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Who would have thought that a man doing calisthenics in his underwear would have contributed to a $2.5 million boost in Norman’s economy? Norman Music Festival fundraising chairman Jonathan Fowler says it’s true.

President of the Norman Arts Council Board of Directors, Fowler served as the main stage manager at NMF last year when Kevin Barnes, the frisky frontman for headliners Of Montreal, resorted to unique measures to pump his band up for the big show.

“My wife and I were backstage waiting on them to show up,” said Fowler, the star-struck music fan. “Kevin Barnes walks up in regular street clothes and proceeds to strip down to nothing but tighty whities ... [the band] get into a circle, and, without warning, they broke into a sprint and the music starts as the first foot hits the stage. It’s something I’ll never forget.”

Fowler, who’s Norman-born and Norman-bred, is armed with more than just bizarre stories about rock-band weirdos and festival-going hippies. He’s got hard facts and good intentions. Last year’s economic impact survey of city businesses substantiates his $2.5 million claim, a statistic he and the rest of the festival planners on the Arts Council are committed to increase for this year’s festival and into the future, at the behest of the downtown store owners, whose street the council shuts off to set up outdoor stages.

“We’re guests of the downtowners. It’s their street and they allow us to do this,” Fowler said. “The grand goal that all the board members have is that it keeps getting bigger and bigger, moving forward.”

That’s not bad for a big, public party the Arts Council initially thought they were getting away with.

“If you’d have asked any of us that first year if we’d thought we’d be able to do it again, we would’ve told you no and laughed,” Fowler said.

Now, the council’s long-term vision models itself after top-notch spring and early summer festivals South by Southwest and Coachella with the possibility of growing into a four-day schedule or a quarterly teaser format, said Stephen Koranda, Norman Convention and Visitors Bureau executive director.

“The possibilities are endless,” Koranda said.

One thing’s for certain: The Norman Music Festival has been, is and always will be a community-hosted event dedicated to building unity by showcasing music, with plenty of good-natured fun thrown in along the way.

SHOWCASING MUSIC

It would be easy to write Norman off as a dull void for music in the Dark Ages before the music festival, but Fowler claims that’s not the case.

The lifelong resident of the city and OU alumnus said Norman has never lacked quality music or venues, though it has suffered a general lack of cohesion between interested parties.

“The only thing I’d say that’s really different about what things were like before the festival is the cooperation,” he said. “Everybody’s done a really good job realizing that there’s a way to get us noticed in this town by coalescing everyone’s efforts into a solid group. The genres of music change, styles change, but there’s always been a music scene here.”

Festival public relations chairwoman Holly Jones said the council’s intent to expand has been supported by the musicians, 360 of whom applied when it announced an open call for bands earlier in the spring.

“After very difficult deliberation, 80 bands from this call were chosen to join the 2010 festival,” Jones said. “Most of all, we just want to make sure any expansion is comfortable and sustainable into the future.”

Tommy McKenzie, English sophomore, plays lead guitar for The Boom Bang, a local surf-rock band playing NMF this year. McKenzie said he and his bandmates are excited to exhibit their band to a much larger Norman community that doesn’t often get to hear music in their genre and style.

“Our contribution is to grow the ever-growing garage scene in Oklahoma,” he said of his band’s role in the festival.

Any city festival strong enough to draw an internationally appreciated band like Dirty Projectors to headline alongside home-state hero Leon Russell is progressing in the right direction, while still cherishing its history and identity.

BUILDING COMMUNITY

It’s the role the festival plays: Drawing visitors from out of town and connecting the Arts Council with businesses, musicians with fans and campus organizations with the larger community.

Well-tailored to suit this role, the festival is free of charge, essentially a big-billing party run by a nonprofit organization.

It’s not cheap organizing 200 acts to play this year’s 15 venues, Fowler said, but Wimgo.com, Fowler Auto Group (Fowler’s family business), local banks and hard work by the Arts Council foot the majority of the bill, which also is paid for by private donations between $25 and as much as $500.

Fowler said the council’s connections within the community help to alleviate the cost of the festival and that without the most important donations of time and effort, NMF would be impossible.

“We don’t pay anything for advertising because everybody donates that to be a sponsor,” he said.

Fowler also points out that local artists and festival supporters produce most of the advertising for the festival, whether it’s by word of mouth, social networking or by creative design.

It’s even possible for students to contribute as festival volunteers, spreading the word and even simply by attending. Community building is easy and beneficial when such a strong mechanism as NMF exists to conduct it.

JUST PLAIN FUN

The second edition of NMF generated an atmosphere about Main Street not unlike game day during football season, optimistic with hopes for a national championship berth. Like last year, Main Street’s regular traffic will be replaced by foot traffic as an estimated 100,000 people will take in the sights and sounds of Norman’s downtown.

Aside from music aplenty, this year’s festival boasts stages for children, comedy and spoken word, along with activity booths offering science experiments, temporary tattoos and arts and crafts. Local vendors will be out in force as well, hawking food and retail, and the popular Dustbowl Arts Market will set up right in the middle of all the action.

If that isn’t enough to draw you in for even just a few hours Sunday afternoon, then you may just be the least-interested person in all of Oklahoma.

So that’s it. Norman Music Festival may have initiated as a one-and-done fluke, but the community has spoken and its wishes are clear. We like it, we love it, we want some more of it, and we want it to expand into the future, wishes shared by its propagators on the Arts Council.

Attend, support and otherwise engage this event that Norman residents plan and host free of charge for their fellow citizens in an earnest effort to promote our city and community by the showcasing of music.

Otherwise, we’ll send a naked Kevin Barnes to get you off your seat and dancing.