I’m heading to Portland, OR tomorrow for what looks to be the last ever XOXO Fest. I’ve attended a couple XOXO Fests in years past and played guitar for Marian Call at the third-annual event in 2014.
XOXO started in 2012 with—in extremely 2012 fashion—a Kickstarter campaign and always struck me as a well-intentioned attempt to foster the better aspects of in-person conventions while getting a bunch of Very Online creative folks together.
It’s far from the first event of its type but for the first couple years it had a very open “this was dope but idk if we’ll do it again” vibe and then pandemy put a hard pause on things. The organizers experimented with formats and, in my limited experience, I definitely preferred the small venue, intimate years to the Big Stadium ones.
In 2014, XOXO was split between a couple small venues all within walking distance. It gave the whole event a campus-like atmosphere where you’d run into people on the sidewalk and get to see folks a few times over the course of the weekend. It was pretty neat bumping into and chatting with people who made cool/weird shit online.
Apparently, Adventure Time creator Pendleton Ward was in attendance that year, which I only found out because strangers came up to my be-flanneled, hirsute self and asked “Hey, are you Pen Ward?” no fewer than five separate times by the time I got on stage to play the final night.
On that last night of the show, a few of the live podcast performances I wanted to catch bumped up next to our set, leading to me booking it to catch a live recording of Harmontown (it was 2014). Somehow, I got called up onstage, talked about some vulnerable shit, got Kelly McGillis hugged by the guy who made Community and played D&D for the first time in my life. Pretty wild night.
After that fever dream ended, I remember drinking Exactly One Beer and rushing back to the other venue to grab my guitar. As I was loading gear into our car, I spotted a near-doppelgänger crossing the street in my direction.
He was very gracious about getting a pic so folks could tell us apart better. Though that still didn’t stop me from getting mistaken for him at another convention less than a year later
Look forward to Portland/XOXO pics. Bringing the X-E3 and the 35mm f2 for portability.