Hardcore festival and vegan cook-out set for Sat.

Local and out-of-town bands slated to play

Reading period, schmeading period, there's a festival going on, ya hear...

Harkness and the 'Sco will play co-hosts this Saturday to the day-long Hunger and Homeless Benefit Show, featuring both local and out-of-town punk and hardcore bands.

The angst and anger begins in Harkness's dining room at two in the afternoon, moving to the 'Sco at 10:00 p.m. Local favorites Bippy, Cervantes and Vegan Eaters will be joining Rye from N.J., Harriet the Spy from Kent, OH, and Ambassador 990 from Columbus. Up and coming junior high punks, the Clockouts, should also be a treat.

For those who caught the show at Harkness two weeks ago, cute-band Uneducate Evil from Virginia will be back as well. During their previous show, Uneducate Evil amused the crowd as the singer proceeded to flail around, losing his glasses immediately during the first song.

A vegan cook-out will be held at dinner time in Harkness Bowl, provided the weather's nice (fat chance), to feed the hardcore fans expected from all over Ohio and Pennsylvania. "We're cooking all Friday and Saturday so the people from out of town will have something to eat. The people who come to these things are usually vegan," said organizer first-year Jesse Woghin.

Oberlin Animal Rights is co-sponsoring the cookout which will consist of traditional vegan fare - mac & yeast, tofu dogs, veggie burgers and chocolate chip cookies.

This will be the first hardcore show hosted at Harkness since the infamous Crucifucks show of almost exactly a year ago. The Crucifucks first show in nine years drew a diverse crowd, with attendees from Cleveland, Pittsburgh and D.C., but the rowdy nature of the event left a few Harkness residents feeling threatened, and the future for hardcore at Oberlin looked mighty dim.

Woghin said he was aware of the problems surrounding the Crucifucks show, and Harkness did express some reservations when originally asked to play host to this year's festival. "There was a little worry, but we assured people it'd be okay," said Woghin. "If things get out of hand, we'll kick the people out."

No problems are expected though, due to the different nature of the crowd that the show is hoping to pull in. Woghin said, "The Crucifucks drew a different crowd - that was drinking punk rock. This show is going to draw vegan, straight-edge, high-school kids."