BOOM Charlotte Returns With a New Home in University City
Fringe arts festival has seen major growth over eight years
It’s been 10 years since designer and Que-OS board member Eric Ndelo lit the fuse for what would become BOOM Charlotte. It all began with Ndelo’s idea to hold a slate of pop-up performances simultaneously on different street corners around the Plaza Midwood neighborhood throughout a given weekend.
The project just needed a visionary who could carry it out, and in Manoj Kesavan, BOOM Charlotte found its Oppenheimer — only instead of death and destruction, Kesavan has spent the last decade engineering a bright spotlight for independent artists and creative organizations to showcase the diverse range of talent that Charlotte is home to.
Kesavan, who founded the nonprofit Que-OS (pronounced “chaos”) in 2012 to highlight Charlotte’s indie arts scene in the lead-up to the Democratic National Convention, launched BOOM Charlotte as a block party of an arts festival in 2016, highlighting the avant-garde and fringe aspects of Charlotte’s dance, music, theatre, poetry, visual arts and film scenes, among other creative communities.
The festival has grown and evolved over the years, expanding to meet the ever-growing number of artist applications while keeping its grassroots vibe and remaining affordable and accessible.
Having moved from Plaza Midwood to Camp North End for three years following the pandemic, this year organizers are going farther north, finding a home in University City for the eighth annual BOOM Charlotte arts festival on April 25-27.
Planning for a smorgasbord of activations in the lakefront area surrounding The Shoppes at University Place, BOOM’s artistic director Camerin Watson said the new space surrounding the lake in University will allow everyone who’s a part of the festival to come together in a way that didn’t occur naturally at Camp North End.
“It’s decentralizing,” she told Queen City Nerve. “For the last couple of years, the Intersection [main stage] has been really a hub space, and this will create a bunch of spaces around the lake so people can move from one space to another.”
That will allow vendors to better integrate with performing artists, Watson added, “which will be cool because that’s always part of our goal is to bring together different art forms.”
And then there’s the aesthetic that water adds to the festival, an added bonus.
“I love being around water,” Watson said, “so I also think that adds an element of groundedness and creative energy and flow to the whole idea just by being in that space, near that water.”
Who’s on the Fringe?
As in years past, this year’s BOOM festival will comprise two parts: BOOM Fringe and BOOM Intersection, with guests encouraged to move between the two spaces throughout the weekend, experiencing some of Charlotte’s most innovative artists.
BOOM Fringe features 11 edgy, experimental art performances spread across a number of small, intimate locations. These are ticketed performances that take place throughout the weekend.
Released on Feb. 28, this year’s lineup includes return acts like Adrian Parrish, a nonbinary queer poet, comedian and storyteller known for their unique blend of humor, wordplay and engaging storytelling; and newcomers like Brooke McCarthy, whose one-woman show How to be an Ethical Slut was featured on a recent cover of Queen City Nerve.
Read more: ‘How to be an Ethical Slut’ Explores Lessons and Logic of Polyamory
BOOM Intersection, on the other hand, features a broad range of art performed for all attendees free of charge along with interactive installations, activities, vendors and other participants. This year’s partners include the University City Regional library, which opened its new lakeside location in February.
While the full lineup of Intersection performers and participants hasn’t yet been released, new partners include the Southern Eagle Singers, a contemporary indigenous Southern singing drum group that originates from Maxton, a small town southwest of Fayetteville; and the Charlotte-based cultural preservation and storytelling platform MELANOTION.
As a 100% artist-run group, Watson said she and fellow BOOM organizers approach organizing the festival just as they would a piece of art — asking themselves what’s missing, what could be better represented and how that could be done most effectively.
“We throw a lot of stuff at the wall and see what sticks and then throw a lot of new stuff at the wall the next year,” she said. “I think that way of approaching it, like a work of art, like something that can continually evolve and develop and be redefined, is exciting.”
A family reunion for artists
Looking back on the growth of BOOM Charlotte over the years, Kesavan said he continues to be pleasantly surprised with how the festival has continued to build on itself, crediting the participating artists and his tireless crew of organizers.
“We are so grateful. We are so happy that it keeps happening, that it miraculously comes together, even with little resources,” he said. “One of the things we heard when we regrouped after the pandemic was that it felt like a family reunion. That’s the one time of the year everyone in the arts community can see each other to know what’s going on and who’s doing what. So again, we are grateful that people have chosen us to be that place for that.”
Since BOOM Charlotte’s inaugural celebration in 2016, other more large-scale festivals have launched throughout the city including Charlotte SHOUT! by Charlotte Center City Partners and the Charlotte International Arts Festival (CIAF), organized by Blumenthal Arts.
Kesavan does not view these festivals as competition, instead partnering with CIAF to have his artists hold performances during its two-week run in the fall. He’s supportive of SHOUT! as well, though there’s not as much chance for partnership as the two fests usually run on consecutive weeks in April.
What sets BOOM apart is its focus on local, independent, fringe arts performers. Kesavan had considered inviting big-name headliners from other states or countries to perform at BOOM in the past to increase the draw, but as the festival has grown — now with an acceptance rate at just 50% — it’s more important for his team to keep the spotlight on those artists working in the Charlotte area and regionally.
With other arts festivals in town also offering paid opportunities to local artists, Kesavan thinks more options can only be a positive for the community as a whole — artists and patrons alike.
Rather than view the newer fests as somehow squeezing into his space, Kesavan said he’s happy the city is ready to welcome a wide range of different arts fests throughout the year.
“When we started planning back in 2015, a lot of people just told us that, ‘No, it won’t work. People have tried this thing in Charlotte before. Somehow it doesn’t work,’” he recalled. “We were stupid enough to keep doing it anyway.”
If that was the stupid decision, we’d hate to see what’s considered smart.
