Agumboot Music Festival
A dozen bands on three stages in the gardens of Dunham Tavern
A one-day outdoor festival of touring and Cleveland bands on three stages at Dunham Tavern & Museum, the Friday before the 2016 Republican National Convention.
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Captured moments
14 photos · In one? Open it and tag yourself.
Photos by Katie Dike
Music feature
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Michelle Gaw
Frontyard Stage · 5 PM
Food & Beverage partners
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Fired Up Tacos
Tacos
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MANCAN Wine
Wine
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Mitchell's Ice Cream
Ice cream
Media production team
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Location
Dunham Tavern & Museum
6709 Euclid Ave., Cleveland, OH, 44103
Dunham Tavern Museum & Gardens is a nonprofit museum on Euclid Avenue in MidTown. Established in 1824, Dunham Tavern is the oldest building still standing on its original site in the city of Cleveland, and it has watched the avenue change from stagecoach stops to Millionaire's Row, car dealerships and urban renewal. The museum preserves the tavern and its campus as a place for history, nature and community, with tours, gardens, a Heritage Trail, outdoor events and space for rentals, guided by a campus master plan finished in 2021.
About this event
Agumboot Music Festival was a one-day outdoor music celebration founded by Thomas Fox to bring emerging artists of every genre to Cleveland and make the city a more welcoming stop for touring bands. Its tagline was "the sound of celebration": agumboot was the sound of celebrating, a signal that guides travelers through hard times.
Community crowdfunding raised about $10,000 to start it. The festival was planned for the lakefront until security for the Republican National Convention moved it to the garden campus of Dunham Tavern & Museum in MidTown. It ran Friday, July 15, 2016, from 4 pm to midnight, pitched as a politics-free zone for Clevelanders on the eve of the convention: ride a bike, bring a blanket and sit on the lawn with friends.
Garden Stage: Sweetgrass (6 pm), ONA (7 pm), Mimicking Birds (8:30 pm), Saintseneca (10 pm) Backyard Stage: Whiskey Hollow (5:30 pm), Jul Big Green (6:30 pm), Varsity (7:45 pm), Chrome Pony (9:15 pm) Frontyard Stage: Michelle Gaw (5 pm), Dolfish (6 pm), Meridian (7 pm), The Village Bicycle (8:30 pm)
Food and drink came from Fired Up Tacos, Phoenix Coffee, Platform Beer Co., a Watershed Distillery punch bar, MANCAN Wine, baked. and Mitchell's Ice Cream. Brokaw, CAN Journal, The Grog Shop and Vertical Sound sponsored the festival.
How it went
Saintseneca closed the night on the Garden Stage. The next day the festival thanked everyone on Facebook: "Our first music festival in Cleveland was an absolute success because of all who were a part of it!" Katie Dike of Pickled Pin-Up Photography photographed the night.
That morning, Greyt Big Talk with Danielle Drake had been held at Dunham Tavern too. In 2017 agumboot.com said the festival would return in the summer of 2018 while the organization behind it formalized and partnered with others to keep creating opportunity for music, arts and creative culture in Northeast Ohio. In 2018 that work began coming together as Greyt Culture.
Press & links
- Midwest Action · April 29, 2016MWA Approved: Agumboot Music Festival to Launch in ClevelandJudie Vegh
- Cleveland Magazine · June 1, 2016Raise the volume at these music festivalsBarry Goodrich
- Cleveland Scene · June 29, 2016A Dozen Indie Rock Bands to Play Inaugural AGUMBOOT Music FestivalJeff Niesel
- Cool ClevelandBig Plans with New Bands at Agumboot FestivalJohn Benson
- Cool Cleveland on YouTubeThomas Fox Launches Agumboot Music Festival
- FacebookFestival photos by Katie Dike (32 photos)Pickled Pin-Up Photography
- Instagram@agumboot
- EventbriteOriginal Eventbrite listing
- Wayback Machineagumboot.com, as archived July 31, 2016