Meet Blake Harrison and Garrett Mendez of BiG Fire in Hollywood

Today we’d like to introduce you to Blake Harrison and Garrett Mendez.

Blake and Garrett, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
Garrett and I are actors. As individuals, that’s been our respective label; our marathon; our key attribute when introduced by friends– “Hi, have you met Blake/Garrett? She/He is an actor.”

To which people’s response has usually been- “…Of course, you are.”

I mean, it’s obvious…Garrett and I are both eccentric, loud, self-deprecating, emotional humans who are the first to lose our dignity on a dance floor. We’re clearly actors starved for attention.

So, when we met on a sketch team at Second City in 2014, I quickly realized that Garrett was a myriad of things I was drawn to as a creative partner: spicy, unabashedly himself and funnier than I will ever be. I approached him to co-write a burner-type sketch show for the LA Scripted Comedy Festival because A) I knew we were both a product of the festival scene and B) I had never written a sketch before.

That show was the beginning of everything. We set out to redefine the audiences’ expectation of what a typical sketch show was and we did. We’ve coined ourselves the “Comedy Truthsayers”, using our time on stage to shed light on the harsh, sometimes taboo, realities of the world and encouraging people to be better.

After a year of performing together as the duo BiG EXPRESSION, we had a wine fueled cry in my kitchen one night about how proud we were of the work we were producing. There was lofty talk of what next and Garrett proposed combining what we loved: camping, comedy and getting weird. From that conversation and a couple months of preparation, we created something out of nothing- we created an overnight comedy festival, BiG FIRE.

Has it been a smooth road?
Our team loves the humbling truth. Since we’re the first overnight comedy and camping festival, we have constantly had our creative ambition checked by our growth. We’ve funded the entire festival ourselves since the beginning which has been difficult when our ideas are bigger than our bank accounts. It’s also a serious amount of work taken on by a small, intimate team. Each year after months of weekly pre-production meetings, landscaping and late nights spent together, we haul everything to the location and spend a week setting up, running and tearing down the whole event. Us. Not a crew we hire- but us. We do it all. In 2 days we build the 4 stages, run all lights and sound, assist with art installations, create roads and then another 2 days to run BiG FIRE which is a beast after exhausting ourselves physically and then we take it all down and clear all structures and trash from the property the next day. Its waking up at the crack of dawn when you’ve fallen asleep maybe two hours before.

The last 2 years specifically have not had favorable weather and despite the odds, the community that we’re building always flourishes in the end. The most rewarding successes have come from the marriage of the intimate comedy club community and the music festival scene. People are so excited to be there that it continues to prove that we have created something very special. There’s always a moment, or several during the festival, where we are able to get off walkie and take in the entirety of what we have built and it feels so reminiscent of that wine fueled cry in the kitchen- knowing that we have created something out of nothing and we are just so proud.

We’d love to hear more about your business.
BiG FIRE was founded by myself, Garrett Mendez and our friend Matthew Marcy in 2015. It started off as a one-day event, at a family campsite in Ojai, CA with 3 renegade stages we built, artwork taken from our living rooms and making sure the neighbors didn’t narc.

From the very beginning, the principals of BiG FIRE have been: Leave No Trace, Pack in -Pack out (there are no trash cans at the festival), Radical Self Reliance, B.Y.O.Everything and coming together under the stars to laugh at the absurdity of life.

It’s been an exploration from the beginning since BiG FIRE is the first ever overnight comedy festival. Now in its 4th consecutive year, it has become a 3 day – 2 night festival that has doubled in attendance every year. There are 3 Comedy Stages and 1 Music Stage, workshops, art installations to explore and the wildest entertainment spanning from sunset to sunrise.

With a focus on connection, inclusivity, and community, BiG Fire not only creates a space for performers of all kinds to share their work, but provides a myriad of other opportunities to engage, play and grow as a human and/or artist. We feel it is much more important for festivals today to encourage people to check in instead of check out so that attendees are present for their experience.

With the growth of BiG FIRE, our production team has also expanded outside the founders to include a group of truly brilliant and creative people who continue to further its evolution. This past year we have ventured outside the main festival and have been building awareness through a series of pop-up comedy event, each with its own theme and focus so to explore new ideas on a smaller level before implementing at BiG FIRE.

Both the festival and comedy scene has shaped Garrett and I throughout our lives, as well as the members of our team. What better way to give back to the communities that raised us than by creating experiences for them and fostering this union of worlds?

How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
The festival industry has thrived because of choices and interactivity. As production companies continue to top one another with insane art installations and added luxuries like glamping tents, the need for originality will remain the same. In another couple years, we’ll start to see festivals employ a Disneyland-esque aesthetic complete with themed areas to transport people to another land. I also foresee memorable and, of course, shareable photos continuing to be a main focus of the festival souvenir.

Pricing:

• $75 Pre-Sale Ticket Packages (incl. GA Ticket + Car Camping Pass)

Contact Info:

• Website: www.bigfirefestival.com
• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: @bigfirefestival
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bigfirefestival
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/bigfirefestival

Image Credit:
Dandy Lions Photography

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