No Idea Records is an American independent record label based in Gainesville, Florida which focuses on punk rock and its sub-styles and produces both vinyl records and compact discs. The label also organizes The Fest, an independently operated annual festival known for featuring over 250 punk, pop punk, country, heavy metal, indie rock, avant-garde and other musical acts across many venues for 3 days in Gainesville each fall.No Idea Records started not as a record label, but as a zine in 1985, published independently by Var Thelin and Ken Coffelt and some friends of theirs from high school. By the seventh issue in 1989, Var was running the zine with Sarah Dyer and other contributors and collaborators. Starting with the sixth edition, the No Idea zine included 7-inch records with each issue. The first featured a local Gainesville band called Doldrums, and the second was a split 7", one side of which belonged to later Bay Area legends Crimpshrine, a major influence on the musical style which dominates No Idea to the present.
Since its beginnings, No Idea has remained a foundation of the Gainesville punk scene and is considered by many to have spawned its very own style of punk, sometimes half-jokingly referred to as "beard punk" or "beardcore" due to the large proportion of members in bands having beards, or more commonly as variations of emo, post-hardcore and pop punk. The label has also worked with grindcore and metalcore bands like Left for Dead, Acrid, Bombs of Death, Crucible and The Swarm aka Knee Deep in the Dead.