Over the past two months, Malibu High School (MHS) senior Chris Hall has led four of his fellow classmates — seniors Cat Evers, Ganon Earhart and Charlotte Jackson, and junior Logan Lozano — in organizing a music festival to raise money for Operation Smile and The Los Angeles Ronald McDonald House, in hopes of creating a yearly tradition for the Malibu community.
These five MHS students have organized the first annual Smile Fest, a local music charity event that will take place at Malibu Wines on Wednesday, June 15, from 4 to 9:30 p.m.
“We want to start an annual tradition here in Malibu which is going to take the form of a music festival which will donate its proceeds to charities which, this year, will be Operation Smile and Los Angeles Ronald McDonald House,” explained Hall, who will be attending University of California, Berkeley in the fall. “The whole goal is we wanted to make something that will become a lasting tradition that is fun, enjoyable, brings in local vendors and supports compassion and helping others.”
All musicians are local Los Angeles bands, including VOKES, We Are the West, The Roman Helmets, Diana Ebe, Ohm, Cat & the K-9s and an anticipated special guest.
“I’m really, really excited [about] the potential impact it’s going to have on the Malibu music community,” Earhart, who has been tackling the musical logistics, explained. “I think that there are going to be lot of great musicians playing here so in addition to helping out Operation Smile and Ronald McDonald, I think it’s going to do a lot to help the Malibu music community.”
The event will also be filled with food choices, including local Farm & Flame and Porcelli Pizza, Co., as well as a variety of other local vendors such as Sharon Rose Jewelry, RVCA, Kerri Wilder Jewelry, Freedom Farm and 27 Miles, all of which are committed to donating a portion of their profits to the cause.
With great music, vendors and cause, Smile Fest focuses on the bigger benefit it will have to the Malibu community.
“It’s for people to enjoy themselves and to help out a good cause. This hopefully will not only raise money, but also awareness for all these organizations,” Lozano shared.
Evers, who plays in the band Cat & the K-9s with Hall, added, “I’ve had this idea all year, and was doubting myself, but we are finally doing it. I wanted to take it to the next level and do something more than just having people come to our shows, but to collaborate with others and help other people and donate to a bigger cause.”
All the proceeds from the event will go directly to Operation Smile and the Los Angeles Ronald McDonald House, charities that the MHS students feel passionately about.
Operation Smile, a popular charity in the Malibu community, provides cleft palate and lip surgeries to children all over the world — mainly in countries where people cannot afford the operation. The organization aspires to have a world where no child is denied surgery, according to the charity’s main website.
“I feel like the change in Operation Smile is really tangible; it’s really easy to see a child before surgery and after surgery. It’s black and white. You see your money and the work that Operation Smile is able to do very clearly,” Jackson said.
The Los Angeles Ronald McDonald House focuses on keeping families together when a loved one is in the hospital. Each year, they serve as a “home away from home, for hundreds of families,” according to its website.
“It’s very quantifiable how much we can help with the event, which I think is cool. And both organizations have actually been so helpful in planning and organizing this event and partnering with us, and both are really worthy of the support of this event,” added Hall.
In running Smile Fest, the students learned to overcome various challenges that stood between them and a successful event — including the fact that all the organizers are teenagers.
“I think the hardest part has been getting people to respond,” Jackson said. “You reach out to a lot of people. It’s hard to communicate that we are serious because we are a bunch of high school students, [but] once people get an idea of the fact that we are actually serious and passionate about this, people are willing to help. So it’s about overcoming that challenge and that it’s real, not just hypothetical.”
The students, though, have been more than successful in finding creative ways around these difficulties and are excited to see their hard work come to life.
“Malibu is a really close-knit community and full of generous people, so I feel that this is the perfect community that can have an event like this that can really get traction and become something worthwhile, hopefully,” Hall noted.
Tickets are being sold at smilefest.splashthat.com at $25 for adults, which includes a complimentary glass of wine courtesy of Malibu Wines, and $15 for students.
