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year of the zabal day 271
On Saturday we got on a space and told the story of ZAO Festivals out loud. Thy Revolution hosted, Tom Fellenz played guitar between the stories, and Candy told her side of it. This is what was said, for everyone who was not there.
ZAOstock is a free music festival on Saturday, October 3, on the Franklin Street Parklet in downtown Ellsworth, Maine. 1 stage, 8 acts, from 12 to 6. At 6 the street clears, and Black Moon Public House next door hosts its own evening from 6, with North Creek. It is the first independent music event of the 9th Annual Art of Ellsworth, Maine Craft Weekend.
It is the 4th ZAO Festivals event. These are the first 3.
ZAO-PALOOZA, New York, April 2024
It started in New York. 12 artists, organised by volunteers in 6 weeks. 6 of the 12 had made music onchain before and 6 were completely new to it, and that mix was the point.
Candy was on the ground in New York and made the things you could hold: the backdrop people took photos in front of, the merch, the signs and the flyers. There was a pledge, with the values we still keep. And there was no guest book. You signed a link of a paper chain and added it to the rest, which was our way of saying you had joined. We want to bring the paper chain back.
It broke even, and it told us to do it again.
ZAO-CHELLA, Miami, December 2024
We went bigger. On December 6, 2024, during Art Basel week, ZAO-CHELLA took over a space in Wynwood with 16+ musicians and 100+ visual artists. WaveWarZ ran the first battle it had ever played live on a stage. Watch the Miami recap.
The part that stays with us happened off the stage. We rented a house and a group of the artists stayed in it together. A mobile studio came along, and that week a song got made with about 10 artists on it, each recording a verse. It is still unreleased. It is part of the lore.
And 3 people who wanted to be in Miami and could not make the trip wrote and recorded a ZAO-CHELLA song of their own in about 30 hours, working from different countries. We played both songs on the space.
That is what these events are for. You bring people together, and things get made that would not have been made.
2025, WaveWarZ and Maine
2025 went to WaveWarZ. It was also the year Zaal moved to Maine, heard that Ellsworth wanted more live music downtown, and saw the chance to build something where he lives.
ZAOville, Maryland, July 2026
DCoop played ZAO-CHELLA. This year he was running the third year of his own event in the DMV, and he asked how we could do it together. So on July 25, 2026, ZAOville was a pool party in Laurel, Maryland, co-hosted with DCoop, founder of The VEC, with an open mic, live sets and a DJ night swim. The crew drove down. How that day ran. DCoop and LyonsDen both played it, and both play ZAOstock.
How The ZAO got its name
Candy told this one. She had been part of a media community that tried to run as a DAO, and she watched it hit the problems they all hit: if votes follow money, whoever has the most money decides, and the people who gave their time do not. She met Zaal while she was trying to bring a musician onchain, and told him all of it.
What came out of that is Respect. It is earned by showing up and doing the work. It cannot be bought and it cannot be sold. And the name was hers: Zaal already had the ZTalent Artist Organization, and she saw the word in it.
What is coming to Ellsworth
Tom Fellenz played a piece called The Tale of Fall on the space, which fits the week. He closes the outdoor block on Saturday, and he is also bringing a 4K camera and taking sound straight from the mixer, so the day is recorded properly as well as streamed.
The ad is on the radio. Zaal heard it for the first time in the car, on the way to buy groceries.
The running order is The Crown Vics , OPEN X , Grass Rug , Acadia Rising , Michael Anderson , DCoop , LyonsDen and Tom Fellenz . The first 5 are Maine acts. The last 3 are the ZAO musicians, who travel in and headline.
Not in Maine? The whole outdoor block streams at zaostock.com/live , noon to 6 Eastern on October 3.
After Saturday
The plan for next year is more of this. Artist residencies, where musicians who could not normally be in the same room get a house and a studio and time. And we want ZAOstock and ZAOville both back.
We closed the space with a ZAOstock song that IMan made. IMan has been building the site, the artist pages and the stream page from Lusaka, Zambia, 6 hours ahead of Ellsworth.
That is where it started. Come see where it goes.
See the running order. Watch it live. RSVP for free.
See you on Franklin Street.
- BetterCallZaal on behalf of the ZABAL Team