The SNOB Film Festival has had a good run over the last decade plus.
But when the longtime Somewhat North of Boston shindig wraps up this weekend, it will be the end of the film festival as we know it.
Don’t worry, organizers aren’t pulling the plug on the popular yearly moviegoers paradise, but rather it will be a reset of sorts.
This is the last year of the SNOB. When the event rolls around in 2016, it will be under a new name. What is that name? Well, that’s top secret. So top secret that even we don’t know despite our constant begging and pleading and promises to keep our mouth shut and throw away the key.
Executive Director Jay Doherty cited a few reasons for the change. One is that SNOB can sound, well, a little snobbish, and can be off putting to some. Sure, a lot of people find it clever and funny, but others haven’t been a huge fan of the name.
“For most people, it’s funny,” Doherty said. “But some people are turned off by that term.”
Another reason is that Concord is a pretty cool place to live and visit. It’s not just some sidekick to Boston that lies somewhere north of the Massachusetts hub, and organizers definitely want to highlight the Granite State capital. You have to agree that Concord is pretty cool place, and we fully think the Insider is one of the many reasons for that. You can infer the new name will incorporate Concord in someway, but not even that could be confirmed or denied. They sure are keeping this thing under tight security. They might as well have put it in the Concord 2065 time capsule.
“Concord is a destination. There’s a lot going on here,” Doherty said.
And lastly, with the music and beer side of things really taking off over the last few years, there’s a desire to highlight those pieces of the puzzle a little more and make it more of a three-pronged festival – with the film side of things obviously maintaining its headliner status. It is after all a film festival.
“It will certainly help sell the other two things,” Doherty said.
A name change has been a topic of discussion over the last couple years and the festival committee finally decided to pull the trigger on it. And that’s good thinking ’cause a rash decision could end up with names like the Concord Film Festival or the Movies, Music and Beer Festival. Neither one of which sounds like a keeper.
“Every year the question comes up ‘Do we want to call ourselves SNOB?’ ” Doherty said. “So we reached out to our Facebook crowd and said ‘This is your festival, what do you want to call it?”
So if you want to find out what next year’s event will be called, you’re going to have to go to the closing night awards at the Barley House and hear the decision with everyone else. Sorry, we couldn’t pull off a sneak preview, but sometimes that’s how the cookie crumbles.
