Preview – Dan Savage’s Hump Festival Tour
– by Abby Normal
The Dan Savage HUMP! Fest is a yearly Pacific Northwest festival that celebrates amateur porn in all its glory. The film fest has developed an awesome reputation over the last few years with reports of locals hauling across the border to see it for themselves.
So, how exciting is it that the HUMP! Fest just recently put on its rock-star sunglasses and for a tour?
For the tour, the organizers have picked a “best in show” sampling of past submissions over the years, and are bringing it city to city all across North America to share the HUMP! joy.
Already a pretty darn wet city, Vancouver has not yet had the festival on its soil. Obviously, locals can’t wait to see what’s in store for them at the Rio Theatre on July 4Â and 5. This is not only the first time HUMP! has been to Vancouver, but it is the first time HUMP! has been to Canada,
To give us a little more about the festival, Erin Rackelman, the Director of Publicity, took a couple minutes aside to answer a few questions.
Abby Normal: How does what we might see at the Dan Savage HUMP! Festival differ from what someone might stumble across on xvid around 2 a.m.?
Erin Rackelman:Â Well, as soon as HUMP! begins you’ll notice the difference. The people who enter HUMP! take it very seriously and the quality of submissions is pretty staggering. They are surprisingly clever and hilarious, but also very personal too! Because the videos are only shown during the HUMP! screenings and we monitor the audience to make sure no one is taping during the screenings, I think there is an intimacy and vulnerability in many of the videos you don’t see often in porn.
AN: How could someone go about submitting to the festival? Can just anyone do it?
ER: All the info on how to submit films is The Stranger’s website. The deadline (for 2015) is September 30, so get humping!
(Interviewer’s side note: Â The grand prize of the HUMP! fest is $5000 and there are some fairly substantial runner-up prizes. Aside from the fun and excitement of seeing your naked self the size of Godzilla, there is also some serious potential to make big bucks!)
AN: When people think of watching porn they usually flash straight to an image of a teenage boy in his parents’ basement. Why should “Watch porn on the big screen with a buncha strangers!” be on someone’s bucket list?
ER: Well as Dan likes to say, This is how our grandparents watched porn. It’s really a unique experience to watch porn on a big screen with a packed theater of like-minded, supportive, sex-positive people. It’s surprising and interesting to hear everyone’s reactions - so completely different than how we are all mostly used to watching porn.
AN: Do you have any plans to come back to Vancouver?
ER: Yes we are headed to Toronto after Vancouver, and we hope to schedule a screening in Montreal next year. These are our first “international” screenings and we are thrilled the first one is in Vancouver. Being so close to Seattle, Vancouver always feels like a close neighbour. We are definitely planning on coming back next year!
Tickets for the HUMP Tour can be purchased online here!
There are a few showings at The Rio starting July 4 at 7 p.m. and ending July 5 at 10 p.m.  Come out and show your support and start plotting out your submission!
