{"id":650,"date":"2016-08-19T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-08-19T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev.nysmusic.com\/2016\/2016\/08\/19\/the-werk-out-music-and-arts-festival-exceeds-expectations\/"},"modified":"2016-08-19T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2016-08-19T00:00:00","slug":"the-werk-out-music-and-arts-festival-exceeds-expectations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.nysmusic.com\/2016\/2016\/08\/19\/the-werk-out-music-and-arts-festival-exceeds-expectations\/","title":{"rendered":"The Werk Out Music and Arts Festival Exceeds Expectations"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 7th<\/sup> annual Werk Out Music and Arts Festival at Legend Valley Music Venue and Campground was stacked for success with a powerhouse line-up.<\/p>\n

Taking place in Thornville, Ohio, August 4-6, \u00a0it was more than just the music that fueled the success of this year\u2019s festival.\u00a0 Anchored by moving tributes in honor of former Werks\u2019 keyboardist Norman Dimitrouleas, as well a plethora of artist sit-ins and breakout performances, this year\u2019s festival was marked with emotion and surprises.<\/p>\n

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The Werk Out’s<\/a>\u00a0biggest surprise literally fell on STS9<\/a> drummer Zach Velmer, when a female fan managed to bypass festival security.\u00a0 Once onstage, the fan made Werk Out history by attempting a trust fall onto Velmer and his kit. \u00a0STS9 left the stage to regroup and returned for a high energy second set that closed out the Main Stage on Friday Night.<\/p>\n

Friday afternoon was highlighted by the Big Damn Jam\u2019s performance of the Beatles\u2019 classic album Abbey Road<\/em>. The performance was dedicated to Dimitrouleas, who passed earlier this year<\/a>. \u00a0As a member of Big Damn Jam, Dimitrouleas always wanted to perform the album.\u00a0 After his passing, BDJ decided to honor him posthumously with the performance at this year\u2019s Werk Out Music Festival.<\/p>\n

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The Abbey Road set included a rotating cast of musicians most notably Dino Dimitrouleas (The Werks), Todd Stoop, Alex Delk (Octopus\u2019 Garden), Marcus Cornwell (The Vibe) and Justin Robb (Litz) as well almost a dozen other musicians throughout the afternoon set.\u00a0 Most of the musicians participating had played with Dimitrouleas in various projects over the year. \u00a0During the set, fabric flowers fashioned from Dimitrouleas\u2019 old shirts were passed out in his honor.\u00a0 Fans and musicians wore them on hats, backpacks and various pieces of clothing throughout the rest of the weekend.\"_MG_8188\"<\/p>\n

The tributes to Dimitrouleas continued throughout the weekend including The Werks\u2019 Saturday night encore with a dedicated performance of \u201cCarry Me Back Home.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI’ve never been so emotionally touched by a musical performance as I was during the Werks encore tribute to Norman on Saturday night,\u201d said Zachary Burns of Grand Rapids, MI.\u00a0 \u201cEverything from the crowd chanting \u2018DINO! DINO! DINO!\u2019, to Dino’s speech before the song starting, to seemingly every member and a good portion of the crowd crying during \u2018Carry Me Back Home.\u2019 That was the definition of being happy and sad at the same time.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Werk Out\u2019s most talked about performance came in the form of the Twerkapod \u201cTribute to the 90s.\u201d\u00a0 Featuring members of Twiddle<\/a>, The Werks, and Dopapod<\/a>, the Friday night late night set was packed with a mix of obvious choices (Green Day, Blink 182, Sublime, Nirvana, Rage Against the Machine) and stunning surprises (Britney Spears, Hanson and TLC).\u00a0 Highlighted performances from the set included \u201cGangsta\u2019s Paradise\u201d which featured a perfect reproduction of the song\u2019s ending choral arrangement and Twerkapod\u2019s word perfect performance of TLC\u2019s \u201cWaterfalls.\u201d<\/p>\n