UFOs vs. Cancer: The UFOs Win!

Don’t be surprised if, a few years from now, Baltimore is hosting a big music festival, raising money and awareness for area nonprofits. The first in the series, UFOs vs. Cancer, was a great success. GBMC’s Sandra and Malcolm Berman Cancer Institute was among the 2022 festival beneficiaries.

UFOs, in this case, stands for United for Others.

“The festival unites experimental, creative musicians and visual artists to raise money for charities,” Randy Cochran, the creator of UFOs, explained.

Promotional materials described UFOs vs. Cancer as “a festival collective run by a cancer survivor. … Our greatest hope is to help alleviate suffering and do our part to help create more cancer-free futures.”

A musician himself, Cochran plays the drums for three bands as well as writes songs and provides vocals for his own. His partner in organizing the festival, Erica Kagan, runs a vintage clothing business, Welsh Bohemian. She curated the visual art vendors while Cochran coordinated the bands.

Paul Celano, MD, FACP, FASCO, Herman and Walter Samuelson Medical Director of the Sandra and Malcolm Berman Cancer Institute, treated Cochran, who is now 40, last year for testicular cancer. Running the festival helped him figure out how to talk about being a cancer survivor.

“I think part of me being able to get these artists on board was being able to talk about cancer from an experiential standpoint,” Cochran said.

The festival headliner was the internationally celebrated hip hop duo Infinity Knives and Brian Ennals. Many of the artists who joined UFOs had their own experiences with cancer.

“A lot of them have had family members that have gone through it, parents and siblings,” Cochran said. “They have experience on some level of that suffering. The bands were really very supportive in coming on board and very happy to be performing.”

Thanks to the timing of the event, it wasn’t hard to send the message that, with support, patients can survive cancer.

“At the time, I was close enough to when I was discharged that I looked a lot like a cancer patient,” Cochran recalled. “My eyebrows hadn’t even grown back in all the way yet. It was definitely an opportunity to be like, ‘Look. You can make it through this.’ And that was pretty inspiring.”

As successful as the first festival was, Cochran understands nearly everyone involved took a risk on UFOs vs. Cancer. Even on a Sunday night, the Ottobar in Baltimore’s Charles Village took a risk saying yes to the event. They could have held out in hopes of booking a band that would bring in more money. But they signed on with UFOs.

Cochran worked hard to make sure the club saw UFOs as a good partner. He hired a DJ to keep things moving as one act left the stage and the next set up to perform. And he managed things backstage so the process took minutes.

“I did my absolute best,” he said. “I mean, I was everywhere. Erica was everywhere.”

Their efforts paid off, and the crew at the Ottobar agreed.

Cochran has participated in festivals both as a performer and an audience member. Now he knows he can organize one successfully. More than that, he has tapped their potential for doing good.

As a cancer patient, he’s grateful for support groups and other programs that provide for the mental health needs of cancer patients. And it feels good to give back to the programs that have helped him and are helping others.

It’s an achievement that feels very down-to-earth.