Last night we concluded the Tour in Arlington, VA at Bailey's Pub and Grill. We had a great turnout and had our biggest fundraising night! From the first moment of the evening,  there was a great vibe and atmosphere in the room. Bailey's graciously offered us some great appetizers and we had some very fancy pastries thanks to our friend Lauren Haas. We spent much of the night hanging out and heard from Andrew Briggs on the work of FIC this summer. There were a couple of gliches with the 'multi-media' side of the night, but in the end we were able to show the videos without too much trouble. Thanks so much to everyone who came out and supported Freedom In Creation, you made the event a huge success! We were so encouraged and look to build on this momentum in the coming months.

Now the summer work begins as Andrew Briggs heads to Uganda on Monday, June 29 followed by FIC partner Alex Mejias on July 5. We will be sending regular updates via our email list and Facebook group, so please join if you haven't yet!

Looking back on this tour, we can't help but look back on the all the people who came out and supported us and all the musicians, sound people, promoters, venue owners and more that made this tour the success that it was. We're sure we're forgetting someone, but here's a list of folks we'd like to thank:

Rachel Cunningham and all the folks at Awesome, Inc , Lexington, KY
Beth and Mark at The Water Heater, Roanoke, VA (thanks for the amazing meal!)
Lindsey Cline and Adam Forster with Virginia Living Television
Eddie and Dwight for providing sound in Culpeper, VA
Amanda Robinson at Gallery5, Richmond, VA
Irene Tavenner at the Contemporary Art Center of Virginia, Virginia Beach, VA
Jaymee Martin at Try and Make, Charlottesville, VA
Piper Edwards and Bailey's Pub and Grill, Arlington, VA
Tim Ouyang, Andrew Chae, Luan Nguyen, Parker Stanley and Jim Barredo of Tim Be Told
Davis Gouldin, Alan Miller, Gor Narang, Sammy Stalcup (Alex Mejias' touring band)
John Neil, our incredible sound guy, we couldn't have done it without you!
Liz Miller, MVP volunteer of the tour!!
Adele Flanery, Jennie Davis, and Connie Pippin (thanks so much for sharing your beautiful art)
Joe Boulier, Marci Bour, Lauren Haas, Juliet Briggs, Caroline Briggs, Daniel Rubinstein and Nate Pankratz for helping make the Arlington, VA show a smash!
Matt Thomas for the amazing poster!
Heinz Musitronics, our favorite music shop, thanks for great equipment!
Brad Savage at 106.1 The Corner

Thanks again to everyone who came out and to everyone who helped out!!

We're back in Cville now, gearing up for our show here at Try And Make Art Gallery. The past couple of days have been absolutely a blast, with great crowds in both Richmond and Virginia Beach!

Tuesday night we descended up Gallery5, a cool (possibly seedy) joint located in downtown Richmond. The gallery inhabits the oldest firehouse in all of Virginia and is home to the only burlesque show I've ever heard  of! Needless to say, this space had some serious vibe to it. As usual Tim Be Told rocked it out and Andrew Briggs had a chance to share some profound thoughts on the role of the arts in humanitarianism. And after some technical difficulties we were able to show the videos of Freedom In Creation's work. Thanks to everyone who came out and to Gallery5 for hosting the event!

Last night we took over the Contemporary Art Center of Virginia, a super-chic venue and auditorium. John, our sound guy was thrilled to have a room big enough to flex his sound system's muscles and we were able to fill the entire entrance room with the Story of Freedom art exhibit. Joining us was Saladaze, a local jam band that got the night off to rockin start. We also got to use CACV's giant screen to show the videos on, which was one of the highlights of the night for me (FIC on the big screen!). Again, we had such a good turnout -- so many people stopped and talked with Andrew or I about the work and how they could be involved in this work of healing in Northern Uganda.

Looking forward to tonight, we are absolutely thrilled to be back in our hometown of Charlottesville! This should be such a fun night and hopefully one that will greatly advance the work of Freedom In Creation. Be sure to check back for an update on how the night went!

We're officially halfway through the tour and it has been such a blast already. I can't believe how fast this has all gone by! Our first VA show was in Roanoke, VA at the Water Heater. The attendance was pretty low, but our time there was rich, mostly due to the amazing hospitality of Beth and Mark. Not only were they gracious hosts as a venue, but Mark also gave us a home-cooked meal for the ages! It was so much fun hanging with them and hearing about how they are working to give Roanoke a legit arts scene. I've got a great feeling that this is just the beginning of FIC's relationship with this community of Roanoke. We next traveled to Culpeper VA for a special concert and benefit that was hosted by Virginia Living Television. We had the event in their studio space, which doubles as an event hall and once was an armory. Again, our numbers were a bit low, but we found out that VLT is going to be broadcasting the event for the near future, inundating the airwaves with the message of FIC! Special thanks to Adam and Lindsey and all the other folks who helped make the event possible!

We're really excited to announce that we've just added one more show to the tour in Arlington, VA! We'll now be wrapping up the tour officially on June 25 at Bailey's Pub and Grill. Right now we haven't locked in the full line up of artists, but I"ll (Alex) be there for sure and we hope to have some other great acts as well. Check the Tour Schedule page for full details and please help spread the word if you live in the NOVA area!

Last night we had a great time kicking off the tour in Lexington, KY at Awesome Inc. The turnout was a little low, but everyone who came out really seemed to be engaged and excited about the work of Freedom In Creation. The folks at Awesome Inc. were tremendous hosts and a ton of fun to hang with! They're an energetic bunch but in a lighthearted way, which created the perfect atmosphere for our event. They also shared some interesting rules that they try to live by such as "Always do something awesome instead of something not awesome." Wise, indeed. So a big shout out and thank you to Awesome Inc. for a wonderful night!

We've updated our "Funds Raised" page to reflect the money we raised, thanks to the generosity of everyone who came and Awesome Inc. Although it's a small beginning, it's great to get some actual money up on the board! And it's just the beginning. We've got 6 more shows to go! Not only that but there is so much potential born out of the relationships made and conversations begun. I know that Andrew would love to continue building that relationship with folks here in Lexington and I (Alex) hope to come back here again real soon too!

Now we're off to Roanoke, VA for night two of the tour! I'll be blogging about the show tomorrow, so check back in to hear how it goes!


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Great news! We're pumped to announce that Simple Drive will be playing at the Awesome Inc event on June 12! This is the first show of the FIC Tour, so we're pumped to have the chance to play with these guys, self described as "aggressive acoustic" ala Burlap to Cashmere. Can't wait to here them! For more on Simple Drive, check out http:/www.myspace.com/simpledrive.

We're so excited to announce that Virginia Beach rockers Saladaze are joining the lineup for our Virginia Beach event at the Contemporary Art Center! Click here to learn more about Saladaze.

RSVP TO THIS EVENT ON FACEBOOK!

We're so excited to hit the road on behalf of Freedom In Creation and we really want this tour to be a smashing success! To get us there we could really use your help. Currently, we're looking for volunteers to help us publicize these events and to help on the day of the show. If you're interested in helping we would love to talk to you. Please visit the contact page or send an email to Alex (alex@alexmejias.com). Thanks and see you soon!

At this point, we're really close to having all of the dates locked down, but we can't officially announce them just yet. Some of the cities we hope to be visiting including Richmond, Virginia Beach, Charlottesville and Arlington, VA. In the coming days we'll be updating the website with the confirmed dates. Please help us spread the word these next few weeks and please leave us a comment with any of your thoughts, questions and ideas on the tour. Thanks and stay tuned for more news!