FYF Fest returns to downtown LA

Promoters expect about 20,000 music fans to converge at Los Angeles’ State Historic Park Saturday for the 8th annual “FYF” indie rock festival. They promise a cleaner, better-organized show than in years past.

The FYF Festival – modestly retitled from its earlier incarnation, the F*** Yeah! Festival - has blossomed from a loosely organized event with a couple dozen bands to a 12-hour carnival with indie rock bands on 5 stages.

Wind-blown dust, no shade and multi-hour waits for food, restrooms and water hampered last summer’s FYF event. Organizers say that this year they’ve added vendors, open-sided tents, more entrances, cheaper bottled water - and bands. Lots and lots of bands.

That includes veteran Indie rock cult favorites like Guided By Voices and Olivia Tremor Control, alongside punk standard bearers The Descendents and The Dead Milkmen.

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This year, FYF partnered with Goldenvoice, the promoter behind the more mainstream Coachella Festival. Critics may argue that’ll strip FYF of its Indie cred. But it’s still a place where burly hard core bands can rub up against folksy, psychedelic groups like Pink Mountaintops.

That’s thanks in part to the creative ear of festival co-founder Keith Morris, former vocalist with L.A. punk legends Black Flag and the Circle Jerks. He’s on the bill with his latest band, Off!

FYF happens from noon to midnight at the Los Angeles State Historic Park, just north of Chinatown along the L.A. River.