2020 marks the fifth year of the Defy Film Festival, a gathering of independent film creators focused on genre-breaking selections that was named “Best Indie Film Festival” by the Nashville Scene. While there may not be a lot of competition in that particular department, it is particularly noteworthy that the 501c non-profit has been able to grow substantially year over year, making a real name for itself outside the shadow of the Nashville Film Festival.

As with everything in 2020, this year will be a different approach for Defy. As they are mindful of social distancing, the festival will be entirely virtual this year. Taking place on Saturday, September 12th, you can go ahead and register now to receive a welcome kit, instructions on how best to watch and the chance to win attendance at a safe Live Q&A the Friday before.

While it’s certainly a bit of a bummer that the festival can’t happen in person, it’s the right choice to make. Fortunately, taking things online hasn’t seemed to slow the curators down one bit. The team, consisting of Billy Sense, Dycee Wildman, Sarah Saturday and Meredith Krygowski, are no strangers to finding the best films around as proven by previous iterations of the festival. Currently, there are over 40 films officially accepted for screening during the 2020 event and it’s fairly safe to assume more will be added before the final launch.

Based on the success of numerous online streaming events (see Nashville Scene’s No-Contact Shows) and other festivals that have pivoted online (see Far Out Fest), it’d be a wise idea go ahead and add an event to your calendar for Saturday, September 12th. Treat yourself, you won’t want to miss this one.

Cold Lunch Recordings is many things; it’s a record label, a show promoter, festival organizer and non-profit relief refund. They’ve put out releases from Sad Baxter, Heaven Honey, TTotals, Fever Blush, Hari, Bleary, Nosediver and loads more in just the past few years. Those releases are fueled by undertakings such as Spewfest, Brown Bag Fest, Halloweird, Under the Sun Fest, Bob Fest and countless individual shows that the hard working trio books and exhaustively promotes.

In short, it’s a well-oiled machine that leverages income from live events to put out new music into the world; all while keeping a mindful eye on donating proceeds back into the community through their Heartstrings organization. Unfortunately, that machine comes to a grinding halt when you remove live events from the equation; a situation that the Cold Lunch Crew has found themselves facing because of COVID-19 precautions.

In order to keep their operation going, they’ve sold off some of their equipment and reduced their debts as much as possible. Unfortunately, those efforts have proven to be insufficient to actually have enough funds to continue actively putting music out into the world. With that in mind, they’ve turned to the community and started a GoFundMe campaign to help them restart their operations in this new era.

At publishing time, they’ve already raised $3,600 of their $7,500 goal. This means that they’ll survive to see the light of day next year but need to raise a minimum of $5,000 to actually start releasing new music. If they hit the top tier goal of $7,500, they’ll be able to release new music and press a sampler of their favorite local and regional bands.

It’s clear that many operations are hurting right now. Independent venues are struggling to find lifelines, restaurants and bars are in a similar boat and thousands of musicians are out of pocket for any sort of touring income. The Cold Lunch Crew is mindful of this and only asks that you donate if you can afford to, there’s no guilt being applied here.

Cold Lunch has always been a WOTT favorite and done an impeccable job of stretching themselves as thin as possible to support the local scene. There’s no doubt that they’ve got a backlog of amazing music ready to deliver to the world if they can reach their goals. Hopefully they can get there with our support.