Diversafest (D-Fest), aka Oklahoma’s Music Conference and Festival, is an annual event with a primary focus of “promoting and empowering emerging artist from around the United States.” The annual event, which takes place in the streets of downtown Tulsa OK, features independent and emerging artists. In addition to the budding stars, the evenings of the two-day festival are topped off with well-known headliners, in an attempt to draw out the large and energetic crowds that are stereotypical of festivals.
D-Fest is the brainchild of Tom Green and his wife, Angie De-Vore Green. Back in 2002, Tom and Angie were looking for a way to bring some attention to their band Ultrafix. In an effort to gain voting support from fans and to ultimately win a Jim Beam/Rolling Stone Magazine Best Unsigned Band contest, they decided to round up some local bands and throw together a small festival downtown. The Green’s successfully booked 12 bands, however, the rain also RSVPed for the event and only about 150 people ventured out to attend. Aside from the smaller than expected turnout, Ultrafix did in fact win the contest. Those 150 fans must have really enjoyed themselves, as the Green’s began receiving requests to hold the event again, eventually deciding to make it an annual ordeal that took place in Tulsa’s Boston District up until 2006.
The festival began to exceed expectations and grew year over year, continuously increasing the amount of artists and fans in attendance. In 2007, the location moved from 18th and Boston to the Blue Dome District, as the area was more conducive to the multi-venue format that D-Fest was rapidly transitioning into. The 2009 version took place on July 24-25 and festival organizers predicted this year’s D-Fest to be the most successful to date, with the two-day combined crowd expectancy of around 60,000 attendees. This year featured bands such as: Cake, Blue October, The Black Crowes, Rooney, Mates of State, Bassnectar, The Cool Kids, RaRa Riot, The Knux, Citizen Cope, Ozomatli, Gogol Bordello, Dusty Rhodes and the River Band, etc… Many other bands and local artists also made an appearance, summing to around 164 acts in total.
In addition to showcasing deserving local artists and obtaining some recognition that it deserves, downtown Tulsa really thrives economically from hosting this annual event. A lot of new businesses have been built up from the success of D-Fest and many of the bars, shops, and restaurants that we visited in town were less than three years old. Tulsa is very beautiful city with stunning buildings and very modern dwellings. Perceived by the unknowing as a small rural town, it is home to some of the most up-to-date architecture, an example being the BOK Tower, which is modeled after the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center. Tulsa is also known as one of the Art Deco capitols of the United States. Along with recent construction, Tulsa has also maintained some of its older historical character. The Blue Dome District, for example, houses an actual piece of the original Blue Dome Gulf Oil Station, which was built in 1924. The Blue Dome is planted right in the center of the district of downtown that holds D-Fest each year and has become an emblem for the area.
Tulsa resident, Stephen Lassiter, talks about how much Tulsa has grown up since he has lived here: “Not long ago downtown was a dead place with maybe one or two venues to see bands, but it wasn’t typically a place where people casually went to hang out with friends and drink. I remember driving through the Blue Dome District in the late 90s, and it was really just a vast wasteland of vacant buildings in disrepair. But over the last few years, the Blue Dome District and downtown Tulsa have really come to life with bars and restaurants. It really feels like the city is morphing into something exciting that we can really be proud of.“ Stephen goes on to explain how many people are starting to trickle into Tulsa to attend concerts and festivals such as D-Fest. “Downtown is changing. We have a new minor league ballpark scheduled to open next year. The new BOK Center arena is drawing big-name acts like Paul McCartney, AC/DC, Metallica, Elton John/Billy Joel, Aerosmith and Bruce Springsteen. Big name acts used to pass us by all the time. It seems like for the first time, we have people driving to Tulsa from Dallas and Kansas City for concerts instead of the other way around.“
History lesson aside, D-Fest is a killer festival. Featuring emerging new talent to crowd-drawing headliners, combined with all the big-festival madness, this emerging humble town caught ChinaShop’s attention and couldn’t go uncovered.
D-Fest 2010 here we come!
Words by Nicole Pajer, photos by Sidney McMullen
