We Were There: 934 Fest

Saturday September 9, 2023

The 934 Gallery is in the Milo-Grogan neighborhood of Columbus Ohio. The gallery has 2700 square feet of exhibition space, where they feature the work of local and international artists. The web site states that the “The gallery focuses on bringing a fresh perspective to contemporary art through exciting and thought-provoking exhibitions, installations, performances and public art projects”.

The 934 Festival has been held at the gallery for the past eight years and the festival has everything you want from a local arts and music festival. This year’s festival took place September 8^th and 9^th.

934 Fest came from the minds of our founders and early volunteers, some who were in bands, and others who were extremely passionate about music and art. They decided to take advantage of the space to celebrate those things and showcase local musicians and artists they were excited about and help sustain the operation of the gallery. The stage was built for the first 934 Fest and has been rebuilt and will be rebuilt again. 934 will always create space for performing and visual arts for and with the community.

Liz Martin – Board President, and Executive director of 934 Gallery

The festival certainly lived up to those words. The gallery was filled with provocative work by Lance Johnson, and smaller whimsical works by Thom Glick and Jen Wrubleski. I enjoyed walking through the gallery and taking the time to check out the work on display. That wasn’t all though, the walls of the gallery and the surrounding buildings were all covered in murals from many different artists from the community. Later in the evening the many murals came to life from the use of projectors illuminating and animating the murals.

I can’t think of a better environment to host the many great bands who played on the festivals two stages. The main stage was named after one of the fest founders Daniel Loper who died of suicide. The second smaller stage was the Mural Alley stage and was at the end of a long alley with both sides covered in murals.

The bands that played were many and varied the music covered everything from Hip-Hop of Co City to the Metal of Denim Cobra. The festival didn’t bring the big names, but brought a big heart. I thoroughly enjoyed the 934 Fest and look forward to many more to come. These are the kind of events that give our city a little flavor and texture that make Columbus a great place to live.

Denim Cobra