Sweatstock has become a local institution but is still overall a giant labor of love. This free, annual block party/pop-up music festival celebrates Sweat's anniversary, the international Record Store Day "holiday", and the Miami music scene as a whole. The main stage outside and the Churchill's stage next door feature almost entirely homegrown artists from a variety of genres. We don't repeat bands year to year to shake things up, and only artists whom we've seen putting the work in get selected. SSSHHHH (seriously) but this year's headliner is AJ Davila of San Juan, PR garage rockers Davila 666. His new solo album "Terror Amor" on Nacional Records has gotten blown up by NPR, Pitchfork, VICE, Spin, MTV Iggy, etc. and he'll be playing Sweatstock fresh off a handful of shows at SXSW.

In addition to the tons of live music there is comedy, food trucks, DJs, film (the back patio stage at Churchill's is the "Borscht Lounge" this year), a bike valet, and more. 2014 is the 5th year of us putting on the festival. We get overwhelmingly great feedback from the event and loads of people say it's their favorite day of the year. It's also a living example of the amazing sense of community in Miami's arts'music/activism scenes. Walk around Sweatstock and you'll see people laughing, hugging, running into old friends and making new ones. People bring their kids, pets, lovers, band mates, parents, etc. Did we mention that the entire event is free to the public?? When does that ever happen...