Meet Irving Govea of Los Angeles

Today we’d like to introduce you to Irving Govea.

Hi Irving, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I was born in Mexico and raised in South Central Los Angeles, and Im 29 now. I’ve always been a wild soul. I played sports my whole life, and music has always been a deep passion of mine.

In high school, I was the kid throwing backyard parties in Watts and South Central, not the safest areas. Looking back, it’s crazy to think about some of the situations I put myself in. As soon as I was old enough, I started raving, and I’d even travel to other states by myself to go to festivals. When I turned 21, I applied to DLS as a barback. DLS is now one of the biggest catering and bar service companies in the U.S., working with companies like Insomniac. I took the job so I could be at festivals while making money. In 2019 I tried music production school, and it just wasn’t for me.

When it came to making money, I tried everything: e-commerce, car rentals, wholesale. I studied marketing and business entrepreneurship in college, and even though I didn’t finish my bachelor’s, I learned a lot, and I’d stay up late teaching myself everything I could about business.
Everything I’ve learned, from throwing backyard functions to figuring out how to run a business after all my failed attempts, led to building TYF. I loved this industry long before TYF was even a thought.
That’s why I know this has always been my calling.

We started TYF with the idea of creating events that we would actually want to go to ourselves. It started small with just a vision and a group of friends, and over time it grew into a real community. Two years later, we’ve been able to work with amazing artists, venues and collectives throughout LA. We’re still growing, but the goal has always stayed the same: bring good people together, create memorable experiences, and keep building TYF into something bigger than just event.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Nothing good comes easy. There have been a lot of long nights, stress, losses, mental battles, and plenty of times we wanted to give up. But this has always felt like my calling, so we kept going even when we didn’t want to. I’m glad we stuck through it, because I’d rather be where we are now than looking back asking, “what if?”

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
My work with TYF is a mix of creativity, music, events, and bringing people together. I’m involved in pretty much every part of it, from coming up with concepts and branding to booking artists, production, marketing, partnerships, and actually bringing everything to life.

What I’m most proud of is what we’ve been able to build from the ground up in only two years. We started with smaller underground events and have grown into creating our own event series, working with artists from all over, collaborating with other collectives and brands, and taking TYF into bigger venues while still keeping that same community feeling.

I think what sets us apart is that we genuinely care about every detail and the people who support us. I’m always thinking about what we can do differently and how we can make the next experience better. For me it’s never been about just throwing another party. I want people to leave a TYF event feeling like they were part of something and wanting to tell their friends about it.

Where we are in life is often partly because of others. Who/what else deserves credit for how your story turned out?
A lot of people deserve credit. My partner Josh plays a huge role in this whole crazy dream we’re building, and I couldn’t imagine doing it without him. Our friend Astrid was the one who originally convinced me to do this, and she came up with the name ideas that led to Tell Your Friends. Our friends have been there since day one, helping us load in and load out when we didn’t even have enough hands, reposting our events, telling people about us, and always showing love.

Our staff deserves a lot of credit too. They love TYF as much as we do and help us bring every event to life.

And our partners at CLOSER have been amazing to work with. We’ve grown together and now we’re creating something really special.

TYF has never just been me or one person. It’s really been a group of people believing in the same vision and helping us build it together.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: Irving.legend

Image Credits
@CJSTERS