artists tattooing riders.

Here they are:

Awesomefest 2009 Shirt

2009-06-15T19:16:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Colin for his INSANE shirt design. I can't wait to get it on my body.

And here is the Awesomefest messenger bag thanks to Seagull Bags:

If these aren't incentive to sign up then you are a lost cause.

Updates!

2009-06-13T14:27:00.001-07:00

We are on Twitter! Follow Awesomefest here: http://twitter.com/Awesomefest2009

Second, when you register for Awesomefest 2009 you will receive a cyclist number. You will use this number to bid in the silent auctions. You will also use this number to sign up for the tattoo design you want. Each artist will post their designs (by next Friday, June 19th) along with their available time slots. This is first come, first serve. Once the artist (along with their designs) are full you MUST pick another artist and design. So register NOW.

Finally, we have spoke cards! I will leave stacks at Cup O' Joe, Stauf's, Brioso, B1 and wherever else I happen to be. If you can track me down I will give you a stack. Let's make this a HUGE year.

Peace,
Nick

A Few Updates

2009-06-05T19:52:00.001-07:00

First off, Jeremy Slagle , Meg Russell and the crew at Element designed us the above, super rad poster. We will get them printed up here soon so let me know if you want a few to hang up around town. Also, they designed a spoke card:

I will have the spoke cards to pass out here in the next week or two, so again, let me know if you need some. We need to spread the word!

Second, we have a modified date and tattoo artists. The event will be on August 8th and Evolved is giving us SIX artists! Each artist is going to
come up with a couple sketches based on this years themes so there will be plenty to choose from. There will be variations in size as well for those who want more ink than the average fella. And to coincide with these changes we are modifying the fee format as well. There will be one flat fee of $25 that includes your shirt, meals, energy drinks, prizes, etc. If you are one of the riders getting a tattoo, you will pay the artist at the time of your tattoo (the average tattoo will cost around $50). I will have all the sketches live on the site as I get them from the artists. Friday, June 19th is the final deadline for the artists to have their sketches in to me. Each artist will have a list of times available and after they fill up they will be unavailable. You will then need to pick a piece from a different artist. So check back here often and pick your design quickly!

Third, we have settled on a new charitable organization for this year: Asia's Hope. The money we raise from the silent auction and any extra money from this years fees will go directly to this organization. Our actions will help save these orphans. Pretty rad.

Finally, Seagull bags will be making an Awesomefest Jaws themed bag for our auction so BRING MONEY!

Contact me if you have any questions. See you soon!

Nick
614-507-7954

We have a date!

2009-05-18T20:26:00.000-07:00

August 8th will be the date for this years Awesomefest. And this time we will have a slightly different format. In order to be able to grow we needed to add more tattoo artists. For those of you who participated in last years event you may remember that it took our sole artist a while to tattoo the 15 riders. So this year we will have as many as Six artists from Evolved! I will have their sketches live on this site shortly.

Early bird registration is also live. The discounted rate is good through July 11th. The price will then go up for the last month. Both fees include meals, a shirt, a photo, prizes and more!

Feel free to email me at fancher8@yahoo.com with any questions. And spread the word! I want this thing to spread like panic at the beach in shark infested waters.

Poster Idea

2009-03-09T20:29:00.000-07:00

I wanted something like this for the teaser poster. Maybe a real designer/illustrator could do a better one for us (hint hint). I plan on making spoke cards for your bikes to get the buzz going early. I will keep you posted.

Nick

Awesomefest 2009 Planning Meeting

2009-03-02T08:52:00.000-08:00

Come to the monthly planning meeting this Thursday at Spindle Studios at 9 p.m. It is located at 2487 Summit St. Columbus, OH 43202. We have much to discuss as we plan on dramatically expanding this years event. We need YOUR input. Invite your friends and come with ideas. Email me with any questions at Awesomefest2009@gmail.com

Hope to see you Thursday!

Nick
614-507-7954

Awesomefest 2009 Theme

2009-01-13T06:34:00.000-08:00

As you may have heard, we will be revisiting the Jaws films at this years Awesomefest. That is I, II, III and IV.

I feel like there are many cool possible tattoo designs that could arise from this theme. The bike gears... The mighty teeth of the beast... The city skyline... That said, my friend and Awesomefest alumni, Colin has designed a couple possible posters for this years fest. Check em out. I would love to hear your ideas too. Feel free to come to our next brainstorming session the first Thursday in February. See the previous blog post for details.

A New Year

2008-12-28T14:41:00.001-08:00

Hello all

I hope you had a great Christmas and that your New Years is equally festive and awesome. And with this new year comes another kind of fest of awesome proportions. That's right, Awesomefest 2009 is rapidly approaching. And this time I want everyone who is interested to be involved in the planning so we can be bigger and better.

I want to start meeting at least once a month to brainstorm and pool our resources. I am thinking making the first Thursday of each month at 8 o'clock at the Clintonville Cup O' Joe our meeting place. It is always a challenge picking a time that works for everyone so I understand if everyone can't make it so feel free to post comments with ideas and resources you may have at your disposal.

Please email me or call me at 614-507-7954 if you have any questions and please alert people to the presence of this site that you think may be interested in participating this year.

See some of you this Thursday!

-Nick

Success!

2008-08-12T15:07:00.000-07:00

The day went really, really well. Everyone's spirits were high. The movies wrapped up around 10 p.m. while the tattooing went until 4 a.m.!!! It was a long day for Kat and everyone else. She was tattooing for about 17 hours! Insanity. And everyone is already excitedly talking about next year. We are going to start meeting up once a month for those interested in helping plan next years event.

For the ride ee had 17 riders. We were actually spotted on High St ("It IS Awesomefest!"). Also, one of the riders almost rear ended a car with his fixie and we had two riders stop for 7 a.m. beers. And we couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day. High 70's and breezy with big fluffy clouds.

Thanks to ALL the sponsors. We raised about $400 in the auction. I will let you know the total amount that went to Thirst Relief as soon as I get that figure.

Here are some shots of some of our riders:

www.shutterthink.com

To Clarify

2008-08-05T17:19:00.000-07:00

This is first come first serve. There are only forty slots available for Awesomefest 2008 (twenty with a tattoo and twenty w/out). As of today fourteen people have paid for tattoo slots which only leaves 6. Only three people have paid for a non tattoo spot and so there are still plenty of spots available. You can pay via Paypal. Click on the appropriate button on the top right of this page. And spread the word to your friends about the need to get your fee paid up quickly.

-Nick

Cafe Brioso Rocks!!!

2008-07-28T10:58:00.000-07:00

Not only are they advertising the crap out of Awesomefest but Kevin Cash, their head barista, has volunteered to make espresso drinks all day! They will also provide gift certificates for the silent auction. If you have yet to experience their coffee goodness, check em out in downtown Columbus at Gay and High St. So make sure and get to Junctionview a bit before 6 on the 9th to get your shirt, Gatorade and COFFEE. We will be there at 5:30.

Also, David and John and I did the trial ride this past Saturday and it went really well. It took us just over 2 hours.

And Columbus Alive will be doing a piece on us this week so keep your eyes peeled.

Also, feel free to bring beer, snack foods and stuff to keep you awake and happy because 11 hours of Rocky will be a tough act to conquer.

Three Things

2008-07-14T07:21:00.000-07:00

We will be doing a trial ride on Saturday July 26th at 6 a.m. We will meet at King and High St. if you are interested. Yes, we were supposed to do it this past Saturday but no one could make it.

Second, there will be a silent auction during the event and all the proceeds will go directly to Thirst Relief International. So bring money to bid on the items. So far there will be a couple rad bike jerseys, an ipod and a hand made messenger bag. And if you know of someone who could donate an item for the auction, let me know. All donations are tax deductible. We may also have a massage therapist doing massages for $1/minute, so again, bring some scrilla.

Finally, the fee for Awesomefest 2008 registration is going up a bit as of July 26th. This fee includes a shirt, meals for the day as well as prizes, energy drinks and bars, Cafe Brioso espresso and coffee drinks as well as 11 hours of films, a professional portrait of you to keep and general camaraderie and awesomeness.

Thanks!

Tattoo Designs and More

2008-06-15T16:53:00.001-07:00

There have been a few more details locked down. P2 will be there for a bike powered grand finale! F-14 Hellkat will definitely be the tattoo artist this year. She is also our only tattoo artist this year. She has made it her act of endurance to tackle 20 tattoos in one day. And because we have a limited window of time and a fairly high number of people interested in participating in Awesomefest 2008 (I heard we may even have some Indianians coming), the above designs will be the only three options for tattoos this year.

To accomodate this tattoo shortage we have added the option of participating in Awesomefest 2008 without getting a tattoo. The cost is $10 instead of $60. Again, these costs will include food for the day, a shirt, goody bags/door prizes, movies and a professional portrait of you taken at the conclusion of the triathlon.

We have also partnered with Thirst Relief International and all proceeds raised will go toward their organization. We will have some really cool things (like a custom made messenger bag and more!) for a silent auction and all the proceeds go to Thirst Relief as well. So again, please mention this to your boss or whomever so we can raise money for this cause. We still are looking for donations of food, energy bars, sports/energy drinks, beer, coffee, snacks, dinner, whatever, from local businesses. We also need some volunteers for the two watering stations during the ride and to grab the donated food and set it up at Junctionview.

There is a limit of 40 people this year so pay your fee now. Also, specify which tattoo you want to get. These will be about 2.5" in size and monochromatic. If it isn't your style, someone else will gladly fill your spot. Next year we can hopefully have more options.

Any questions you can call me at 614-507-7954.

-Nick

We Have a Date!

2008-05-29T13:48:00.000-07:00

Okay. We are confirmed for August 9th at Junctionview Studios in Grandview. We will start at 6 a.m. at Junctionview (everyone can park their cars there if they drive in) and bike to High St. I think we will probably bike up High St. to 270 and then turn around and bike back down to 270 on South High and then back up to Junctionview making it a total of about 40-45 miles. This route could change. We will see.

We will be watching all the Rocky movies (1-6) which run a collective 11 hours. That means we will be done for the day by 10 p.m. at the latest. Throughout the day F-14 Hellkat, aka The Artful Dodger, will be tattoing. Riders will head out to her to get tattooed. We will have details soon as to where she will be tattooing. Also, I will get some definite size limits from her soon but the color and detail and size of your tattoo will be limited so it can be done in 30 minutes as we only have one artist and I am planning on 15-20 participants in this Awesomefest. We will provide a couple tattoo options such as the soon-to-be revealed Awesomefest logo if you are unsure as to what tattoo you should get.

You can check out Kat's work here:
http://www.the-artful-dodger.com/

Again, I hope to have P2 Pedal Power there for the grand finale of Rocky Balboa so we can add another sweet (and local) bike element to the day.

Also, we now have a teaser poster for the event thanks to Erin Holcomb.

Now we are trying to raise a bit of support to bring the overall cost of the event down so that everyone can participate. We have the space. We have the shirts covered. We can use donations of food, items for goody bags and door prizes. Contact me if you know of a possible donor or if you are interested in volunteering in some way. Specifically, we will need a couple volunteers at two points of the bike path to pass out water and energy bars.

The Awesomefest email is Awesomefest2008@gmail.com and you can make secure payments and donations to this email address through Paypal. I will announce the entry fee in the next week or so but it will be $75 or less. I expect it will be around $50 which will include a tattoo, an Awesomefest shirt, a goody bag of assorted bike stuff, food and drinks throughout the day and a few prizes. Not too mention movies and awesomeness.

-Nick Fancher
614-507-7954

A few more details

2008-04-27T11:56:00.000-07:00

I have more of an idea about when Awesomefest will happen, etc. I am thinking either August 9th or August 23rd, which falls on a Saturday. I am also thinking July 1st will be the pre-registration deadline. This means all fees will be paid and your tattoo sketches will have to be in to the artist.

I am excited about a couple new possibilities for Awesomefest this year. I am talking to some of the kind folks of Junctionview Studios in Grandview about hosting Awesomefest this year. They already have a relationship with Considerbiking.org, with whom I would love to form an alliance. They, by the way, are currently promoting Bike to Work Week (see more info here: http://www.considerbiking.org/site/cb/b2ww.php).

Also, some of you have heard of Nathan Ober of the P2 (Pedal Power) fame. Check out the site here:
http://www.p2cycles.com/

I talked to him a bit yesterday about using his brilliant cycle-uloid piece of machinery to power our movies during Awesomefest. In order to do this we would probably need to have three more bikes to run the five films. Each of his bikes cost about $300 to manufacture and so ideally we could raise enough support that we could commission three new P2 cycles be made.

I will be hitting the streets over the next month to start raising sponsors. Look for an article in the Columbus Alive in the next couple months once more details are locked down. The Other Paper wrote a brief piece on Awesomefest in last weeks issue. And again, I would love to hear ideas from you. If you think your work could donate anything (food, money, goody bag items, etc) shoot me an email. And spread the word! Without you this won't be much.

-Nick

And so it begins...

2008-04-05T12:50:00.000-07:00

(from left to right: Jeremy, Jay, Nick, Andrew, Kyle, Chuck Norris)

Though technically this is the third year of Awesomefest, I would say that this is the first time I can call it official. The web presence of this blog insures its validation. I am trying to get the word out and maximize this years participants. In order to define what Awesomefest is, I must start at its origin.

Almost two years ago I was having a conversation with my friend Jay. We were excitedly discussing our upcoming two day, round trip bike ride from London to Cincinnati with a few friends (see above picture from that trip). We were starting to get a little worried about being able to complete such a log ride as neither of us had ever done such a trip before. We knew we would have to condition our bodies to be able to complete the 160 round trip miles and our trip was only one month away. I calculated that if we could ride from Westerville to downtown and back, twice in one day that we should be physically capable of completing at least the first leg of our upcoming trip to Cincy. I then told him I would do it. After all, I didn't want to find myself collapsing from heat exhaustion 3 miles south of Yellow Springs. He told me he was also game.

After we finalized our day of conditioning, our next topic of conversation, as it quite often was, was Lord of the Rings. We both love the films and we were talking about how incredibly awesome they are and how we had yet to watch all three extended cuts from back to back. After a second a light went off in our heads. We could combine these activities into one awesome day and even add a third, equally awesome event to create a triathlon of awesome!

We then tried to think of what could be the third sport in this triathlon. It needed to be challenging but in a different way than the 50 miles of biking and 11 straight hours of movies were. Our obvious choice and first thought was to add getting a tattoo. However, we didn't have the money to do this. We couldn't come up with anything equally as awesome and challenging as getting a tattoo, so, technically we didn't end up having a full triathlon that year. However, we did culminate our first Awesomefest with biking into downtown just in time for the commencing of "Red, White and Boom" which we counted as our third sport. The fire works were also a glorious finale to our wearied senses and mud dappled bodies.

Last year we ran Awesomefest just like the first year as we again couldn't afford tattoos. That is why it is my goal that this year, in honor of Jay who is now living in Japan, I am taking it upon myself to make it finally happen. My goal is to line up Studio 35 for the whole day, as well as contract out every tattoo artist within a four mile radius of Clintonville to make this finally happen.

I am sending this blog address out to the local papers and if you can spread the word through your own blogs, word of mouth, etc, we can start to get the momentum going. I also want to hear from you fellow bikers, tattoo artists and aficionados and film buffs about ideas and connections you may have.

We need to set a date (I am thinking about August), reserve tattoo artists, secure a theater and a decide on a set of films to watch (I am thinking all of the "Rocky"s) as well as plan a route for the biking portion of the day. Also, I am thinking there will need to be a June 1st deadline to pre-register in order to secure the tattoo artists and get an idea of how many people are participating.

I look forward to making this so-called Indie Capital of the World a little bit Awesomer.

-Nick Fancher