April 29, 2024

At The Beehive: F*ck Mike Lee Fest

666 S. State St, SLC

Written by Laney Hansen

Senator Mike Lee has sparked arguments and anger among many Utah residents while in office, especially when introducing his 4 bills to “protect the unborn” back in January; and the youth are especially angry. In response to the overwhelming amount of distress he’s caused, a festival was organized at The Beehive on Saturday, April 20. As this month’s charity event, Fuck Mike Lee Fest made contributions to several charities such as Planned Parenthood, Equality Utah, Better Utah, Friends of Great Salt Lake, and The Road Home. Entry to the event was a small donation price of 15 dollars and guests were also handed 3 tickets to raffle off which charity the money would go towards.

I spoke with Jacob- known as c h point on the internet- the mind behind Summer 2000, who put on the festival with collaborators of The Beehive. In asking him where the idea of this festival came from, he said “The idea of Fuck Mike Lee Fest came to me in a vision one night last December and I’ve been chasing it ever since then. The original inspiration behind it was the realization that the name of a music festival can literally be anything.” Once everything was in place, the venue agreed to help out, and bands were ready to play, “the festival ultimately ran itself through the helping hands of 50+ wonderful volunteers, band members, photographers, [and] my wife.”

The turnout, to no surprise was incredible. The space was packed full by the end of the night with raging fans ready to rumble and fight for the cause. The event went until midnight and started at 4:30 with Rottenboy. Other bands included Cody Hsu, Tiger Bike, Apology Club, Sleep Cult, Hurtado, Melancholy Club, Head Portals, and JimiDead. Each of these bands were full of high energy and each set riled up the audience to immense degrees. The pit was opened, there was a brawl, and though things got out of hand, everyone took care of each other. It was most definitely a night to remember.

A huge selling point of the night was the merch. All proceeds made went towards the charities. These included band merch (CD’s, cassettes, t-shirts, totes, etc.) and limited-time festival merch (t-shirts, patches, bracelets, etc.) Each purchase up to 5 dollars could get you an extra raffle ticket to go towards a charity of your picking. “One of the best non-musical parts about the festival was watching so many of the attendees thoughtfully cast their votes on the charities they chose to support - often after carefully reading the different mission statements.” The price ranges were fairly affordable so you can imagine that everyone in that room was able to donate in some way or another.

The Beehive hosts a few concert-style charities each year and they’re always a hit. Other recent nights included a punk festival donating to The Trevor Project and their cover-band concert night for AAMP; these guys never fail with their charities. These concerts are among my most favorite to attend; they bring people together and it’s just fun to go and bang your head around with other concert connoisseurs. With the turnout and amount of support from the crowd, “We were able to donate over $3,500 to 5 great charities which is really cool. Yes, Fuck Mike Lee Fest 2025 is definitely going to be a thing.”