Bill Streeter has a simple reason for saying goodbye to the festival he started 14 years ago. "I'm tired," he says. "It's a passion project I don't really feel the passion for anymore."
Lo-Fi Cherokee has long been one of St. Louis' most unique experiences, a music festival that instead of featuring a dozen-plus stages features a dozen-plus music video shoots. As Streeter, the founder of St. Louis-based video production company Hydraulic Pictures, has explained, the concept was something of an accident. A local record company had asked him to shoot a music video every week, but when they asked off-handedly if he could instead do it all in one day, he decided to go for it. To his surprise, crowds followed.
But the festival has never made any money, nor has it even tried to, and it takes a fair amount of work. The 12 acts in this year's festival are the smallest number Lo-Fi has hosted; one year, there were 19. It takes time to solicit bands, assess their submissions and book a dozen-plus different venues — and that's even before the mad sprint of Streeter and his crew of shooting all those music videos in a single day. For the people who show up on Cherokee to catch a shoot or two and grab a drink between performances, it may feel low-key and south-city casual, but it's a sizable undertaking even before it comes time to release a dozen-plus music videos.
And for Streeter, too, there's a sense of wanting to go out on top. "I'm 56," he says. "I don't want to be doing this when I'm 60."
He feels hopeful this Saturday's festival, scheduled to kick off on April 6 at 11 a.m. and end in the early evening with a big block party sponsored by the neighborhood, will do that. Lo-Fi Cherokee has proudly booked all-new artists every year, with no act ever invited back for a second go-round. This year, fittingly, brings it full circle, with singer-songwriter Beth Bombara, who played the inaugural festival, making her return.
She'll be joined by some big St. Louis names, including the Playadors, Mo Egeston All-Stars, Red & Black Brass Band and Matt F. Basler, as well as up-and-comers that have Streeter genuinely excited. Among others, he can't wait for Ricky Dortch, who plays Yaqui's at 3:30 p.m., and Tawaine Himself, who takes the stage at Clements Lock & Security at 5 p.m. (Yes, Cherokee's coolest Thursday-night-only bar is opening up on Saturday for the festival.)
Just talking about the artists has Streeter reminiscing about memorable Lo-Fi shoots — including one in an elevator and one in a bed. "Beth Bombara was in that band," he recalls. Son Volt has participated. The Bottle Rockets. Tonina. He's proud of how the festival has elevated good local acts that deserve greater appreciation and even brought ones together. Stan Chisholm, a.k.a. 18andCounting, first got his backing band TheOnlyEnsemble together for a Lo-Fi Cherokee performance. "They've been together ever since," Streeter says.
If Streeter sounds a little excited about this Saturday, well, he is. After he finally got around to soliciting artists in January, that familiar feeling kicked in and now he's all in, even as he can't shake the feeling that it's time for him to move on. "My whole life, I feel like I've been doing things longer than I should," he says. He's not making that mistake this time.
Now the question may well be what replaces the festival for Cherokee Street, if anything. Streeter began the Lo-Fi brand as a music blog, and he anticipates continuing to do projects under that label — maybe pop-up shows in unusual places, or a smaller video-centric event.
But the festival has been a highlight of Cherokee Street's calendar every year since 2012, other than a two-year hiatus during the pandemic. People have gotten used to a street party that introduces them to great bands in intimate settings. Streeter says he's not averse to handing it off.
"If someone approached me and wanted to take over, I'd be fine with that," he says. He'd want to be involved on some level ("I wouldn't want it to become something it was never intended to be," he says). But, "I wouldn't mind someone else taking it over."
Will someone? It's Cherokee Street; creative people are everywhere, and it certainly seems possible someone would want to run with it. But Streeter knows there's also a natural evolution to the street. New businesses open and old ones close; people try an idea and give up on a different one. There are always people ready to eulogize the district after something closes or someone moves on; the impulse is always incorrect. "I've been hanging out down there since 2006, 2007," Streeter notes. "It's different every year." It may be time for Lo-Fi to give way to something else, something totally different.
But who knows. This may not be the end. Streeter can't help but reference the episode of Seinfeld where George quits his job only to realize he's made a mistake — and decides to return to work and act like he never actually quit. "I've thought about doing that," he jokes. "Maybe I'll come back next year and just be like, 'What are you talking about? I never quit.'"
He adds, for the record, "I won't do that."
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