After a year off to regroup, the organizers of “Nice, a fest” are bringing it back to Davis Square for its fifth year July 24 to 26. It will feature 85 musicians from across New England, said Alex Pickert, a local music booker who founded the festival in 2021.
That first year there were nine bands performing and about 950 people attended. Ahead of the 2022 festival, Pickert attended “The Fest” in Gainesville, Fla. The Fest included bands on three stages as well as a vendor market, and Pickert adapted Nice, a fest to that model.
By 2024, Nice, a fest drew 5,000 attendees. Pickert said that put too much of a strain on his business partner and him, since they fund the event out of their own pockets. So they spent a year developing new goals.
This year will be “going back to our 2022 roots,” Pickert said. Bands will perform on three stages: the Crystal Ballroom, The Rockwell and Dragons Lair. And it will have performers from all six New England states.
“New England has the best music scene in the world,” Pickert said. He started the fest in the first place to celebrate local bands. “Being able to support bands at all levels [of success and size] is really important to me and [so is] giving back to the scene that I’ve been a part of for 15 years now.”
‘A dream festival to play’
At least one band, the Somerville-based emo punk band Mallcops, is releasing an album during the festival. The forthcoming “35mm Memories” will feature six songs. It leans more rock than the band’s previous albums, said Joey Del Ponte, a Somerville native who plays bass for Mallcops.
The band, whose members are friends with Pickert, has appeared twice before at Nice, a fest, Del Ponte said “If I could come up with a dream festival to play, it would be with these bands in Davis Square.”
A band making its Nice, a fest debut will be Air Traffic Controller. The Boston band is “excited” to perform in Somerville again after 2025 Somerville Porchfest, which was “above and beyond what we expected,” said Dave Munro, its lead singer.
“To have [a festival] that just is all about this community, put on by this community,” is the epitome of the Boston music scene, said Munro. He started the band in 2009 after sending demos home while he served as an air traffic controller in the U.S. Navy.
In addition to the performances, the festival will also feature more than 50 vendors at two outdoor markets at Statue Park and Davis Square Plaza.
On Thursday, before it opens, Pickert has organized a mixer. It will feature a panel of marketing agents, bookers and other executives, who will answer attendees’ questions about navigating the music industry. The mixer will also serve as the debut of an exclusive vinyl record featuring 10 songs that will be played at the festival and have never been on vinyl before, Pickert said.
The big thing, said Pickert, is really big: Rather than seeing four bands in one night at a local music venue, “you can see 85 of them in one weekend.”
Nice, a fest, Davis Square, Somerville, July 24 to 26. Single-day tickets from $45 to $48 or three-day passes for $120.
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