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On Saturday, July 13, 200 revelers and animal lovers showed up to the Loustock: Louchella music festival at Freewheel Brewing, a local craft brewery and live music hotspot, to listen to local music and support local animal shelter Pets in Need.
This is the fourth mini music festival organized at Freewheel by Lou Leon, a local musical artist. Each year, he names the event in honor of other famous music festivals. The yearly gatherings have been named Loustock, Louloupalooza, and this year, Louchella.
“I’ve been playing music at Freewheel for about 10 years in some form or another,” said Leon. “Then there was the pandemic, and in 2021 during the recovery, when we finally started to move around and the restrictions were being lifted, I wanted to get all my musical friends together and let them have a day of playing music. So I organized them, got Freewheel on board and we had our first Loustock.”
The event, which lasted seven hours and featured eight artists, drew large crowds to the small brewery in Redwood City.
“I almost ran out of glassware,” said Freewheel Brewing General Manager Brian Ressler. “Good crowd and lots of libations.”
“The part that always catches me off guard is how long (the event) is but at the same time, over in a flash,” Leon said. “Lots of music, bands coming and going. I run the event like a Swiss train conductor.”
The lineup is chosen by Leon and composed of various local bands and artists who played everything from country jams to This year, the lineup included Leon’s band, Scott Bell and the Cool Ranchers as well as the Pilgrims of Stoke, Roxy and Jonny, John Henry’s Farm, Ryann Barnes and Luna Brosamer, Pete Sommer and the Sommeritme Blues Band, Sean Lynch and Mark Whidden.
“Each year I try and do a little different line up, but truth be told, I recruit my friends,” said Leon “As I seek out the line up, I try to balance out between the new up-and-comers, who just need a shot to be heard, and some bands that are established local music scene friends who I will watch play all the time.”
Leon and Freewheel Brewing both have close ties to Pets in Need, so it was the natural choice for a charity to benefit.
“Our family has adopted animals and have worked with Pets in Need before,” said Leon. “When Brian (Ressler) and I were deciding on a benefit, his relationship with Pets in Need made it a quick decision. As for future benefits, I’d like to say we could help and be a partner where we can make a difference.”
Pets in Need, a local nonprofit pet shelter that operates in Redwood City and Palo Alto, brought several animals in need of adoption to the event, and a portion of the proceeds from the festival were donated to the shelter.
Freewheel hosts several live music shows every week, and Leon helps the brewery organize live music events for other holidays throughout the year. Ressler said that the brewery hosts live music every Friday and Saturday evening, and sometimes gets booked out for shows on Thursday nights during the summer.
“I’ve been very fortunate to have had a partnership with Freewheel,” said Leon. “For the last 10 years, they’ve allowed me to have a residency of putting on the annual Halloween show called Skullfest in the fall and then I put together an Irish band to do the annual St. Patrick’s Day celebration in the spring. … Freewheel has had domaine on the musical venue in this little hamlet.”
