Skip to main content
Portland’s dreary March days don’t make it a spring break destination for most kids. While some fly south to warm weather and sandy beaches, the rest of Portland’s youth are often left to find their own fun indoors.
Andre Middleton, founder of the nonprofit Friends of Noise, offers a solution to the bored and cold young people of Portland: Spring BreakFest, the second annual all-ages music festival on March 22, featuring local musicians and run by Portland youth.
The show will feature eight acts: Karma Rivera, Lil Jerzy, Altar Girl, Kiss of a Vampire, Palmas del Sol, Shannon Wiancko, Hannah Glover and Phalseprofit span a variety of genres and generations for six hours of nonstop music.
The festival doubles as a fundraiser for the nonprofit to raise money to create its much-anticipated all-ages venue The Off Beat, which Middleton expects to open as soon as June 2025.
“With most gigs I know what to expect, but with Friends of Noise, I always know that room is going to be filled with love,” says Shannon Wiancko, a and 17 year-old singer-songwriter and Spring BreakFest performer. “It’s younger crowds that get my music out there.”
Friends of Noise has been putting together live shows headlined by young artists across the Portland metro area since 2016. The organization started off with quarterly shows and transitioned to monthly gigs in 2017. But it’s not just live shows—Friends of Noise supports youth trying to step into the music scene. The nonprofit has three full-time staff members and nine board members who host workshops, including the chance to learn from audio engineers who act as mentors within its program, The Super Sound Squad.
“The access entry points to sound can be confusing to find, and I think just having folks who are approachable and willing to help give resources and advice on where to start is awesome,” says Amy Dragon, audio engineer and Friends of Noise board chair. “If something like that existed for me in high school, it would have changed my life.”
Middleton says he first realized Portland’s need for an all-ages venue after struggling to find concerts he could take his 13-year-old daughter to. When he was tasked by the Regional Arts and Culture Council in 2015 to run a town hall for the city’s music industry, The Happening, he knew he wanted to address the lack of all-ages spaces.
“That was the seed,” he says, that prompted him to start Friends of Noise.
After nearly a decade putting on shows anywhere from a public park to an empty art gallery, he decided that the nonprofit was ready to “take things to the next level” and start seriously scouting venues. In August 2024, he saw that the lease was up at Dancin’ Bare, a strip club in the Kenton neighborhood. By November of the same year, Middleton secured an agreement to lease the space.
Michael Navarro, Friends of Noise board member and longtime Portland educator, describes the Dancin’ Bare as “the perfect place for Friends of Noise” due to the location’s built-in stage and close proximity to a MAX line.
Middleton’s plans for the venue include but aren’t limited to: a wheelchair viewing platform opposite the stage, five single-stall gender-neutral restrooms, a recording booth for live performances, a quiet room for patrons to decompress during a loud show, an office space for Friends of Noise employees, vending machines, and a coffee cart.
He says all of these renovations, including added sprinklers and a new door, are going to cost upwards of $750,000. The nonprofit is seeking an additional $500,000 to hire new staff. Middleton says the nonprofit has raised $630,000 of its $1.25 million goal from grants and solicited donations through its donation page. A portion of the funds raised from every Friend of Noise concert contributes to creating the new venue with Spring BreakFest being the largest fundraising event of the year.
Middleton, Dragon and Navarro all agree that the two biggest challenges in putting this venue together have been fundraising and waiting for permits to begin construction. Friends of Noise is also still waiting on the city for a building permit. Within that permit there are several subpermits necessary to the remodeling project, including safety measures like redoing electrical, plumbing and fire sprinklers. The space will also need to comply with current building codes. Once inspectors have signed off on each facet of the remodel, the nonprofit can begin construction.
“We were supposed to have permits by November 2024,” Dragon says, “but we are still waiting.”
Once the venue opens, the challenge of sustaining the space without income from alcohol sales begins. Middleton believes he has a way to overcome that obstacle by creating a pass that would charge clubgoers $20 a month to attend three shows of their choice.
Despite financial and permit challenges he remains hopeful.
“It’s just been really great to see young people step up,” Middleton says. “We’ve never had a fight or a fire because young people know that this is not gonna endure if we don’t protect it.”
SEE IT: Spring BreakFest at Oregon Contemporary, 8371 N Interstate Ave., 503-286-9449, oregoncontemporary.org. 4 pm Saturday, March 22. $12–$27.