Springboard West Music Festival set for Ocean Beach debut

At least 40 bands and 30 music industry professionals — including Paul McCartney’s step-sister, Ruthie McCartney, and Guns N’ Roses’ first manager, Vicky Hamilton — will participate in next month’s second annual Springboard West Music Festival in Ocean Beach.

To be held Jan. 11-13, the event combines free daily panel discussions and mentoring sessions with unplugged evening performances on Jan. 11 and 12, for which tickets are priced at $10.

The festival culminates Jan. 13 with the Band & Brew Crawl, which will feature all 40 bands performing at Winstons, Mother’s Saloon, The Harp and the Ocean Beach Playhouse. Tickets for the crawl are also $10. The Playhouse will host the Jan. 11 and 12 daytime events and unplugged evening shows.

The move to Ocean Beach follows last year’s inaugural edition of Springboard West at the Music Box downtown.

“We wanted to be in a place where we could build and grow, which is why we’re going to O.B.,” said Barry Coffing, the Los Angeles-based founder of Springboard West and its six-year-old Houston counterpart, Springboard South. His company, MusicSupervisor.com, represents 16,000 independent record labels and music libraries from 78 countries for film and TV licensing.

“If we held this in Los Angeles, the panelists would come. do their panel, and go home. By holding it in Ocean Beach, they are there for 72 hours, so they go to the showcase concerts and people can network with them. It’s like sleep-away camp!”

Last year’s debut edition at the Music Box featured such headliners as veteran rapper Warren G and San Diego singer Frankie J. This year’s lineup, which features acts from across the U.S. and as far afield as Brighton, England, will eschew headliners.

According to Springboard founder Coffing, the 40 bands and solo artists selected for the 2018 Ocean Beach edition were selected from more than 800 acts who submitted applications and examples of their music. None of the performers or panelists are being paid for their participation. Coffing said he covers the production expenses himself.

“What we’re hoping to do is grow the event,” he said Tuesday afternoon from Houston. “We hope that, next year, the pub crawl can be expanded all over Ocean Beach.”

The topics for Springboard’s daytime panel discussions here next month include “How To Get Your Music Licensed,” “Songwriters Tips.” “Producer/Engineers Tip & Tricks” and There will also be at least seven “Moment of Truth” sessions, when music industry professionals listen to songs by attendees and provide expert feedback.

Attendance at the Springboard West Music Festival could benefit from the current hiatus of the like-minded San Diego Music Thing. The most recent edition was held in 2016 and was downsized from previous years. As of this writing, no dates for a 2018 edition have been posted on the SDMT website.

“We want everyone involved with Springboard West to walk away with something,” Coffing said. “That means a band meets a mentor, or can pitch a song for a movie, or meet another band they can tour with.”

More information is available at springboardwest.com. All proceeds go to the nonprofits organizations The Autism Tree Project Foundation, Sustainable Artists and The Pioneer Foundation.

george.varga@sduniontribune.com

Twitter @georgevarga