One side effect of being an obsessive fan of a particular band is that you’re all too willing to engage in behavior that almost everyone you know views as totally insane. You know, like driving ten hours from Brooklyn to Dayton, Ohio, to attend an obscure annual event called Heedfest.

Heedfest is super-boozy weekend festival named after Mike Lipps, a large-craniumed crony of musician Robert Pollard, who is best known as the driving force behind the prolific indie band Guided By Voices. It is largely an excuse for the more rabid constituents among Pollard’s fanbase to descend upon the town in which he has lived much of his life and drink vast quantities of beer within spitting distance of the man himself. Sure, there are Pollard-related cover bands that play, and also a chartered bus tour that whizzes by memorable sights from his life and lyrics. But let’s be honest: Heedfest is really about the experience of acting like an idiot in close proximity to a hero.
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