Hit up the Brooklyn Zine Fest last Saturday and it felt off

I went to the Brooklyn Zine Fest last weekend and got kinda bummed. Maybe half the tables were selling stuff that looked more like fancy printed booklets than actual handmade zines. One seller had a $20 risograph print that was just a single folded page with no staples or any soul in it. Am I just being a gatekeeper about what counts as a zine, or do other people miss when it was more about photocopies and messy stories?

2 comments

2 Comments

sullivan.elliot6d ago

Yeah everything's getting gentrified even the DIY stuff. Same thing happened with thrift stores now they're curated vintage shops with $50 t-shirts. Feels like people care more about making something look "professional" than actually putting their messy heart into it.

wesley_hart6d agoMost Upvoted

Is it really that deep though, @sullivan.elliot? Some people just like their stuff to look nice, doesn't mean they don't care.