Geekfest

Geekfest is the name of a series of free, all-ages concerts organized by California indie label S.P.A.M Records during the 1990s. The first Geekfest was held in June 1996 on the shoreline at Point Molate in Richmond, California. This site, a former Navy fuel depot at the foot of the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge, became the default location for dozens of Geekfests, though other locations were eventually used.

Background

In the mid-1990s, local ordinances and economic considerations led to difficult times for San Francisco Bay Area bands whose members were under 21. Multiple bars and nightclubs were driven out by the bustling dot-com economy. Others, fearful of losing their liquor licenses, stopped allowing minors to attend or perform on their stages. By 1996, 924 Gilman Street was the only one all-ages music venue in the East Bay.
With the rise of Green Day, Rancid, and other former underground bands who had popularized the punk rock genre, Gilman had become an insular community, rejecting those who did not fit an increasingly narrow definition of punk. Though Gilman was not by design exclusively punk rock, a combination of internal politics and aesthetic tastes of the Gilman staff kept other types of music off the stage. S.P.A.M. Records grew out of the efforts of underage musicians and artists from Pinole, California frustrated with the situation. The fringe Gilman band, The Hope Bombs, encouraged the S.P.A.M. crew, most notably by letting them jump on stage at Hope Bombs shows to play as "The Bob Weirdos". But this support was the exception and the bands were generally deprived of any meaningful access to the Gilman audience.
S.P.A.M. Co-founder John Geek alluded to this in an interview:
"Along with Dan and Corbett of Bobby Joe Ebola and the Children MacNuggits, I started the S.P.A.M. Records Collective in 1995 because no one else would put out our shit or let us play."
Select work from the S.P.A.M. Records Catalog circa 1996-2002:

Catalog #	Band	Title	Year Released	Format
PUG-001	Bobby Joe Ebola and the Children MacNuggits	The Two Cats Running EP	1996	CD
PUG-002	Various Artists	If You Can't Laugh At Yourself, We'll Do It For You - A S.P.A.M. Records Compilation	1997	CD
PUG-003	Bobby Joe Ebola and the Children MacNuggits	At One With The Dumb	1997	CD
PUG-004	Astrolloyd	Astrolloyd	1997	7"
PUG-005	Astrolloyd	Live on KXLU	1997	Cassette
PUG-006	Enemies / Second Hand Spit	Conquered/Concord Split	1998	7"
PUG-007	Your Mother / Bobby Joe Ebola and the Children MacNuggits	Advice For Young Lovers Split	1998	7"
PUG-008	The Pilgrims	Songs About the Letter W	1998	CD
PUG-009	Various Artists	Later, That Same Year... An Absolutely Zippo Compilation	1999	CD
PUG-010	Los Rabbis	The Bible Part 2: Jesus Goes West	1999	CD/LP
PUG-011	Dory Tourette and the Skirtheads	Rock Immortal	1999	CD
PUG-012	Every Dog Has His Blues	A Collection Of Songs From The Bands Of Lucky Dog	1999	Cassette
PUG-013	Harbinger	Eartraining For Corporates	1999	Cassette
PUG-014	Flobby Tthomuse	New Home Videos From Planet X	1999	CD
PUG-015	Bobby Joe Ebola and the Children MacNuggits	¡Carmelita Sings!: Visions of a Rock Apocalypse	2000	CD
PUG-016	Evolution	Spoken Word Compilation	2000	CD
PUG-017	Finky Binks	Monkey Business EP	2000	Cassette
PUG-018	Scrilla Stoic Heroic Nuggahs	The 8 Nuggah Master Race	2000	Cassette
PUG-019	Clan Of The Bleeding Eye	Kill The Humans	2000	Cassette
PUG-021	Steven Schultz	I Forgot To Get A Rap Name	2000	CD
PUG-022	Fleshies / The Jocks	Playdough Split	2000	7"
PUG-023	Stalin Claus Superstar	A Suplex Prune Hittite Fantasy	2000	4-CD Box Set
PUG-024	Uberkunst	Making Fun Difficult	2000	CD
PUG-026	Beckett and Friends	Weed Crazy b/w Losing in the Drug Game	2000	7"
PUG-027	Fleshies	Self-Titled - commonly known as "The Baby"	2000	CD
PUG-028	The Pilgrims	Plymouth Rock	2000	CD
PUG-029	The Blast Rocks!!!	You're Fired	2000	CD
PUG-030	Fleshies	Kill The Dreamer's Dream - Authorized cassette version of Alternative Tentacles release	2001	Cassette
PUG-031	Fleshies / The Phantom Limbs	Split	2001	7"
PUG-032	The Blottos	I Can't Take My Alcohol	2001	7"
PUG-033	Dory Tourette and the Skirtheads	Versions	2001	7"
PUG-034	Panty Raid / The Blast Rocks!!!	Split	2001	7"
PUG-035	Finky Binks	Charlie Buckett: Cosmonaut	2001	CD
PUG-036	Iron Ass	Backwards	2001	CD
PUG-037	Various Artists	The S.P.A.M.pler: Your Guide to the Rock Apocalypse	2001	CD
PUG-040	Finky Binks	Takin' Back My Samich	2001	CD
PUG-041	P.A.W.N.S.	Rabble On The Move	2001	CD
PUG-042	Lo Budge	Self-Titled	2002	CD
PUG-043	Tommy Lasorda	Tommy Lasorda	2002	7"
PUG-044	Hate Mail Express	12x4	2002	CD
PUG-045	Gravy Train!!!!	The "Menz" EP	2002	CD
PUG-047	Hickey	Various States of Disrepair Complete Works 1994-'96	2002	CD
PUG-050	Rock N Roll Adventure Kids	Live on Berzerkley Radio - Split release with Soul Not Style Records	2002	12"
PUG-051	Sharp Knife	Sharp Knife	2002	CD/LP
PUG-052	Shotwell	The Devil Has Its Day	2004	CD
PUG-053	Clan Of The Bleeding Eye	Self-Titled	2002	CD
PUG-054	The Blottos	The Blottos	2002	CD
PUG-068	Zero Tolerance Task Force	Z.T.T.F. Mania	2003	CD
PUG-069	Nebulus	Interactive	2003	CD
PUG-076	The Clarendon Hills	All Day All Night All Right	2003	CD
PUG-077	S.H.A.T.	Stupid Has a Target	unknown	7"

The S.P.A.M. bands, most notably Bobby Joe Ebola and the Children MacNuggits, had been rejected by the punk scene due to perceived superficial differences in dress and musical style. Label co-founder Corbett Redford, who was the singer for Bobby Joe Ebola and the Children MacNuggits, said "We were all living in Pinole and we couldn't play Gilman because they said we weren't punk. We couldn't take out an ad in MRR because they said we weren't punk.... We were thrashfunk and silly folk I suppose." They decided, in a DIY spirit, to create their own venue, one where nobody would be rejected for having the wrong fashion sense.
The name "Geekfest" was chosen partly because the S.P.A.M. collective saw themselves as geeks; they realized their idiosyncrasies made them unpopular at parties, but made no effort to change. Their rejection by the punk scene was viewed as just another chapter in a long history of being uncool; but, as John Geek says, "Our pride in maladjustment ran too damn deep."

First Geekfest

S.P.A.M. founder John Geek set up a hotline, BAD-SMUT, to circulate event information. Applying the guerrilla tactics of rave culture, photocopied handbills listed the telephone number, but not the location of the event to try to prevent the show being shut down by law enforcement.
Point Molate was selected as a location, partly because it was already in use one Sunday a month for free outdoor "Sunset raves". It was far from any residential area, beneath a large bridge, and under confused jurisdiction as a Navy Superfund site.
Politically, the concept of Geekfest took an anarchist bent. It addressed issues of public land use, the role of the audience in art, and issues of hierarchy in a supposedly egalitarian punk scene.
Approximately 12 bands played the first show, most of who were made up of minors and bands who shared S.P.A.M.'s sense of humor and disenfranchisement. S.P.A.M. members rented a gas-powered generator, and hired a local sound engineer to work the jury-rigged P.A. The concert lasted from about 1 p.m. until sunset.