Musicians, artists and various vendors will be gathering at the Water Bowl this evening for Spring Fest '09.
Springfest goes from April 17 to April 18 and will feature bands from across the Midwest including ekoostik hookah, Midwest Hype, Fresh Hops and Daphne Willis and Co. among others.
The event aims to raise environmental awareness, promote local and regional art and encourage understanding of different cultures and belief systems, organizer Nick Armogida said.
"All of these musicians are on indie labels or unsigned, but they are good regional acts," Armogida said. "In the next 10 years these guys are going to be the next Dave Matthews and the next big hits."
The event will showcase independent artists who will have their works on display from noon to 4 p.m. Saturday.
Armogida said he has worked since December to put the event together. He took out a $2,000 student loan, received $1,000 from Toyota and smaller donations from other companies to fund the project, but said he's relying on ticket sales to fund the remainder of the event.
He said he expects 2,000 people to attend.
To promote environmental awareness, recycling will be available. Muncie Toyota and Muncie Scion, who are partially sponsoring the event, will plant a tree for every full bag of recycling.
The event promotes environmental awareness down to it's advertising campaign.
"There is a lot of waste that goes into fliers and handbills," Armogida said. "For a festival this size you would probably print out somewhere to $5,000 to $7,000 handbills and about 3,000 to 5,000 posters."
To save energy, Armogida had his street team put on a contest called "Chalk Across America" which used chalk art as opposed to paper as a means for advertising.
His street team made chalk advertisements in Chicago, Bloomington, Indianapolis, Michigan, Muncie, Batesville, Ind., and Cincinatti.
The number of fliers was reduced to a thousand handbills and only 500 posters.
Although the event has many social messages, it just comes down to the music, Kim Gillenwater said.
"It's a way for people to experience music and be around other people who love music and to be together and share the love a little bit," Gillenwater, who designed the event's tickets, T-shirts and fliers said.
The event will also feature a henna tattoo artist, volleyball and cornhole tournament, a hookah lounge, fire dancers and a LED light show by Herm Productions.
Armogida said he has high hopes for the festival this weekend and into the future.
"I want this to be a huge cultural arts fair in Muncie, something that grows into the community to where it's a part of Muncie and brings in a lot of revenue," Armogida said. "I want it to be something that puts us on the map."
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