“Astrophest” Prepares For Liftoff

“I like space so much that sometimes I get lost,” José Oyola said, ​“and salsa brings me to the ground.”

From the sound of things, Oyola, raised on hip hop and salsa, is already pretty grounded. The leader of the Astronauts has organized Astrophest, a midsummer, two-night festival at Cafe Nine — July 28 and 29 — that features Oyola’s group, Ceschi, Political Animals, Violent Mae, loom, Chaser Eight, Joey Batts & Them, and An Historic. The Astronauts and Ceschi have sets both nights. On the first night, Oyola will play from his first album, 2013’s Give, Give, Give. Take, Take, Take. On the second, he’ll play from his upcoming album Hologram.

Astrophest — ​“it looks better on the flyer with a ph,” Oyola said — came about as a result of a cancelled tour with Oyola and Ceschi; the two nights were supposed to serve as a kickoff. When that didn’t work out, Oyola told Cafe Nine he would keep the dates.

“Paul [Mayer, owner of Cafe 9] said it’s been over a decade since a band has done back-to-back shows,” Oyola said. ​“So I said, ​‘Let’s make it a festival.’”

Astrophest came together quickly, as Oyola both reached out to bands and took requests. ​“Facebook is a great thing. And people believed in the show.”

Oyola also believes in the acts on the bill. Every act has a guarantee — as in, a flat fee that they’re paid regardless of how many tickets are sold. ​“I want everybody to eat,” he said.

Festival Haven

Astrophest is coming at a time when festivals in New Haven seem to be kind of a thing. There is, of course, the International Festival of Arts and Ideas, and the CT Folk Festival is a long-running and well-established event. This spring saw the emergence of the Elm City Folk Festival. The Elm City Noise Festival is happening in mid-September. The fundraiser to save the Space, the beloved all-ages venue in Hamden that birthed the Outer Space and the Ballroom in the same complex, has become its own festival, as dozens of area bands play the Space, the Outer Space, and the Ballroom on Aug. 21, 22, 23, and 28.

All of this is happening amid a general sense in town, at least from this reporter’s casual conversations with musicians, that New Haven’s music community is pulling together, individually and collectively, in ways that it hasn’t for a while.

“More musicians are touring,” Oyola said. ​“My biggest pet peeve is when musicians complain about where they’re from but then don’t tour.”

Not that you hear too many complaints these days. ​“When I come back to New Haven, I appreciate it more,” Oyola said. ​“I don’t want to go to New York and work long hours and get only three hours to work on music. New York is a shark tank. We don’t need to go to the shark tank alone. We can all go to New York together, stronger. Or we can make them come to us.”

If New Haven’s musicians keep banding together like they have, who knows? That just might happen.

Astrophest runs at Cafe Nine on July 28 and 29. Doors open at 7:30.