Brooklyn Bodega, the brains behind the Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival launched their first Kickstarter campaign today to support the event. Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival  is getting bigger by the year, and bills seemed to be growing as popular as the festival as a result The BK Hip-Hop festival is now asking for the financial help of fans and supporters, to keep on making the festival bigger and better.

“This has been an interesting year. After what we pulled off last year with Q-Tip [bringing out Kanye West, Black Thought, 2012 headliner Busta Rhymes and others] the bar has been set high. Almost immediately we were faced with the prospect of growing vertically and get bigger and bigger. Problem with that is bigger means more expensive and no matter how I looked at it that meant sharing that expense with the ticket buyer. Hip-Hop is big business and corporate America and its ethos have become incestuously intertwined with it. Our event is not so amenable to the typical corporate system. That being the case, we can’t depend on corporate dollars like Jay [Z] can depend on Budweiser and American Express. We have and always will depend on The People. The Hip-Hop community is who we are, who runs this organization and ultimately the ones who keep the lights on. Kickstarter is genius because it provides us a direct link to our consumers. It will re-democratize the financial landscape of Hip-Hop and art in general.” – 

We are appreciative of help from our sponsors but it is honestly not enough. We produce this event from the rooter to the tooter.  That means we are responsible for everything from insurance and permits to backline and hospitality to Porta Pottys and marketing.  The easy play for us would be to raise the ticket price and pass the cost along to our patrons.  Problem with that is, events of such a nature bring a homogenized crowd. Young families to kids from Farragut Projects around the corner will be locked out.  Representing the vast diversity of Brooklyn is where we draw our strength.

Wes Jackson Executive Director, The Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival

Head over to Kickstarter for more info on this campaign and if you interested in Backing it up.

Via Kevin Nottingham Source KickStarter