LouFest
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LouFest

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LouFest

The LouFest Music Festival was an annual two-day event held 2010 - 2018 in Forest Park, located in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. The event featured local, regional and national acts, with an aesthetic range from funk and indie-rock to alt-country and soul. The event featured four stages with alternating performances throughout the weekend. The festival grounds included a children's stage and village, an environmentally friendly vendor area, and a food court featuring restaurants from St. Louis neighborhoods. On September 5, 2018, LouFest was canceled only days before the event was supposed to take place due to “the loss of two of the event’s top sponsors, scheduling and contract issues with major artists, and existing debt from previous events."

After Loufest's 2018 cancellation, several of the participants and vendors made their own events. LouFest headliner Robert Plant and the Sensational Space Shifters rebooked to do a Sunday night show at The Pageant. St. Louis Post Dispatch Journalist Kevin C. Johnson wrote, "Tank and the Bangas and Scrub and Ace Ha are two of the 41 acts who were scheduled to perform at LouFest in Forest Park this weekend, and both landed on their feet after LouFest was canceled with the Old Rock House show." Some St. Louis vendors created events, including Archfest and LouWow, to help vendors recoup sales they would have lost without Loufest.

The Kranzberg Arts Foundation, Urban Chestnut Brewing Co., Gaslight Records, Venture Cafe, Regional Arts Commission, Fabricatorz Foundation, and Express Scripts sponsored a showcase called The Sound of St. Louis featuring over 15 local musical acts at The Grendel in Grand Center Arts District, St. Louis. The acts performing at the Sounds of St. Louis include Ben Reece's Unity Quartet, Bob DeBoo, The Burney Sisters, DJ AgileOne, Dracla, Grace Basement, Jesse Gannon, Kasimu-tet, Kevin Bowers' Nova, The Knuckles, Mo Egeston, Owen Ragland, Ptah Williams, The River Kittens, Scrub & Ace Ha, and Tonina

In addition, the annual alternative to Loufest event, Pü FeST, started in 2014 as an alternative to LouFest, and now continues as a "DIY, weirdo alternative" underground festival featuring some rising stars such as Blvck Spvde, Nineteen, Effluvium, 18andCounting, and ICE aka Black James.

The cancellation of Loufest has been hailed as "Everything That's Right About St. Louis." And, some are praising Loufest for the cancellation as an "accidental reminder that [St. Louis is] amazing."

The Loufest Music Festival was formally founded in November 2009 with the first event taking place August 28 and 29, 2010. The event was the creation of Brian Cohen, a documentary filmmaker originally from Abilene, Texas. 2010 headliners included Broken Social Scene, She & Him, Built to Spill, The Airborne Toxic Event, Titus Andronicus, Fruit Bats, and Jeff Tweedy. Cohen sold his stake in the festival in 2016.

The 2018 LouFest music festival was to be held on September 8 and 9, but was cancelled because of financial difficulties in paying vendors and "untimely press attention." Vendors complained that in years prior they had difficulties being paid and demanded a deposit for services to be rendered. Several vendors assumed they will not receive their deposits returned.

Robert Plant and Modest Mouse were to be the event headliners. Musician Owen W. Ragland was scheduled to perform, and said he and his band put in a lot of time preparing to perform and was disappointed:

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