Flannel Fest to bring the ’90s to life

MOSES LAKE — The days of dial-up internet, Doc Martens and the Macarena may be three decades behind us, but they’ll make a comeback this weekend at the Grant County Fairgrounds. 

This is the third year the fairgrounds has hosted the 1990s music festival Flannel Fest, which this year is Friday and Saturday.  

“We’ve got 11 bands over the two days,” said fairgrounds Director Jim McKiernan. “We’ve got tributes to the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Beastie Boys, Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Green Day … We set up a bar in the Arts and Crafts Building, and we have a VIP bar as well.” 

LocalTel sets up TVs with sporting events, McKiernan said, and there will be bean bag toss and Connect Four games available as well. 

Many bands from the 1990s aren’t touring anymore, and those that are would be prohibitively expensive to bring in for a festival, but the tribute bands are a very close facsimile, said promoter Jason Fellman of J-Fell Presents, who assembled the lineup.  

“The Red Not Chili Peppers …  play all over the world. They’re really authentic,” said Fellman. “We’ve got a really authentic Nirvana tribute from Seattle called Nevermind, again, really authentic. Everybody looks the part. I think they actually smashed a guitar last year at Flannel Fest on the stage.” 

The shows take place on the Bryan Miller Stage, the largest of the Fairgrounds’ outdoor stages. The final act, Pearl Jam tribute Washed in Black, will wrap everything up with a more intimate indoor acoustic set reminiscent of MTV’s 1990s “Unplugged” shows, Fellman said. 

The idea for Flannel Fest came about shortly before COVID-19 shut down all that was fun, McKiernan said. He and his team had been researching tribute bands for the Grant County Fair and crossed paths with Fellman, who stages an annual 1980s rock band tribute festival in the Portland area. Fellman came to Moses Lake and was impressed with the venue at the fairgrounds, and once the pandemic was over in 2022, the first Flannel Fest was staged with 10 bands.

“That year we had about 1,000 people at the most over two days,” McKiernan said. “… Then last year we did it again and it grew almost 40%.” 

Not everybody who attends Flannel Fest stays the whole two days, McKiernan said. 

“People come and go,” he said. “They may stay for a specific band … Or a lot of people follow these bands on a regular basis. We did one called Jar of Flies, which is an Alice in Chains tribute. It’s been around forever in the Seattle area, and people will travel all over the Northwest just to see them.” 

General admission tickets are $89 for two days, according to the event’s website. The bands play hour-long sets with 15-minute breaks in between, Fellman said, which makes it a good value for people who try to stretch their entertainment budget. Much of the funding for the festival comes from the city of Moses Lake and Grant County through the Lodging Tax Advisory Committee, McKiernan said. 

“It’s difficult to launch a new event without those funds, and to grow it,” he said. “I’m guessing it’s going to take six, seven years to get it to the point where it’s self-sustaining.” 

People become nostalgic for two eras of music, Fellman said: the music that was popular on the radio when they were in high school and the music their parents listened to when they were little. 

“The ’90s is now far enough away that we have multiple generations of attendees,” Fellman said. “You have 40-something parents with 20-something kids.” 

Aside from the nostalgia factor, the 1990s were a significant moment in popular music, Fellman said. 

“It was a transitory time musically,” he said. “It’s interesting how we sort of went from the excess of the ’80s to the seriousness of the ’90s. I think there’s a little bit more artistic intensity in the ’90s. It went away from the synthesizers and stripped it down, got a bit more earthy … I mean, they still had hair but without the hairspray.” 

Flannel Fest 2024 Schedule

Friday, Oct. 4 

Gates open at 6 p.m. 

Parabola  (Tool tribute) 7 p.m.  

8:15 p.m. 

Jar of Flies  (Alice in Chains tribute) 8:15 p.m.

9:30 p.m. 

Red Not Chili Peppers (Red Hot Chili Peppers tribute) 9:30 p.m.

Saturday, Oct. 5 

Gates open at 12 p.m. 

Island in the Sun (Weezer tribute) 2 p.m.
Head over Feet (Alanis Morissette tribute) 3:15 p.m.
Fighting Foos (Foo Fighters tribute) 4:30 p.m.
21 Guns (Green Day tribute) 5:45 p.m.
Superunknown (Soundgarden tribute) 7 p.m.
Nevermind (Nirvana tribute) 8:15 p.m.
Grand Royale (Beastie Boys tribute) 9:30 p.m.
Washed in Black (Pearl Jam tribute) 10:30 p.m.
Special unplugged after-party set 

    Beastie Boys tribute Grand Royale will be featured at Flannel Fest this weekend at the Grant County Fairgrounds.
  

    Island in the Sun will bring the music of Weezer to Flannel Fest this weekend at the Grant County Fairgrounds.