While Allston Rat City – a play on the more accepted Allston Rock City – has many obvious negative connotations, Rat City Arts Festival founder Ricky Meinke said the moniker has helped to create community.

The Festival first started in 2022, and while Meinke said neighbors weren’t originally thrilled with the name, the Festival has helped neighbors both address the issue of rodents in the neighborhood and use that ubiquitous experience of Allston and Brighton as a way to bring residents together and improve the situation. The admittedly negative experience of seeing a rat rummaging around has helped, Meinke said, to bring folks together to both celebrate what makes District 9 great and to mobilize political will to improve the situation.

So all in all, Meinke said he feels it’s a positive result.

“We’ve seen the rat terminology really bring people out, and I think people gravitate towards the term ‘Allston Rat City’ because they’ve had experiences with rats and they find community with other people by calling it Rat City,” he said. “We’re really here to champion our community and not tear down the neighborhood in any way. We call Allston-Brighton home.”

The Festival itself is set for Saturday, Aug. 1 from 3 p.m. to 10 p.m. at the Charles River Speedway with a rain date of Aug. 2.

Meinke said they still get a little flack for the name, but most of the response has been positive.

“People may have thoughts about the name, but it’s going to be a lot of fun,” he said.

The Festival will feature art, music, food, drinks, and more activities at the Charles River Speedway. Meinke said they moved there last year after the event outgrew its original location, Zone 3 in Allston.

“The capacity of 700 at Zone 3 was too small for us,” he said. “To host it at the Speedway means we can welcome more neighbors, more engagement and really allows us to have more of a festival atmosphere.”

Meinke said the organization and prep for the event has grown as well, and it’s become something bigger than himself.

“From my perspective – and I say this in the most wonderful way – I feel like I don’t do as much,” he said. “We now have a team of about 50 neighbors who are organizing so many different parts of the festival, from our Gala and Gallery, where we show off beautified rat traps, to getting our bands, stages and live shows together, getting the decorations ready, and so in my mind, a few years ago I was doing all that work.”

Meinke said he feels the event can continue to grow and evolve on its own with this much buy-in from residents.

“Now neighbors of Allston and Brighton are doing that work,” he said. “I’ve been really seeing myself as just a supporter of this entire team that has grown year after year. I’m more managing this rat pack of neighbors instead of managing all the details.”

Meinke said Allston and Brighton have reputations as transient neighborhoods with not a lot of permanent residents making improvements and protecting each other’s quality of life. He said that’s just a myth, but one that’s been hard to dispel.

Advertisement

He said District 9 has a lot of young people, but it’s only been recently that they’ve been getting involved in the neighborhoods and the city government to advocate for themselves and their neighborhoods. He said he hopes the Festival can help that.

“It’s not transient by desire, it’s transient by design,” he said. “Allston is a prime example of that, with rising rents, development, changing responsibilities of landlords, and I think in terms of our neighborhood involvement and the opportunities that are there.”

Meinke went on to say that there are definitely a lot of involved neighbors in the district, but said that they have their own schedules that don’t really align with those of younger people.

“I really enjoy the passion of our neighbors, but I wonder if sometimes that comes at a cost of opportunity to our younger residents for them to jump in,” he said. “I think sometimes it’s tough to get involved in your neighborhood, because you’re balancing all these different dynamics. Like I wanted to get involved in the gardening club, but they meet weekdays during the day and I can’t get out there, I’ve got work. There are so many different reasons why I think younger people don’t get involved, and I hope that with the Rat City Arts Festival, we make all of our engagement and events accessible to folks who are balancing a lot. And that’s helped by having so many diverse people come and join us.”

Performers include Cheem, Makeout Palace, Justice Cow, The Reunion, Kay Wolf, Ashy Finn, Intac, Dream Journal, Taylor Hurd, Eli Shane, Ava Sophia, Von Aldra, Nick Shea, AKA Rat, C.J. Red Mouth, and Ella Faye. The event and lead-in events are all free.

The Festival is now also hosting a free poetry night, the Rat Slam, at O’Brien’s Pub in Allston on July 27 and the Rat City Gala + Gallery on July 28 at Zone 3.

The festival is also a fundraiser, and last year raised over $3,000 day-of for growing artists through their Emerging Artist Grant, as well as providing more than 110 paid opportunities with over $22,000 in funding to artists and creatives last year.

Meinke said they are working with local schools and art programs to bring younger artists into the festival with paid opportunities to show their stuff.

He said this year, Brighton Main Streets is sponsoring the Festival’s “Rising Rat” program which is giving tours and instruction on music production to local youths looking to get into music as a career. He said they also provide funding and materials for youth artists to get their pieces started and in front of people.

“These are artists who maybe have never participated in an artist market before, and so we provide them funding to purchase materials, they make their craft, get mentoring from local artists and they come to the Festival where they will sell their fares,” he said. “It’s really just a confidence builder, and we’re doing the same thing for our Studio Rats program.”

For more information on the Festival, go to https://www.ratcityartsfestival.com