This past year at a venue I have regularly performed at a place, called The Electric Maid, the owner said to me “you should really attend NERFA.” It was then I decided to look into this event that I had only occasionally heard about through online sites. After going to NERFA’s official website I realized he was right! It’s an event built around musicians in the folk genre getting to connect with each other as well as connecting with other industry people (managers, venue owners, radio DJs, music fans etc). I knew this was a conference I had to go to!
After months of waiting the time finally arrived for me to go to NERFA. I was so excited! Not only was I going to get to meet a lot of new people but I had lined up a guerrilla showcase in The SAW House room. As turned out it wasn’t going to be my only showcase for the duration of the conference. The Access Film Music room was kind enough to let me do a showcase in their room on Friday.
It was such an inspiring weekend! Getting to spend so much time meeting other artists was amazing. Learning about their careers, watching them perform and hearing about their goals left me feeling more inspired and productive than I thought I could ever feel.
Thankfully that feeling hasn’t left me. I’m hoping the connections I made there are ones that will last and that I will see/hear from the people I met there again. I know I will definitely be going back to NERFA next year!
To end this blog I’m going to leave a paraphrased quote I heard from a speaker at the conference. What this person said is something I have felt for a long time and was overjoyed to hear it being said by someone who had been working in music far longer than myself. He said “When one of us rises they bring the rest of us with them.” I feel this is something that’s so true in the arts and in many other areas of life as well.