The local affiliate of the National Alliance on Mental Illness is hosting its second annual Breakout Bash at The Barn, Saturday.

Local musicians began approaching Anthony Hannan, co-organizer of the bash, last year about wanting to perform at venues around the community. In partnership with the President of the local NAMI chapter, Paul Quinn, Hannan asked the musicians if they would play for a cause. A cause that raised awareness about mental health and addiction recovery.

“Part of the reason we call it the Breakout Bash, it’s kind of breaking out of the darkness as they say, the shadows, because mental health and addiction are things we don’t like to talk about,” Quinn said. “They tend to get scuddled under the bushes somewhere, it’s better to not talk about it usually is what people think.”

The musicians, all performing for free in the name of mental health, will perform during the 12-hour-long charity event at The Barn. While last year’s lineup was stacked with more unknown talents, this year’s lineup has a few household names from the community.

All community members are invited to the event. The overall message to all that are attending the event is that it’s not all bad. There is hope in recovery.

“We don’t want this to be a sad occasion, it’s to celebrate that it’s the best time in history to have a mental illness because there’s more treatments than ever and recovery is possible,” Quinn said. “I don’t want to dwell on the negative because people need to realize there’s success stories in order for them to get motivated to work on their own situation.”

Quinn knows how difficult the ongoing battle with mental health can be. His brother has been battling Schizophrenia and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder for many years.

“He has OCD, so one of the things he does is, when he gets out of a car or he’s leaving the house, he’ll check the locks repeatedly. Over and over and over,” Quinn said. “People see that and go ‘Oh, well he’s weird’ or ‘He’s crazy.’”

Although weird and crazy are offensive to those battling mental health and addiction, Quinn questions normalcy. There’s very few people that live the life of a “normal” person.

“If you go get drunk or get high, whatever it might be, generally is more acceptable than to be considered quote ‘crazy,’” Quinn said. “But, I can tell them, we’re all crazy. Who’s normal? Who do you know that’s normal? I ask everywhere I go, ‘Who here thinks their normal?’ And nobody thinks they’re normal.”

The organizers of the Breakout Bash recognize that the community needs positive and open conversations about mental health and addiction. Quinn knows people do not want to talk about struggles, but he said he wants people to know that there’s help for them and they’re not alone.

“Certainly in this community, overdoses and suicides are at an all-time high, and a lot of those are cause of denial,” Quinn said. “People have a condition that needs to be treated.”

This is The Barn’s second year hosting the event. Owner of The Barn, Jim Watson, said he enjoys hosting the event and wants to push the message of recovery out to anyone in the community that needs it. He also wants to let people struggling with mental health and addiction know that addition does not have to be the answer, there are people available to help them.

The Barn will host the Breakout Bash on Saturday from 12 p.m. to 12 a.m. Raffles and 50/50 will be available. All donations, while not required, will be accepted and go toward benefiting NAMI which educates people on mental health and addition. The lineup for the day and into the evening will go as follows:

• John and Hanna Mohr
• Matt Frampton
• The Bomb & Co
• Corner Pocket
• Grounded
• Steve Spires