OVER 17 YEARS OF EXPERIENCE
Here is a little of what we do: |
Hi thanks for checking us out. We are the Lorain County Music Foundation: a non profit organization that helps to raise monies through music events & or performances to help others in need & to build a FREE kid's rock studio for underprivileged & challenged children. We would also like to create a internship program with local schools & help with music programs.
We originally started in 2005 with a musicians reunion/gathering that Ball & Chain headlined on, and we hosted at Scott Lake in Oberlin. Realizing we had a multitude of musicians that have been associated with each other and to each other and Lorain County through our mutual love of live music for around the last 3 decades, we were in the unique position of bringing in never seen before, or under age or less experienced performers & mentor them into the music community & nurture their many talents. By offering support, & a platform for them to perform from or at. Over the last 18 years we have been gathering these musicians together and hosting a music fest for all ages and all genres of music with a three day weekend of Live music and camping. In 2016 we elected to become a nonprofit 501(c)(3) and to start using the music fests as our vehicles to raise funds to create an All Kids Rock Camp for challenged and underprivileged kids. The goal to use our already existing & known annual events & festivals to showcase their music after their music studio program. To share them amongst their supporters, family & peers. We purchased a property in Grafton Township to hold the day camp, our events & to become our LCMF headquarters. Unfortunately Grafton Twp. does not have zoning ordinances in place for outdoor music events/gatherings currently. We secured a lawyer, researched, paid for & filed an application to amend zoning for this but were met with, cease & desist orders, permanent injunctions, newly revised noise ordinances, subterfuge & a 2 year delay while processing. Holding a meeting without notice to us. We had to have our board members seek out trustee chairman Weismeyer to finally received a decision of Denied. When we directly asked our chairman why? He rudely stated “We just don’t want it here.” What don’t you want? Music? People helping people or helping kids? Fundraising? Non Profits? So with deeply saddened hearts we voted to continue on. Shortly after we suffered an internal upset as our 3rd director with a few board members were practicing conflicting interests, in the past, we posted the details, but in a nutshell, we re-evaluated our board kept the members that were loyal & needed & asked the offending self profit motivated members to leave. They attempted very similar event at same property under same named group with a one word change, & didn’t seem to get too far… So, then again, with deeply saddened hearts we continued onward. We are the ORIGINALLY created LORAIN COUNTY MUSIC FEST, started 18 years ago, with a dream & an idea created between like minded individuals WITHOUT a profit being in mind. It has grown into a 501 c 3 non profit foundation, & we appreciate the amazing opportunity to grow & learn. We ARE & ALWAYS will be DEDICATED to encouraging, creating, supporting, mentoring & sponsoring all ages, & all genres, of musical acts within our means, within & with our abilities, talents, knowledge, experience, networks, supporters, friends, businesses, sponsors, & our unrequited LOVE for music & sometimes by just sheer WILL, & we shall ALWAYS endeavor to do so. In 2019 we became members of & started working with the Elyria AMVETS post #32 to hold our 3 seasonal events there within their amazing huge back pavilion, with plenty of room & parking, so rain or shine! And a beautiful, seperate camping area negotiated for us & our guests. (THANK YOU AMVETS!) We continued to move forward by holding those events to create the means to sustain our events & an all kids can Rock Studio, since we cannot do the day camp. JULY 2021 UPDATE! We have some interesting changes going on at Harmony Fields, that are benficial to the foundation's goals! We have an ongoing collaboration with a partner, who wants to develop Harmony Fields for a Tiny House/Cabin, & a yurt etc. The Rockin Tiny House/Cabin 1 is already placed & was operating, & we will be remodeling the previously constructed shed into a second cabin/studio with the view of Studio being utilized for the All Kids Rock Camp Program. We have agreed to a pause, as there is no ordinance for Tiny Houses in Twp. but are working with Twp. to meet requirements of zoning... NOVEMBER 2021 UPDATE: We were not granted the permission we were seeking there is NO ORDINANCE for Tiny Houses in Grafton Twp. We are not going to fight the Township on this matter or amend the zoning ordinance cause we already know how that goes. So we are just gonna resign ourselves to not being able to do anything on the property & Grafton Township & start concentrating on doing it at the AMVETS or possibly CREATING A KIDS ROCK STUDIO in Lorain County somewhere that actually wants us to have this in their community... 2022 We hope we can continue ahead with our plans for internships & school music programs & Kids Rock Studio. You can help us by donating a raffle item or donating here or by attending one of our upcoming events! THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME & SUPPORT! Your Humble Directors, Geri, Joe, & Belinda 2023 UPDATE: WE DID IT!! WE HAVE A KIDS ROCK STUDIO!! It’s all because of you! Our wonderful SUPPORTERS & all our fantastic music making FRIENDS! THANK YOU!! So we have affectionately named the studio K.U.R.S.E! Kids Unified Rock Studio Elyria. We have a great room to coach, teach & practice in, being donated by the very generous Brian Thompson & Family at EMI Print Company. We are educating the kids in music with hands on music, application, as well as history, teaching them about stage presence, confidence, showmanship, getting over the jitters/stage fright. All angles of being a musician, including live music, event, field trips, where we show them, where the whole process actually works from the beginning to the end of the show from behind the scenes, in the action, & speaking with the owners of the event venues. We have Special Guests Musicians/Speakers & more, scheduled to come in and talk with the kids about their influences, experiences & share some of their music. We will also be embracing how to be your own, Roadie, running your own sound equipment, booking your own band, and how to do that for larger events, etc. The best part is the kids got to perform at our events and their very first time was for MONGO FEST 2023. Won’t you please join us to see what your support has created! (To be a Special Guests Musician/Speaker, please contact a director.) Then, as if the most amazing things anren’t already happening with the kids, we get the wonderful, wonderful chance to show the kids off at NELSONS LEDGES QUARRY PARK, AT CLASSIC FEST JUNE 17th! Because the ever so wonderful & gracious, Evan Kelley, had given us the okay! We originally approached Micheal Crazylegs Hemann to see if he minded us bringing the kids along as a field trip to see how a big production works from the sound booth side. When we spoke to Evan again I suggested having the kids do one song with Ball & Chain while we performed. He believes in us so much he gave us 2 SPOTS! The kids have been working so hard, but we had to decline one of the spots as we don’t have enough material yet, but they are getting there! Some of the kids couldn’t make it & some just weren’t confident enough yet. But the courageous EVAN STANDEN came and represented the students and tore the house down! Cannot say thank you enough for this beautiful opportunity and all the others everybody has been giving us. We really appreciate you all!! OTHER UPDATES BELOW: MORE TO COME AS WE BUILD all our recovers have brought us to this amazing point! The last few years have had some big and small successes and we made it through that horrible 2020 Covid season with lesser numbers but still good attendance! We are building back up again! Join us and see what we do! UPDATE APRIL 2024: Students are doing great. We’re in our second season & they’re all like family to us now! It’s been 4 years since we’ve held our annual fundraiser. So we have been feeling the need & reinstated it & held it April 13th, and thank you all again so much! It was a success!! THANK YOU AGAIN JT’s PUB & GRUB FOR EVERYTHING! It is absolutely AMAZING to order all the needed instruction books & manuals for the kids as well as pay for some of the instruments & their repair! So the kids that need them can take the instruments home & even keep them in some cases! THANK YOU!! ❤️ UPCOMING EVENTS: LO.CO. MONGO SPRING MUSIC FEST 12 IS MAY 17th THRU 19th, 2024 AT ELYRIA AMVETS POST #32 11807 MIDDLE AVE, ELYRIA OH 44035 $15 presale $20 at gate LO.CO. MUSIC FEST 18 IS AUGUST 9th THRU 11th 2024 Celebrating 18 years of encouraging, supporting & mentoring live local music & beyond!! AT ELYRIA AMVETS POST #32 11807 MIDDLE AVE, ELYRIA, OH 44035 $15 presale $20 at gate RED'S FALL MEMORIAL CAMPOUT IS TENTATIVELY SET FOR SEPTEMBER 14th - 16th. FREE TO ALL STAFF & BANDS THAT MAKE THESE EVENTS HAPPEN! It has not been cost-effective for us to do this event. And we would much rather just spend it and share it with our close people and conserve our energy for the bigger events that we know will help the foundation more. We hold it at the original site of Mongo Fest at Harmony Fields. (Non music campout) AT HARMONY FIELDS 15407 AVON BELDEN RD. GRAFTON, OH 44044 (click on above & below link(s) for info and donation tickets!) • THIS SEASONS EVENTS HERE •
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LIVE MUSIC
CAMPING VENDORS INTERNSHIPS WITH MUSIC |
ALL AGES
ALL GENRES VOLUNTEER STAFFED KEEPING LIVE MUSIC ALIVE IN LORAIN COUNTY |
EXPLORE THE GROUNDS
Harmony Fields
HARMONY FIELDS is our Foundation’s property & Headquarters. Unfortunately and regretfully we cannot use this property for anything MUSIC RELATED even if DONATION DRIVEN as the Grafton Trustees & Zoning Powers that be will not ALLOW MUSIC EVENTS IN THEIR TOWNSHIP & will go to great lengths to stop them including creating ridiculously STEEP FINES for violations & slapping Permanent Injunctions on residents & businesses who try.
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15407 AVON BELDEN ROAD
GRAFTON, OHIO 44044 |
UPCOMING EVENTS IN 2017:
RED MEMORIAL MUSICIANS REUNION SEPT 29th-OCT 1st UPCOMING EVENTS IN 2018 MONGO SPRING CAMPOUT MAY 18th-20th LORAIN COUNTY MUSIC FEST 12 AUG 3rd-5th RED MEMORIAL MUSICIANS REUNION SEPT 21st-23rd |