The Whomping Willows (Blog)

Hey folks!

I’ve been booking my summer tour since November, and I’m happy to say that it’s been going extremely well! I have a crazy schedule planned for June, July, AND August — specifically, I’ll be going on THREE separate tours, all with unique lineups! The first tour is the most ambitious tour I’ve ever planned: a six-band, rolling wizard rock festival that includes several veterans of the wizard rock scene: The Whomping Willows (that’s me!), Lauren Fairweather, Justin Finch-Fletchley, Tonks and the Aurors, Snidget, and I Speak Tree. This is a first-class lineup and we are committed to offering you a festival-like atmosphere and show quality for FREE or VERY CHEAP. All shows will cost no more than $10, and most will be free!

In order to pull off this crazy plan, we need your help! We’ll be traveling in a large tour van and our expenses will be two to three times what they are for a normal tour. As you’re probably aware, the economy is in rough shape and many public libraries have lost their funding for programming like ours. As a result, we’re not getting the usual level of support from our venues to cover expenses (in fact, we’re getting about 25% of what we normally get, which is bad considering our expenses have tripled!). SO, with that in mind, we have launched an amazing Kickstarter campaign for this tour. Check it out HERE. We’re offering some incredible rewards that you simply will not find anywhere else!

I’ll be following up that insane tour with two more traditional trips in July and August. You can check out my complete summer tour schedule HERE.

Please note: Even if you don’t live where we’re playing in June and can’t make one of those shows, your donation will help us have the security to continue touring into the future. We believe so strongly in the wizard rock community, and that’s why we haven’t totally moved on to other pursuits. We want to keep rocking the library and promoting literacy and other charities, but we can’t do that without the dedication and support of our wonderful fans. If you want to keep the wizard rock dream alive, please consider donating to our Kickstarter! :D

Love,
Matt