WILLSTOCK Hosted AHS Students and Their Band, the “Banana Bunnies”
The annual WILLSTOCK high school band festival opened Sept. 12th. The festival returned to its original venue at Northview High School. This year, the festival hosted around 20 bands from all over the state of Georgia.
“[WILLSTOCK] was created, designed and implemented by the kids - and it's for the kids. So it has the double whammy of being something they created - but created for themselves. It is a very fun event with a fabulous "feel good" vibe to it,” John Trautwein, Will-to-Live founder, said.
The first WILLSTOCK took place in October 2011 at Northview High School. The concert was created in memory of Will Trautwein who passed away in October of 2010.
“They knew that Will was passionate about music, and he would have loved to have the opportunity to play in a teen music festival, ” said Trautwein.
WILLSTOCK raises awareness for teen suicide, sponsored by the Will-to-Live Foundation. The foundation spreads the message of “Love Ya’ Man!”, the motto of the foundation, which encourages teens to support each other through hard times.
“The WILLSTOCK Teen Music Festival was one of the very first creations of the ‘kids of Will To Live’. At the very first Will To Live foundation meeting, back in November of 2010 - just one month after Will Trautwein died by suicide, his very best friends came up with the idea of WILLSTOCK,” said Trautwein.
The Willstock festival started with the idea of a high school band festival coming from the teenage members of the foundation. The first WILLSTOCK event was held at Northview High School in Johns Creek, GA, where they raised $8,000 for the Will-to-Live foundation. Since then, the festivals have raised over $60,000 in proceeds for the non-profit.
Alpharetta’s student band, the “Banana Bunnies”, played at WILLSTOCK at last year’ event. In this year’s show, the band performed again for the second time after a memorable 2014 outing.
“We continue to play in the festival because we just really love the message behind the whole foundation, and think it’s very important to spread the message,” Andrew Wilson, lead guitarist, said.
The Alpharetta oriented band formed from a group of friends that were all intrigued to play music together. After creating a virtual band, in the video game “Guitar Hero”, the group of teens started the “Banana Bunnies”. The band plays cover music from popular bands such as Green Day to songs from Blink-182, with a wide range in between- including some original songs.
“The band was originally created as just as a ‘for fun’ band. Nothing serious, but when I met Tommy Trautwein, the son of Founder John Trautwein, on my baseball team, he told me about WILLSTOCK and all of the things it stood for, we decided to take our band and the music we play very seriously,” Wilson said.
Willstock tries to inspire kids to get out and be exposed to the foundation through music they play together and spread the message of “Love, Hope, and the Will to Live.”
“[WILLSTOCK] proves our mission statement that kids want to be there for each other. By having this event become so popular and raise so much money for the foundation that goes right back into the community, it simply confirms that our mission is a good one- and a needed one! We are extremely proud of WILLSTOCK and all it represents,” Trautwein said.
