The Monroe County History Center will host Streetdance Rewind, a free outdoor punk music festival, at 5 p.m. on June 29 on Sixth Street in front of the History Center. The event is happening in conjunction with The History Center’s exhibit “Punk @ the Old Library,” which captures the history of Bloomington’s punk scene from the 70s to the present moment.
Bands from all decades of the punk scene will be performing. Headlining is Yellow Rain, a punk band active in Bloomington in the 80s joined by Glitter Brains, hardcore band Velocity, student-led bands Situational Hazard and Full Stride, the Girls Rock Bloomington camp-formed band The Sera-Tones and Bloomington punk veterans Chiba Dowa.
The festival will also feature food trucks and a tattoo flash pop-up with renowned Bloomington tattoo artist Jereme Galloway.
The punk exhibit will be open during the festival with screenings of archival concert footage playing in the gallery. Hilary Fleck, curator of the exhibit said the Streetdance Rewind is to honor the old street dances that would happen outside of the building of the history center when it was still the Monroe County Public Library.
The first floor used to host punk bands on their stage and the lawn served as a public space where bands would drop their gear, stop traffic and play music until the police broke it up. Then they would pick up their equipment and play somewhere else.
The event and the exhibit showcases the punk community’s history which was entwined with the history of the center itself. Through Fleck’s research, she found that street dances had historically been held on the lawn outside the center and shut down traffic.
With the selection of the bands to play at the festival, Fleck was intentional with the range of bands represented in the lineup.
“We really wanted it to be multi-generational to show how long Punk has been around locally, but then also just to support local talent from more established bands, like Chiba Dowa and Yellow Rain,” she said.
The exhibit and the festival honor the history of punk but also conveys that punk only continues to evolve and does not seem to be stopping anytime soon.
“But we definitely wanted younger bands as well,” Fleck said. "Up-and-coming bands, local talent and celebrating that as well is just as important as celebrating the talent that has been around for a while.”
The festival is open to all ages and will honor the Bloomington music community with a fun and free event.
