The Garage is an established DIY space in Boyds, Maryland, in the outskirts of D.C. and Montgomery County. With its spacious plot of land surrounded by goats and horses in the middle of nowhere, the area may seem like any other typical farmland miles away from suburbia. What many don’t know is that The Garage is a beacon for the alternative community in the DMV area with its inviting atmosphere and constant encouragement to create. This building is an event space for local bands to accessibly perform their music of various genres.

From garage rock, screamo, to experimental ambience, The Garage allows for local artists to have an audience, and a friendly one at that. Within all age groups, you’d find anyone from children being introduced to heavier genres of music, to older people who love to witness an alternative community still thriving. Even when the crowd gets heavy into moshing, everyone respects each other’s space. All of that is to say, The Garage is for the alternative community, by the alternative community.

However, despite its local impact, The Garage is currently at risk of being shut down. There is word-of-mouth speculation as to why, but the official statement is that The Garage is on an agricultural reserve. In 1980, Montgomery County established ⅓ of its land for agricultural use to preserve its heritage. Businesses, activities, and overall use of land in these areas must provide benefits to agriculture. The Garage prides itself on promoting agritourism, meaning that the establishment invites those who live outside of Montgomery County to gather in the agricultural areas. Not only that, the venue hosts farmers’ markets that highlight small businesses across the DMV, and the remaining land that the venue occupies is a habitat for horses and goats that belong to the venue owners.

All of these factors together consider the Garage to be a business that promotes agriculture. “Farm Fest,” an event hosted by the venue, was meant to promote The Garage’s importance to agricultural contributions and received a county-issued permit for the event to take place. Shortly after, the Department of Permitting Services revoked this permit and filed a cease-and-desist order to shut down the venue’s operation, suddenly claiming that they did not promote agritourism to the community. The consequences of this would be that the venue would receive a $500 fine for every event they hosted, which would be a detrimental financial loss for the owners, as it is a small business, and admission fees are only $10 a person. 

This sudden action raised a lot of suspicion from The Garage’s attendees, considering that the venue recently turned two years old and had no prior legal issues before this, or when the business was registered. This has led to theories about locals possibly complaining about the crowd that The Garage attracts, as many MoCo residents tend to be of older age and not as understanding towards an alternative crowd.

There were also rumors about how Farm Fest would’ve been a distraction from SpringFest, another farmers market festival in Poolesville, an area relatively nearby that markets itself as a small town with old-fashioned values. This has led people to believe that the cease was sent to push people towards SpringFest; however, this is only speculation and hasn’t been confirmed. Nonetheless, this is considered to be an act of injustice towards a small business in a county that’s already highly profitable.

There are currently many ways to help this venue stay in business. The Garage has set up an email, [email protected], for people to write about how the venue is important to them so that the owners can collect letters to send to council members. There will also be a show on May 9th, 2025, to raise money and collect signatures for a petition. For those who cannot attend, it’s strongly encouraged to follow their Instagram, @livefromthegarage.music, to stay up to date about the current events and to spread the word!