The event traces its roots back to Totally Awesome House, once located at 724 N. Main St. in Ann Arbor (now demolished), which hosted the Totally Awesome Supper Club in 2004 and 2005, where one could see local and touring acts and dig into with great potluck food. When theTotally Awesome House-mates were told they couldn’t renew their lease, they threw a festival, the first ever Totally Awesome Festival, to celebrate the music and the spirit of the house, one where anything was possible.
The first Totally Awesome Fest was held back in 2005 as “a last hurrah” for the Totally Awesome House in Ann Arbor where musician, puppeteer and performer Patrick Elkins use to live with friends Jason Voss, Dustin Krcatovich and Penelope Richardson-Bristol. The friends regularly hosted bands and performances at their house and once a week people joined them for a Tuesday Night Supper Club. After serving as a DIY venue for a bit, Totally Awesome House residents were told that the property was going to be developed into condominiums, which ended up ultimately falling through, and they all moved out. Before leaving the house, “we decided that the last three days that we lived there we were just going to have this festival,” Elkins recalls.
- Hot Meat for Young Lovers, band photo showing interior of Totally Awesome House
