The REACT! Crew will be in full effect at both this year’s Sound & Fury and This Is Hardcore fests. Not Sorry, GIVE, and Mindset will be appearing at Sound & Fury this July and I’m of the opinion that they’ll be awesome. Maybe you disagree, but if so what the hell is wrong with you? Mindset will also be playing TIHC in August where Joe HC is expected to be on stage for all the bands, smiling ear-to-ear, and keeping all the pit animals in line. Will his daughter do another stage dive? Be there to find out! REACT! will have a table at both fests so stop by and say hello and bring us refreshing non-alcoholic drinks. Huge thanks to both fests for all their hard work and for inviting the bands to play!

http://www.myspace.com/soundandfuryfestival

http://www.myspace.com/thisishardcorefest

When I was putting together this month’s newsletter I realized that I haven’t done a proper round up about the Showcase yet. I started school almost immediately after the Showcase and have been working during the day, doing school during the night, and getting label stuff done somewhere in there as well, so amidst all these wild moves it just got lost in the mix. Anyway, I have to say that the weekend was a complete success and couldn’t have gone better. Every band played inspired sets and I can’t describe to you how proud I am to be able to be a part of bringing their music and message to the world. Great times, great food, inside jokes (look what we’ve been up to), and friendship was in abundance, and we all got the chance to meet a lot of great new friends as well.

The part of the weekend that stood out for me the most was on Friday before the doors opened. So many friends came together to assemble records, organize merch, set up the stage, and make sure everything was coming together. It was amazing to see people from all over the world working together to make the weekend something special and I want to thank ever one of you for believing in what we’re doing and for all your efforts. I also want to thank Max and the Gilman staff for being so helpful and accommodating, and for being part of the best punk venue in North America. Finally, thank you to everyone who showed up, danced, dove, sang along, and took part in the weekend.

PS. Stacy REACT! and Anna’s vegan bake sale raised 260 for the East Bay/Berkeley Humane Society. Unfortunately this important organization had a fire last month on which animals died. They can use any help you can spare so please swing by their website and see what you can do:

http://berkeleyhumane.org/index.htm

Now that the Showcase is over, and we’ve recovered from the colds we all came home with, we’re going to start shipping the Get The Most, Praise, and Damages orders out. This was a BIG pre-order so it’s going to take us awhile to get everything assembled and packed so you can expect things to start shipping within the next 2 weeks. We know you’ve had to wait a bit on this one, so thanks so much for your patience and support!!

We’re also getting all the new merch printed starting this week so that stuff will ship out as it comes in. Man, some of you cats are going to have a great May with lots of REACT! stuff blowing up your mail box and bringing the hardcore reality. BOOSH!