Fall is definitely the season of music festivals, especially in the melodious Muncie.
Muncie Music Fest will kick off Saturday in downtown Muncie along a fair stretch of Walnut Street. Many local venues are taking part in this festivity, including the Launching Pad, the Living Room, Doc's Music Hall, The Fickle Peach, The Blue Bottle, The Artist Within and The Heorot. With 40 bands playing at 7 different stages, it will be a day packed with musical variety.
Muncie Music Fest is being organized by a committee headed by director Graham Watson, Downtown Development Program Director Cheryl Crowder and Mike Martin, owner of Doc's Music Hall. The trio has been hard at work the past couple weeks setting everything up.
"Events like these are the result of hundreds of small, simple tasks," Watson said. "The hardest part for me has been keeping in contact with the dozens of bands that are booked to perform and developing MuncieMusicFest.com. For Cheryl, she's had to be on the phone with sponsor companies to try to get us enough money to pull this off."
2008 marks the second year for Muncie Music Fest. After wet weather started the festival off last year, changes have been made this year to make Muncie Music Fest even better.
"We have more bands this year, and we have more venues involved," Watson said. "And we have a compilation album out of all the bands that are performing on the two main outdoor stages plus several other bands. We're giving the CD to the first 800 people to buy tickets."
Watson, also a leading member in Full Circle Arts Co-op, has already got a full load on his plate without this festival.
"I'm the founder of Project Muncie Scene, which started back in 2003," he said. "We're hoping right now by the end of the week we'll be unveiling our local music community Web site, themunciescene.com. I'm the secretary of the Board of Directors for the Full Circle Arts Co-op, which is an organization that currently runs the Launching Pad in University Square. Full Circle is also working on starting an all-ages, art-oriented community center downtown."
In addition to the bands, Muncie Music Fest comes together courtesy of unpaid volunteers. Any profit made from the event will go back into the Downtown Development fund to keep its office running for another year. All the money raised to put on this festival comes from ticket sales and numerous sponsors, including WLBC/MAX, Muncie Downtown Development, Muncie Sanitary District, Sam Pierce Chevrolet, FM Music, Michelob Ultra, Mountain Dew and Wishbone Gifts.
"My interest is just supporting the music community in general," Watson said. "That mission takes a lot of forms, and more than anything else I don't want to personally ever pass up on an opportunity to provide something as beneficial as this to the community."
Tickets for Muncie Music Fest can be purchased for $7 at any one of the following locations: Doc's Music Hall, Wishbone Gifts, Dan's Downtown Records, Village Green Records, the Launching Pad, the Living Room, The Fickle Peach, The Blue Bottle, The Heorot and White River Landing. Tickets are $10 at the gate Saturday and are $5 for Ball State students with a Ball State ID.
What: Second Annual Muncie Music FestWhere: Venues along Walnut StreetWhen: Saturday, 6 p.m.-1 a.m. Admission: $7 advance, $10 at the gate, $5 with student ID. Free Muncie Music Fest sampler CD to first 1000 tickets. Free trolley will run to and from downtown and BSU campus.
For a comprehensive lists of scheduled bands, visit www.munciemusicfest.com.
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