The Toledo City Paper depends on readers like you! Become a friend today. See membership options
Waterville-based band Oliver Hazard is back in town hosting its 8th annual Oliver Hazard Day, this year bringing bands from all over the world for one day of live music in Downtown Waterville.
On Aug. 15 from, Oliver Hazard will be hosting Briscoe, Olive Klug and TORS, the first-ever international act to be featured at Oliver Hazard Day.
“We started it as a way to like connect to our hometown community and bring artists that we meet while we’re on tour back to our hometown. It’s a single day of music where we invite folks from all over the country and now it’s become more international,” said Mike Belazis, founding member, vocalist and guitarist.
Oliver Hazard Day is for all the folk music lovers: Oliver Hazard is a trio specializing in indie-folk music, Briscoe is a folk-rock duo based in Austin, Texas, Olive Klug is a folk artist from Portland, Oregon and TORS is an indie-folk trio from Devon, United Kingdom.
Along with music, they also highlight local artists, food trucks and breweries. Toledo mural artist Tayler Meinen will create a live mural installation, hometown DJ Jon Zenz will spin an all-vinyl soundtrack before the live performances begin and Buffalo Rock Brewing Company will brew their exclusive OLI Session IPA.
“We have a muralist each year. This year we have Taylor Meinen. We also involve the Arts Commission; we donate all of our alcohol sales to the Arts Commission every year,” Belazis said. “We also have beer and local food, so we’ve worked with a lot of breweries over the years. We have a Waterville-centered brewery, Buffalo Rock. We’ve been working with them on the beer side and we bring in local food trucks from all over Toledo for just one day of music.”
As the band and festival have grown since their founding in 2018, they still want Oliver Hazard Day to have a small-town feel. The morning of, Belazis and the other two members, Devin East (electric guitar) and Nate Miner (keys) set up the entire festival.
“We don’t have a massive stage. It’s kind of this small little box truck that the bands play off of and everything is just very underdone. We live in a world where things are very overdone and very well funded and what we do is we keep it very simple and you can really feel that like simple, authentic hometown energy at this festival. We don’t have any like investors or anything-it’s just us throwing a little show in the middle of the road in a little town,” Belazis said.
Today, as the band has reached millions of listeners, growing both the band and the festival has always been a goal, but it was never an expectation.
“It definitely took a lot of hard work and I don’t think I ever thought we’d get this far and it’s really cool to see. But at the same time, it was always part of the goal to try to get this far,” Belazis said. “It’s a little of trying to manifest your dream and also knowing that it’s going to be a really hard path to get there, but it’s worth trying.”
This April, the band released their EP “Waterville” and is currently on their “The Waterville Tour” across the East Coast. The final stop on this tour is the namesake of the album and tour, Waterville.
“The shows start on the East Coast and they go all the way up into Canada and then back into the Midwest and they run right into Oliver Hazard Day. It’s a road to Waterville tour, so it’ll be the last stop on the tour and we’re going to be doing our hometown show,” Belazis said.
If you are interested in attending Oliver Hazard Day, look to buy tickets now. Limited tickets are sold at the door, but Belazis never knows if or when the festival could sell out. Doors open at 4:30 and the festival runs till 11 pm.
“Advance tickets are usually recommended just because that’s the lowest price ticket they can get. We do giveaways of free swag for the first few 100 people in the door,” Belazis said. “Every artist that we book, we’re huge fans of. So even if you’re just going for Oliver Hazard, I would highly recommend trying to catch the other acts, just because we love them and we think that they’re really worth seeing. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have booked them to come into town. So make sure you catch all the good music that’s going to happen that day.”
For more information on Oliver Hazard Day go to oliverhazardday.com
The band’s newest EP, “Waterville,” along with their entire discography, can be found anywhere you listen to music.
