East TN Heart Fest

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Civil Strife and East TN Heart Fest

In 2015, Alan Garcia, who was 20 at the time, found out that his son, Brad, who was to be born in March of 2016, had been diagnosed with T.G.A. (transposition of the greater arteries). This heart defect required immediate attention after Brad was born and since the procedure would also require a specialist, the birth would have to be at Vanderbilt in Nashville, TN, which was difficult for the young family since they lived in Knoxville, TN about 2 and 1/2 hours away. The family would have to stay in Nashville for a month before, and possibly after, the birth. But luckily for Alan and Brad, everything went extraordinarily well and Brad was able to go home in a week after having open heart surgery. Brad was born on March 1st, 2o16.

In 2016, Alan began working harder to get his music career going. It took almost 2 years before Civil Strife was officially formed under it’s name in December of 2017. After the band’s first full year playing shows and getting started in Knoxville, TN, Alan decided it was time to use the band’s influence to do his share in helping the cause. In December of 2018, Alan got together with Project Heart, an organization based out of Nashville that helps raise funds for researching C.H.D. (congenital heart disease). Alan got together with the local community house “The Birdhouse” in Knoxville, TN and booked a date for Saturday, January 26th, 2019. Alan and his brother James Lane even went on WVLT Channel 8 News and 94Z 94.3 FM WNFZ in Knoxville to promote the show! Along with Civil Strife, Alan had 6 other local bands join the line-up: Moonshine Hill, James Lane’s The Odd Days, Nightfly, The Fidget Sinners, Juggernaut Stomp, and Covalence. Local photographer “Flamingo Roberts” came out to take photos of all of the bands all night long. This first version of what would become “East TN Heart Fest” was at the time called “We Heart Music!”, a name coined by local songwriter, guitarist, and front-woman for “Nightfly”, Ella Marston. The night was a success, especially for the small community house that could only fit 50 people at a time, with over $400 made for Project Heart.

Civil Strife continued to work with Project Heart in raising research funds for C.H.D. throughout 2019. The band hosted an event in Nashville, TN on Monday, May 20th, 2019 at The East Room with Nashville bands The Ivans, Jobek, and The Daylight Sinners. That event made less than $1oo, but was still a good turnout for a short-notice, Monday night show. Nevertheless, Alan and his father/bassist for Civil Strife, Mark Kennedy, tried to think of a bigger event that would really help raise funds and spread awareness.

That’s when they decided to host their next event at the Historic Grove Theater in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Alan and Mark got together with Mark’s other band, Big Gun, a national AC/DC tribute act, and they agreed to headline the first ever East TN Heart Fest on Saturday, November 16th, 2o19. Other bands joined the line-up for this big festival such as Cayce and the Stoop Kids, The Odd Days, Red Vinyl Gypsies, and of course Civil Strife. This time many local sponsors jumped on board donating money, sponsoring costs, and donating goods to the silent auction. Local photographer Kevin Phanovich Photography even came out to take photos of the entire show! Even though Alan had mistakenly booked the festival on the same date as the Garth Brooks concert at Neyland Stadium, there was a good turnout and the first ever East TN Heart Fest made over $1,500!

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