Music fans of all ages migrated downtown Saturday night, braving threats of rain and cold weather to take part in Muncie Music Fest.
Students, townspeople and music fans from around the Midwest gathered in the streets for the late night festival, an event that junior Evan Owens considers a great representation of the local arts scene.
"Most people really don't know it, but there's tons of great art that's here," the guitarist of Architecture Aviva said.
For Owens, the experience was about more than just the performance.
"Seeing old friends, seeing new friends, meeting new people," he said. "Seeing all the different art that people make here in the city we live in was just a really great experience."
Muncie Music Fest hosted 50 local bands on three outdoor stages, as well as 10 stages indoors. Despite the chance of rain, many fans roamed the downtown streets, wandering from stage to stage as bands transitioned.
Dustin McKibbon, also known as DJ Crafty, believes the weather deterred fans from coming early.
"I don't know if people were apprehensive about rain or inclement weather or anything like that," McKibbon said. "Maybe it was just people started looking around and realized everyone's gone, they're downtown. It started off a little slow. We were there around 6 p.m. and it was more audience faithful to those early bands that were there. But as the night went on, the crowds grew and grew and grew."
McKibbon's midnight DJ set at the Silo was well attended. He said the event was supposed to be over by 2 a.m. but fans stuck around and bands continued playing until 3 a.m.
The event drew fans from outside of Muncie, as many of the bands have fan bases outside of the local area.
Jeff Tompkins travelled to Muncie Music Fest from Chicago, having only known Catch Curtis out of all the bands on the festival lineup.
"I think there's been a good selection of artists and in a little way, it surpassed my expectations," he said.
SOLID SOUND SYSTEM
From a band standpoint, both The Bashville Boys and Bradley Thomas & Friends praised the sound engineers.
"Our set went great. The sound guys did great with our sound, which is sometimes a struggle because we have a couple acoustic instruments and a couple electric instruments," Jim Flatford, vocalist for The Bashville Boys, said. "It went over real well. Had some people dancing out front and didn't leave anybody in the crowd."
After surveying the atmosphere of the festival, McKibbon performed, receiving much praise for his late night performance.
"I had a lot of people come up to me and thank me for having a great time," he said. "That was really a highlight. It's always a great feeling to know that you helped somebody have a better time."
Reflecting on the festival as a whole, Flatford had few complaints.
"I think it turned out great. The weather was wonderful for it. That was a worry because we thought it might be raining," he said. "The amount of people out seemed pretty high. It seemed to me like it was more than the Fat Summer Fest. Real good music the whole night and a real good crowd."
BRINGING BUSINESS DOWNTOWN
Muncie Music Fest also benefitted many downtown businesses, as new faces wandered the downtown streets for the first time.
"There are a lot of people who are brought out to downtown for the festival that have not explored downtown before and weren't familiar with the businesses down there," Graham Watson, co-organizer of Muncie Music Fest, said. "Because the festival lasts a good eight hours, people are going to have to eat. The downtown restaurants were packed. I heard [there were] half-hour waits for some of the restaurants."
Although last year's Muncie Music Fest was cancelled, Watson plans on the event happening again next year after this year's success. He said planning for the Muncie Music Fest 2012 will begin in a few months.
"We anticipate continuing to do it because it's clearly been successful and appreciated by everyone involved, so why not?" Watson said.
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