ComFest invades Columbus this weekend

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Don't call it a hippie fest.

At least that's what organizers of ComFest (which stands for "Community Festival") say about the popular summertime soiree that was originally built around community activism, environmental consciousness, social acceptance, the arts and, well, good food. 

Despite the fact the annual three-day event, which takes place June 26, 27 and 28 in Goodale Park, might sound like a peace, love and happiness affair, the spirit behind ComFest is truly just getting together with your neighbor and celebrating what life has to offer. For music fans, that means half a dozen stages with more than 100 live acts from diverse genres (check out the full schedule here). For art lovers, there are galleries and booths.

However, one thing that there isn't this year is an open invitation to not only bring your own alcohol but have the audacity to leave the empty bottles and cans—at a festival that promotes recycling nonetheless—strewn about Goodale Park.

Metromix talked to ComFest Treasurer Ro-z Mendelson, who also owns Monkeys Retreat bookstore and tai-chi center on High Street, about the history of ComFest and why its future might require fewer people attending.

Let's start at the beginning. How exactly did ComFest begin?
It's been going on for about 36 years, and it got started out of a political movement in Columbus—people around the 16^th Avenue area off High Street. It was more community organizations getting together to put out the word about what they're doing. This was in the '70s and there was the (Vietnam) war and protests. So it's a celebration of Columbus, getting people together trying to get out the word, and a big part of that is recycling and the environment.

ComFest gets called a hippie-fest a lot. Why is that not accurate?
Yeah, I wouldn't use the term hippie. Some people like to call it that, but I wouldn't say the festival is a hippie festival. I call it a socially conscious festival because not everybody is a hippie who is there. It was started by socially savvy people who wanted to get the word out about the inequality of what was going on in the country and maintaining an eco-friendly environment. There are probably other festivals around the country, but I'm not sure if they're all free and non-corporate sponsored.

Are you surprised it's still going strong over three decades later?
Well, it's lasted because it's free. It's been just a really nice place to be and in general it just has a lot of common ground for people in Columbus. There was always entertainment but that's not our main focus. It's a party with a purpose. The purpose is environment, social equality, recycling.

The big push behind this year's ComFest appears to be the "No BYOB" message. What's that all about?
This year we're particularly trying to push the BYOB attitude to stop bringing in (alcohol) because we had 40,000 cans that we had to recycle from people who brought them in and left them there. So we're trying to get people to understand they just can't bring their trash and just leave it there.

It's kind of ironic and idiotic that a festival built around being environmentally friendly has such an issue with careless waste.
Right, one of the problems with it being free is people think there are no limitations. They can do whatever they want. It's in a park. But we have a responsibility to clean that neighborhood up. And our responsibility goes even deeper into keeping it cleaner than it was before we got there. So yeah, people come in and don't respect the fact of how much work goes into the festival. And they'll just come and bring their own alcohol in and get really drunk and then just leave their cans and bottles around.

In your opinion, what does the future of ComFest look like?
At this point we'd like to make it smaller. How? I don't know because it's just getting too big. We're in a park. You can't just keep adding people into it. You're limited by space.

Hmm, it sounds like you're looking forward to June 29, the day after ComFest ends.
You read my mind (laughs). I enjoy being there but I'm happy when it's over. But I hope people come out, learn something and have a good time. And don't bring bottles and cans.