With the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Modest Mouse and more, Growlers 6 aims to be a fest with a handmade feel

Few bands are as closely identified with a single festival as SoCal rockers the Growlers are with their annual Beach Goth event. So what happens now that the band has lost control of it?

For the last five years, the group’s annual showcase of rock, punk, hip-hop and left-field throwback acts rose to become the definitive indie festival in Orange County. The Observatory in Santa Ana eventually took over much of the fest’s logistics, and it seemed like a symbiotic relationship between hometown heroes.

Until last year, when a confluence of endless rain, canceled sets and poor contingency planning led to a Beach Goth show that, despite a great lineup (Bon Iver, Patti Smith, TLC), was savagely panned by fans and prompted a semi-apology letter from the band. “To all who attended Beach Goth this weekend...We hear you. We feel you. We want to sincerely thank you for supporting us — and each other — at this year’s festival.”

Then the venue’s parent firm sued the Growlers, claiming the rights to the Beach Goth name and future festivals.

Representatives for the Observatory did not immediately return requests for comment about the status of the suit.

So the band packed up and started anew. This weekend’s Growlers 6 festival in San Pedro will be a test case to see who was the muscle behind Beach Goth’s success. Or, perhaps, to find out who was to blame for its troubles: a beloved band with an expansive — if maybe naive — vision? Or the venue and management that helped them grow it but then claimed it, warts and all, as their own.

“I’m not good at playing politician,” Growlers singer Brooks Nielsen said. “There were internal problems and we tried to work it out. Both sides were unhappy. But now we’re focusing on how to prove to people who does what and well.”

For a first-time (sort of) festival, Growlers 6 has a lineup that fests five time its age would envy. Headliners include: revived art-punks Yeah Yeah Yeahs, classic indie from Modest Mouse and Guided By Voices, slow-rolling Southern rap from Juvenile, Mystikal and Geto Boys, gothic noise-pop from Alice Glass and crate-digger classics like Sly & Robbie and the B-52s.

“Big fests have to stick to an agenda or a script. So many lineups just get reused,” Nielsen said. “We didn’t have to [do that]. Our bookings aren’t so self-serious. So many fests just look to how many followers someone has, but we wanted a really mixed crowd.”

Despite moving from the Observatory to the L.A. Waterfront in San Pedro (and now teaming up with Live Nation as a promotion partner), the Growlers appear to have preserved the madcap, handmade essence of Beach Goth. Being a touring band helped the Growlers pick up ideas for how to keep the showcase loose and friendly. Nielsen cites, for instance, a pair of recent festivals in Mexico.

”We just did two festivals in Guadalajara and Monterrey, and we loved the hawkers walking around the crowd selling churros and looking out while you play seeing guys carting around 20 beers,” Nielsen said.

While the Growlers Six festival is a clean break from Beach Goth, it doesn’t mean the band is out of the woods yet.

It’s clear that the naming dispute and last year’s frustrating, overcrowded washout took a toll on the band and its longtime fans.

A petition demanding refunds was signed by more than a thousand attendees. One fan described it as a “disaster in all areas … I will never support this festival again.” Another added “I spent over $400 for two tickets to basically get squashed to death.” Another Observatory festival, the R&B focused Soulquarius, faced a similar backlash.

Nielsen wouldn’t comment on the current status of the lawsuit but he did suggest that it was disheartening to potentially lose the Growlers’ grip on a fest so synonymous with his own band.

He also admitted that 2016’s fest didn’t go nearly as well as hoped. But he still holds out for a chance to get it right this time, in the same way that FYF Fest recovered from stumbles to become a more-or-less well-oiled machine today.

“Every issue we knew about,” Nielsen said. “We knew if something goes wrong, it’s the Growlers’ name. We needed to make sure to work with someone we trusted. It couldn’t just be me worrying about the art side, we had to find the right pros to work with because when it doesn’t get done, it’s frustrating.”

The members of the Growlers — who co-headline both nights of the fest — know they have to win back fans’ confidence, and reimagine what their marquee fest should be in 2017. They’ve already created a world where fans and top-tier artists will follow them regardless of what the fest is called.

Now they have to prove that they can make it work, and build it to last.

“You hear about fests in young years going through hiccups,” Nielsen said. “It’s upsetting, but we couldn’t just quit. We just have to deal and not be afraid of the suit, and be confident that we know what we’re doing.”

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