West Fork music festival rocks even in absentia

It doesn't matter if it's Chance the Rapper, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Thalia Hall or, well, Northbrook's Chris Phenner - the COVID-19 pandemic has hammered the music industry.

We'll consider Phenner's case. From his home in the Highlands he looks out upon the branch of the Chicago River that provided the name and inspiration for his homegrown, village-approved 2019 West Fork music festival last October.

"A housewarming party that went bigger," he said, Phenner drew multiple generations of folks right up to his backyard with the Rolling Stones cover band, Beggars Banquet and an Alo's Taco Truck that fed 263 people. More than 1,100 people visited the West Fork Store. Between merchandise, food and beverages West Fork brought in nearly $10,000, not that Phenner made any money.

"It's a business," he said, cheerfully, "but it's a horrible business."

Phenner is a veteran of the business himself, its ups and its downs. He's now in sales with Foursquare, but 20 years ago he was on the ground floor with Napster, even testifying before a U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee in that well-publicized digital music file-sharing case. Phenner had the honor of engaging in a shouting match with Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich in an elevator.

On Oct. 17 he was set to throw West Fork 2020, this time in the parking lot and patio of Whiskey River on Waukegan Road in Glenview. He'd lined up a jam band called The Smoking Fish - made up of graduates of New Trier and Loyola, from which Phenner graduated in 1990 - and, crucially to this tale, a whole mess of West Fork masks.

Masks or not, Phenner said the event drew cautionary mention at a parent-teacher meeting hosted Oct. 13 by Greenbriar School in Northbrook. Many of its young students attended West Fork 2019 with their parents but under a pandemic situation those parents weren't keen about their children attending this year.

No one told or asked him to shut down West Fork, but within an hour of hearing parents' concerns Phenner did so anyway.

"The word I wanted to stay as far away from as possible was 'defiant,'" he said.

He quickly posted the cancellation notice on West Fork social media channels. More than 1,000 people responded.

"It is not lost on me that it is an accelerant of even more trust, perhaps even respect. People have said those things. Why waste that moment?" Phenner said.

With all this new time on his hands, Phenner decided to "do something even better."

He put those masks to work with "Masks for Meals." People could buy West Fork masks with that money going to purchase meals for essential workers at Covenant Living of Northbrook, where Phenner's grandmother, Bernice "Bunny" Phenner, had lived until passing away at 103 on Feb. 1, 2009.

Chris visited Northbrook's Tratoria Oliverii, "and nine minutes later had an elbow-bump arrangement" with co-owner Katie Keefe to supply the meals.

Through supporters' mask purchases, Phenner was able to raise enough money that on Friday he delivered 120 meals, for each assisted living and skilled nursing worker at Covenant Living.

And Phenner's place in the music business became a little less horrible.

"It's accelerated the chance for West Fork to represent more than just food, music and fun, which has always been in the road map," Phenner said.