On Saturday, December 4th, 1,250 costumed do-gooders descended on Dodger Stadium to take part in the annual city-wide LA Scavenger Hunt. Upon registration each of the 300 teams was given a list of 100 scavenger items and tasks to perform, forty of which raised material goods for the LA Food Bank and Union Rescue Mission, and another 60 of which were purely ridiculous.

In addition to getting the word out on this grass roots charity donation drive, Incase again helped underwrite the scavenger hunt’s production costs and supplied tote bags to the participants and 25 backpacks to the winning teams. In all, the scavenger hunt raised more than $100,000.00 in much-needed material goods in time for the holidays.

To Sean Carlson and Phil Hoelting at FYF Productions, and to all of the scavenger hunt participants—we thank you for time, energy, and enthusiasm on this one. The scavenger hunt is an enormously fun and productive community event. We feel honored to have had a hand in it. We’ll see you again next year.

Our friends at FYF Fest Productions sent us a video recap of the festival this morning. In a word, it is beautiful. More than that, in under two minutes it thoroughly captures the energy and spirit of this joyously independent music festival. If you’re thinking of attending one outdoor music event next summer—make it FYF Fest.

3 stages. More than 60 performing artists. Street meat and food carts. Vegan options! Records swap meet. Stand up comedy. 24,000 howling music fans. Bring a hat and sunglasses. Put sunscreen on your nose. Wear comfy shoes. You will not be disappointed. Sean, Phil, and Dezi, thanks again for sending this over. Music by Abe Vigoda (“Throwing Shade”).

After eight months of planning and hundreds of hours of heavy lifting, the 7th Annual FYF Fest finally happened this past Labor Day weekend at the LA State Historic Park. Was it hot outside? Terribly! Was it impossibly dusty? Yes! But that didn’t stop over 20,000 confirmed festival attendees from waiting in nearly 3-hour long lines to get in. How were the bands? Great! Festival standouts included Sleep, Big Freedia, Warpaint, Abe Vigoda, The Mountain Goats, Local Natives, OFF!, Unbroken, Cold Cave and Washed Out.

Did we gift piles of free cases for the iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS? It’s true, we did. Were people pumped? They were! A few times almost to the point of tears. (Just ask Incase industrial designer Tim Wall, he came down to survey the scene and instead got a crash course in learning just what it means to spend 12-hours gifting cases to thousands of wildly enthusiastic Incase lovers). He left a changed man. New insights, new memories, new tunes, new friends and new ideas. This is what community organized music & arts festivals are all about.

All jokes aside, we feel tremendously fortunate to work on FYF with our friends each year. It truly requires the efforts of our entire arts & music community to pull this thing off. To Phil and Sean at FYF Productions, Justin at Altamont Apparel, Chris at LA Record, Michael at Videothing.com, Alex at Stories Books & Cafe, and to Kevin and Andy at The Cha Cha Lounge… (among so many others), this festival couldn’t happen without the hard work and goodwill of every one of you. Thank you. And last but not least— to Michelle, Tamarra, Moses, Kelley, and Tim, thanks for braving such heat and lending your hands and ears to so many Incase fans this weekend. We look forward to sponsoring FYF Fest next year. Until then enjoy the FYF Fest 2010 photos on our Flickr stream.

Per usual, Reich captured all the fearsome fun. From the footage you’ll gather it was a real sweat lodge. Go to videothing to see his frequent video coverage of underground shows happening all over the US.

More than 200 hunters comprising some 46 teams (that’s right, forty-six) took to the streets in search of several easy to find (and some not so easy) scavenger items. From all reports it was a rock solid primer for the FUNFUNFUNfest yet to come, Nov. 7th & 8Th. It’s not too late to fire up that last minute road trip to Austin. Enjoy more Flickr photos.

If you’ve ever been to NYC’s CMJ Music Marathon, then you know how frenzied it can be. New York’s fall weather is notoriously unpredictable. If it isn’t raining or freezing then its a heat wave. Nevertheless, come slush or hot garbage, the devoted will do whatever it takes to see their favorite bands play exceedingly short sweaty sets. As the unofficial indie rock right of passage, everybody plays CMJ at least once.

This year we decided to partner up with our friends at FYFFest Productions on their showcase at Cake Shop. Of late, they’ve been on a role with great music & charity events around the country. According to Sean Carlson, FYF’s resident Willy Wonka, “It was at capacity [400 people!] the entire night, from 12 midnight til 4AM. It was GREAT!” And with that, we say enjoy the photos. See you next year!

As if managing a zillion bands (including DANZIG!) on four stages in front of an estimated 16,000-to-20,000 fans for two days straight wasn’t already enough of a challenge, the folks at Austin’s Transmission Entertainment have decided to add yet another piece to the ever expanding FUNFUNFUNfest puzzle—A SCAVENGER HUNT to benefit the non-profit organization Caritas of Austin.

But this will not be any old hunt. They’ve brought in Sean Carlson to run it. Bonkers. If this one is anything like Sean’s annual LA Scavenger Hunt, it’ll be total insanity and extremely funny. If your team wins, you’ll score all sorts of legit prizes, including tickets to FUNFUNFUNfest on November 7 & 8th + a box of Incase gear with your name on it awaiting pick up in the VIP lurker lounge. Good luck. We’ll see you in Austin!