The Last Letter Project will be present its annual music festival, Speedbump Fest, Saturday Oct. 6, at 5 p.m. at the Outpost in Kent, 4962 State Route 43. The event will bring awareness to mental illness, along with helping people navigate the minefield of addiction.
Seven bands will perform, including include Cleveland locals Face Value, as well as Chicago punk rockers The Repos, along with Nullum, from Pennsylvania, and Goosed, from Kent. The event also will include food trucks, a raffle, The Rage Cage and community outreach representatives on site from the Portage Path Behavioral Center.
The first band is scheduled to go begin at 6 p.m. And along with the live music there will be a moveable feast, featuring locally sourced cuisine.
Toward the end of the night, a raffle will take place, including hundreds of dollars worth of prizes from local businesses. Among the prizes are a pedal from Earthquaker Devices, original artwork from a number of different artists, a gift certificate to Lucci’s Pizza and a gift certificate to Yoga Squared in Akron.
For the first year ever, Speedbump Fest will also feature something new called the Rage Cage. Inside the Rage Cage, participants will be allowed to take out some pent up aggression on a variety of inanimate objects inside of a controlled and safe environment.
Speedbump Fest originated as a memorial to the life of Garrett Janos, who died by suicide
in 2015. It has expanded to serve as the flagship event of the Last Letter Project, a local
nonprofit with the aim of destigmatizing mental illness and assisting people who face addiction. The proceeds are used to continue running community outreach programs, like Time Out Tuesday, and have also been used in donations to United Way to go toward addiction recovery and treatment.
For info, visit www.facebook.com/events/230407940922355, or visit www.facebook.com/thellp to attend one of the Time Out Tuesday events that happen on the first Tuesday of every month at Hive Mind, 375 W. Exchange St.
