Shawn Stern is a man of many talents: musician in Youth Brigade, festival organizer, label owner, and notably, the founder of Punk Rock Bowling. Punk Rock Bowling has been around since 1999, beginning as a humble bowling tournament for local musicians and friends, and eventually spiraling into one of the most well-known festivals in the States.
Stern was kind enough to let me bother him on the phone (old-fashioned, I like it) to discuss his newest project, a festival called Fight to Unite, which will take place on October 9 and 10 at The Belasco in Los Angeles. A portion of all ticket sales will be donated to Siempre Unidos, an organization dedicated to assisting families who are affected by the terroristic acts of ICE in the area.
The lineup is absolutely wild, featuring well-known acts like Dillinger Four, Lambrini Girls, Teenage Bottlerocket, Surfbort, Spiritual Cramp, XCOMM, and more. Read our chat below if you’d like to hear about Stern’s DIY resume, the ethos behind Fight to Unite, third spaces, and people who just do not understand that punk is political.
First things first—How did you get involved and come up with the idea for Punk Rock Bowling?
I mean, the first thing we did was start promoting shows in high school, but that’s a long time ago. I mean, we used to do—I don’t know if you’re familiar with the big promoter out here called Golden Voice—but we used to promote shows together with them back in the early ’80s. We were independent musicians and, you know, with the DIY spirit, it was just a matter of, well, why would we want to work with a promoter when we can just do it ourselves.
So that’s how we started out. Punk Rock Bowling started as a party in Vegas because we heard that Fat Wreck Chords was doing a bowling tournament, and one of the guys that worked at our label, he said, “Oh, we should do a bowling tournament here in LA.” And so we did one for a couple of months in Santa Monica, and everybody loved it. It was just other labels and fanzines and bands, and then my brother and I, we love to go to Vegas, and we thought we should do a tournament in Vegas for a weekend and make a party out of it, and that’s what we did, and then that party morphed into a festival. It’s been going strong now for 25 years.
Last summer, we announced that we weren’t going to do a festival in 2026. My main reasoning was that this administration was making the economy worse and making it a nightmare for immigrants and for people to travel here, and we just figured it’s not going to get any better. It’s definitely going to get worse. So we said we’ll take a little time off and regroup, and then it turned out that the venue that we’ve been using for the last five or six years closed down.
It became a parking lot, right? Bulldozed or something like that?
No, it was a parking lot, and then the guy who owns like three casinos downtown, he bought those casinos. It has a parking area for the casino right across the street called The D. So they’ll use it as a parking area for their VIP, you know, for their valet guys. They didn’t use it often enough to make it worth their while. So it’s not open anymore.
So is this the inaugural Fight to Unite festival under this name?
Yeah, it was just the sort of thing where people were asking, you know, “What’s going on with Punk Rock Bowling?” and “You guys going to do anything?” And I’ve been talking about trying to do something in LA, since this is where we’re really based. Sixty to 70% of the crowd that comes to Punk Rock Bowling in Vegas comes from Southern California anyways.
And then I thought, you know, we can do something else. It’s sort of a party. It’s not like a big festival like Punk Rock Bowling is. But we (wanted to) do something that’s sort of a party, bring the community together, and the proceeds are going to help an organization that does a lot of great work helping immigrants who are being affected by—terrorized by—ICE.
You’ve partnered with Siempre Unidos for Fight to Unite. Can you tell me a bit more about what sort of services they provide to the community?
Whatever they can, whatever they’re needed for, but definitely legal stuff and helping people with bills and helping people with, you know, just trying to get by. Like, if your mother or your father gets sent away, and you’ve got a couple kids, they’re gonna need help, you know? So it’s a support system, anything we can do to help.
We’re happy to try and do that, and also really the idea is to just show that—I mean, punk rock’s been doing this since the beginning. One of the reasons I got involved in it is because they do stuff like this and always have, since we got involved in it in 1978. The punk rock community in LA is probably the largest continuous punk rock scene in the world. So many bands have come out of here in Southern California. We always figure it’s important to give back.
It’s kind of half this political rally, but also, like you said, a party. The second day in particular is celebrating 35 years of Fat Wreck Chords, yeah?
I just figure, you know, you can do both.
Music, for me especially, is a way to celebrate and to bring people together, and punk rock is a political platform. It’s basically the folk protest music of the last 45 to 50 years, (so we’re) carrying on that tradition. And, uh, there seem to be some people who don’t seem to get that, even though the lyrics are pretty clear. They say it about my band, like, “I like you guys better when you didn’t talk politics,” and I’m like … Then you weren’t listening to the lyrics.
The stuff that I was writing in the early to mid ’80s about Ron Reagan is just as true, if not more so, now. I mean, it just blows my mind. I just don’t understand how you can listen to the music and just ignore the lyrics and just hear what you want to hear.
Yeah, they’re in denial for sure.
Yeah, well, I mean, that seems to be the mindset of about a third of the people in this country right now. I just—It is crazy. I never thought I’d see it. It blows my mind. But I mean, I guess when you cut back on education, you create a population that—You know, I just saw recently a statistic that something like 46% of Americans read at a 3rd grade level. Part of it is also computers and social media; there’s nothing good to me the digital revolution has done … There’s a lot of great things there, but there are a lot of bad things, and people need to understand that.
And the people that are supposed to be the politicians and the lawmakers, they’re supposed to make regulations to stop this, to stop the ill effects, but unfortunately, they seem to only care about making money, and that’s both parties. One is definitely worse, much worse, than the other, but they’re both pretty bad these days.
I did see that the festival is all ages. Do you feel like there aren’t enough places and spaces for teenagers to experience punk these days?
Yeah, I mean, well, the thing is, is that when we were growing up, there weren’t a lot of clubs, especially when punk rock came around. Most of the places would book bands, and then they’d see the craziness—well, to them, it was crazy—and then they’d stop booking bands. So that’s why we ended up becoming promoters back then, because we had to put on our own shows. And we always try as much as we can to do all ages. And the thing is, yeah, you know, you get bars, and they’re not going to do all ages, but most places, at least in California, if you serve food, you can do all ages.
Our crowd is definitely older these days. I see at the festival people bringing their kids, and now even some of them are bringing their grandkids. I always think music that has a message should be enjoyed by everybody. I get the liquor part, but there are ways that you can make sure the kids aren’t drinking.
Yeah, exactly. And I feel like there’s not a lot of—you know, the term “third space.” Like you could go to the library back then, but that’s less encouraged now, or you have to pay to get everywhere; everything needs a fucking subscription or whatever. Just places where young people can hang out and actually experience some culture are pretty cool.
I agree.
What’s the one thing on your mind that you really want people to take away from Fight to Unite?
I just want people to know that, uh, despite how dark it seems in this country and throughout the world, that this will end. You can go out and have a good time and still give a shit about trying to change things. And that’s what, for me, punk rock has always been about: questioning the status quo, questioning and fighting fascism, and I hope people, if they can, can come down, support, and have a good time, enjoy themselves.
Buy tickets for Fight to Unite here.
Follow the festival on Instagram here.
Donate to Siempre Unidos here.
