By While music and food aren’t inherently correlated, Music Tastes Good has found a way to blend both into a cohesive weekend in its eclectic music festival.
MTG talent buyer Jon Halperin has worked for the festival since its creation three years ago by the late founder and creator, Josh Fischel.
Three years later, the festival lives on in Fischel’s honor and will take place in Marina Green Park on Saturday and Sunday.
Halperin was brought onto the project in 2016 after 20 years experience in the industry doing everything from creating and owning a record label, working various music venues and festivals and producing Bob’s Burgers Live.
“I’ve been hit up to be involved in all kinds of different things and most of the time they never come to light but this one did,” Halperin said.
Following Fischel’s passing in 2016, Halperin said there was “no question” that the festival would continue on with the added help of Fischel’s wife, Abbie and his brother, Zach.
The Daily 49er spoke with Halperin about what Music Tastes Good attendees can expect this year and new additions to the festival.
When you, Abbie and Zach are thinking of artists to pick for the festival lineup what goes through your mind? I was looking through some of the past lineups from the past two years to see how that kind of evolved but this year you have a pretty diverse combination of artist in a way. From New Order to Joey BadA$$ to Lil B so what are you thinking when you’re creating artists that are coming to the event?
Jon H: If you look at it all three years, all three years that’s exactly how they were. We wanted [the artists] to be very eclectic and diverse and represent this city. We all reside in Long Beach, it’s not like we live in New York coming out here trying to do a festival, we all live here. We didn’t want to just do a metal festival, a pop festival, we wanted all these bands to be representative to all the different areas and the community and the kids here and everything, you know?
Food is just as much a part of the festival as music is, so with that in mind do you all have any specific demographic that you’re targeting toward in terms of who you’re trying to get to come to the festival?
JH: That’s also representative of the city, I mean the idea is that where I live in this city I can walk to any type of food I want whether it be Mediterranean or Middle Eastern or a diner or really good Mexican food or fast food. I can walk to any type of food I want so from year one that was a big part of it as well as we wanted our local restaurants to be represented in this festival and they all were. With year two we paired all these restaurants with chefs from New Orleans, sort of like a sister city. So this year we pooled them with chefs from port cities and that was the idea.
What else is something that’s unique that’s coming to Music Tastes Good this year or just something new?
JH: Obviously the artists are going to be different, we have some secrets up our sleeves as far as the appearances of the band. We still have the rotating stage but it’s going to be pretty crazy with the screens this year. The food element is going to be different obviously with different chefs and restaurants. The food element is going to be open to everyone. Last year there was a taste test that was only open to people that bought tickets to that but this year anybody can access the taste test and buy food so that’s new for this year.
Why should people attend Music Tastes Good?
JH: It’s on the grass, it’s by the beach, it’s really relaxed and mellow, it’s over by 10 [p.m.] so you can be home by 10:30 or 11, parking is easy, the bands are amazing, the sounds are amazing, the lights are amazing, the food is so good that even though I would have catering with the bands backstage, I choose to eat the food that’s in the festival because I want to try all these different restaurants. And I’m vegan and still, there’s that many amazing restaurants, excellent restaurants that I want to try. It’s not like it’s on asphalt and there’s nowhere to sit, you can just lay down the grass and relax and listen to a band if you want so yeah that’s basically it.
Tickets for Music Tastes Good can be purchased here. Additional information on the festival is available on the festival’s website.
Correction 9/27/18 at 2:07 p.m.: This article has been updated to correct the spelling of Abbie Fischel’s name.
