Hey everybody, welcome back into your favorite 90 minutes of the week. Although this was going to be shy of 90. Uh Hamco Live Hot Ticket episode season 1 episode I want to say 17. Is that right? Wow.
17 episodes here on the Get In Podcast Network. Now, we got we kind of have a different different take today. Yeah, I'm on a short schedule. I got to get my son to driving school. Um, and today we're just it's it's uh it's uh dedicated.
Yeah, I was going to say focused. Focused. Yeah, I would not use the word focused. That's not been our anyone who knows us would say focus is is not in our vocabulary, right? Uh, by the way, with me as always, I'm Josh Cecil, by the way, editor-inchief of hamcolive.com.
With me as always, my god, he's a global icon and a national treasure, Tyler Mum over here. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. You got the Stanley.
What a classic. Yeah. You know, I thought in honor of today's show, I should Yeah, I should at least look the part. That is a working man's thermos right there. Yeah, I can act like it.
My dad had one of those. Had the little handle on it though, though. Like green strap looking handle, you know. Yeah, he was a CPA, right? Actually was a banker, but he worked in agricultural loans and for I don't know, for a few years.
He's had maybe more jobs than I have. For a few years, he worked for a uh like a grain elevator. Yeah. Company. Anyways, that doesn't matter.
Here we go. Focused. Focused. Just like we were saying over there behind video village. By God, that is the voiceless, not voiceless, faceless voice, disembodied voice.
Producer Chris. Bruce. Chris, how are you this morning? Wonderful. Fantastic.
Yeah. So, today, shortened, focused, dedicated, high and tight. High and tight. Just like Chris's hair. This is all about TradeUp Fest.
We announced it officially last week. Tickets went on sale for Trade Upfest. That is the big music festival. We are producing, promoting. It's out at the arena, the Riverview Health Arena Innovation Mile.
And we got a lot to talk about. I want to unpack it a little bit, give people some of the details, and uh kind of help understand a little bit how it's going to flow. Um, and maybe even get into the history. Oh, hey guys, Cecil jumping in here real quick. I realized when I was editing the podcast that I didn't mention the date at the beginning, so I just want to make sure I mention that right here.
It's September 19th. That's Saturday, September 19th, 2026. I do mention the date at the end, but I thought I better get it in here at the beginning. So, uh, Tradeup Fest, Saturday, September 19th, 2026. It is not, this is not a card show, okay?
This is a music festival. It's actually a hybrid music festival because here's here's how this works. Uh, this is two parts. Two parts. We've got an outdoor festival experience and then an indoor arena concert after that festival ends, which is that's why I call it a hybrid.
Yeah. You created this model, right? This is the first, as far as I know, I am the first person ever to do anything like this. That can't be true. Surely this has been done before.
Not by my records. Well, here here's the deal. If you've ever been out to Riverview Health Arena at Innovation Mile, you've got the arena kind of proper here and then out in front of it is this sort of pavilion area and then a grassy lot here and a grassy lot here and then a little driveway up the middle. All right, man. If you could put a graphic.
Hey, I'll put a graphic on. That'd be good. Yeah. Yeah. Right here.
Yeah. I recently did a video where I had a graphic and I had some popup arrows. Yeah. It's pretty sweet. Anyways, in those grassy lots are two stages.
Oh man, I'll come back to the two stages because I'm super excited about it. Uh, so two stages and then up that middle in that sort of driveway area is going to be the food trucks and vendors and that sort of thing. And then on that pavilion area is what we're calling Trades Village. Right. So, on the stages, we're going to have eight different bands going back and forth um from 11:00 a.m.
till about 5 5:30 p.m. Um they're going to be doing anywhere from a 30 minute set to 4550 minutes. Um and all of that is free. Yeah. Open to the public.
Just come out, bring your chairs. Don't bring coolers. You can't bring coolers. I want to see a cooler out there. By God, if I see a cooler out there or even What about a Stanley?
No, I'm not even going to allow Stanley unless they jump on as a sponsor. Stanley. Stanley. Listen, and I don't mean some guy named Stanley. I'm talking about the from the office.
I'm talking about the company that's been around since 1913 making thermoses. Speaking of companies that have been around for a long time, let's not forget that Video Village is brought to you by lmmproducts.com, makers of fine leather goods in Anderson, Indiana since 1975. Use code hamco at checkout and save yourself 25% off a nice leather guitar strap or messenger bag or journal cover. All kinds of good stuff over there. But let's get back to Trade Upfest.
Um, yeah. So, we've got uh the two stages bands playing on both. You just come bring your chairs. Maybe you didn't want to bring a chair because you're going to be walking back and forth, although it's not that far uh to carry a chair. So, you set up here, you watch a band, you go over here, you watch a band.
But what's cool about all this is you got the food trucks down the middle, some vendors down the middle. You can do a little uh maybe a little shopping, I don't know. But what I really love is this trades village. Yeah. This is what's interesting to me.
So, this goes a little bit into um I guess kind of the message of it. Um and I think maybe I'll cover that in the history, but let's talk about Trades Village. What is Trades Village? Well, I wanted to use this event, this concert, and and music in general just to promote the skilled trades, right? um skilled trades, meaning your electricians, your welders, your plumbers, your advanced manufacturing, your um tool and and die makers.
Like there's a whole uh broad swath of industries that kind of fall under that skilled trades. Um, but there are over 700,000 jobs open right now in the skilled trades, advanced manufacturing industry. And that's probably like on the low end. That's probably higher than that, right? So, there's this great need.
Uh, but there's sort of been this, I don't know, denigration of the skilled trades for I'll say the last 50 years. Yeah. I mean, I graduated in 1997. High school in 19 I beat you to it. High school in 1997.
And the expectation for me all through school was go to college. Go to college. Go to college. The only way you can be successful is if you go to college. That's how you make a living.
That's how you make a good living is college. Yeah. Right. Um that's not a not really true. No.
I mean, I'm still paying off my student loan. Um, and I as a teacher, well, I'll just tell you what I was making as a teacher. My last year of teaching, I was making 54,000. Yeah. A year.
Now, here's what's crazy about that. I ran into a former student, my Yeah, it was my last year of teaching. My ran into a former student at SIDS. I think you guys were probably there. Yeah.
I was like, "Oh, hey, Alex. How's it going? You know, what are you up to since you graduated?" He was a He just got back from Texas on a welding gig. He was a welder and he's telling me, "Yeah, I was there for about six months um just picking up all kinds of overtime and whatever." And I was like, "Oh, that's cool." He goes, "Yeah, I made about uh$120,000 in the six months. I'm sitting here making $50 or thousand dollar a year playing off student loans and like what am I doing?
So, I wanted to get people excited about the skilled trades and all the opportunity that's there. And the more I I dug in and talked to um people at at Gayl who Gayler Electric who's one of our sponsors and um ABC which is Associated Builders and Contractors of Indiana, Kentucky. There are other presenting sponsor. the more I talked to them, it's like, "Oh my gosh, there are so many opportunities for kids coming out of high school to jump right into the trades." Um, but people that want to transition jobs to jump into the trades, there's so much opportunity there. And, um, it's just a great career path that for some reason, it had a stigma.
It had a stigma. Yes. I think that's I was talking to a guy the other day and I think that's starting to um reverse that trend a little bit. Yeah. But it's still there for parents for a lot of parents.
Yeah. I think maybe the the stigma would be from parents and what they think will help their kids as adults, you know, what path they should take. I don't think anybody looked down on those professions on a personal level, right? I just don't think when you were coming up when we were that that was the first path you should look at or that would be like well if you can't get through college you're going to have to be a plumber right and you'll end up making way more then you'll end up making more money and you won't have all that student debt. Um yeah, I think that's right.
I think I think it for I don't know why but it was just like college college. I almost wonder if it was like some sort of weird propaganda campaign from like universities, you know what I mean? Like higher ed or the student loan people, I don't know. U anyways, that's where trade up, that's where the name came up came from. And actually, you'll you'll appreciate this.
I was reading uh Mike Campbell's um biography. Mike Campbell is the guitar player of Tom Petty's band, The Heartbreakers. And he was talking about uh Farmade. And during this time, I was thinking about, well, what can we do as Hamco Live to promote local music, live music because we had did this homegrown music concert series the year before and I was like, I want I want to go bigger this year and I'm reading this book by Mike Campbell. He's talking about farming.
like, oh, could do something like farmade but for the skilled trades because we had Gaylar as a sponsor last year. I was like, well, what could make it enticing for them? How can I connect all these pieces? How can I connect all the dots? And I was like, oh, farmade for the skilled trades.
Boom. That's what it is. It's a perfect description of it. What am I going to call it? Trade up.
Trade upfest. Done. So that was gosh I started talking to Gayl November of last year. Um and then we've just been figuring it out. Yeah.
Since then it's a big project. It's huge. So not only do we have the outdoor portion, eight bands, but we have the arena concert. So I said, if we're going to go huge, let's find a good place to book this. And I said, "What about the arena?
Could I do that?" That sounds outlandish. It was I didn't think it would happen. And then they said, "Yes." I'm like, "Oh, oh no." It's like you didn't expect the yes. So, oh well. Yeah.
Of course, we'll figure this. I was the uh I was the dog that caught the bus and now I'm getting run over by the bus. Not really. Um Yeah. So, we've got the outdoor portion and then we got the indoor portion.
Now, that has to be ticketed. So the outdoor portion is free. Yeah. But the indoor portion has to be a ticketed event, right? So we're selling tickets for that and you can go to tradeupfest.com to find all this information and find links for uh tickets for the arena portion.
And then uh we have we're having people register for passes even though it's free. Register for passes for the outdoor event just so we can get an idea of how many people are are coming. Yeah. But you can show up, you know, and get a pass that day. Yeah, that's fine.
But that indoor portion, um, we wanted to outdoor is kind of local and regional. And we'll, I'll talk about the acts here in a minute, but the indoor portion, the arena, um, national acts. So, uh, well, sort of our very first, our opener for the event is, uh, young lady that's been, um, on one of our singer songwriter nights, out of beer. Um, she's local. She's got an incredible voice and jog on it, she's a good songwriter.
Her name is Nora Reese. You can check her out on Spotify. Um, but she's gonna open the show and do about a 30 minute acoustic set. Um, she's got another guitar player with her. Um, and then after her, very excited that this worked out.
Um, the Wilder Blue. I think you did this whole event just so you could hire them and hang out with them. That's what this is about. The skilled trade is you swindling your way into a private party with Wilder Blue. Everybody knows, if you've watched the podcast or you've been around me, I love the Wilder Blue.
Um, saw them last fall and I was like, I was looking for a good middle act. I was like, gosh, who could it be? And running through names like I wonder if the Wilder Blue would even be interested in doing it. Like, could we get them? Um, so I reached out and yeah, over some negotiations made that happen.
So, the Wilder Blue are going to open up. Um, they are up and coming even though they've got I think four albums out now. Like I keep seeing things on like uh whiskey.com which is, you know, like country music site. Um, they're coming around, man. And they're so good.
Like if you love what I love, like my favorite kind of music is jangly guitars. Yeah. And lots of harmonies. And this is the Wilder, right? Very much like the Eagles.
Yeah. I was going to say the Eagles. In fact, they even do a a cover of uh Seven Bridges Road with Luke Combmes, actually. And they opened up for Luke Combmes when he played Lucas Oil. Um so you may have even seen them and not be aware of it.
Oh, I didn't know they did that. Yeah. Yeah. Um Yeah. So Wilder Blue got to be that middle act.
And then our headliner, um this guy named Larry Fleet, who he's great, man. like he's got this raspy voice, but great songs. Um, he wrote he's written a couple songs, I think, for Morgan Wallen, at least one called Manade a Bar, I think, or Man-made Bar. Uh, Manade a Bar, I think that's what it is. Um, so he wrote that for Morgan Wallen, who had a hit with it.
But he's coming. He And so here's how Larry Fleet came about. I was talking to an agent with CAA, I think. Yeah. CAA.
And he was giving me a bunch of names and I was throwing the concept at him. I was like, "Well, this is for like a um a festival to celebrate the skill trades." And he's like, "Well, I got this guy Larry Fleet and he used to be in concrete before he got discovered. He was just buried in concrete before he before he got discover he got discovered just in the nick of time because he was buried in concrete like Han Solo. They literally broke out onto the music scene. Uh, no.
He I guess he was telling me the story. His name, the agent's name is Brian Waymire. And Brian was telling me the story. He played at a wedding and I forget who it was that was in the crowd, but it was like um a known um Nashville okay act like you know had had hits and heard this guy sing. I was like, "Oh, that's interesting." Like, and somehow through that relationship at that wedding, they get get to talking and Larry gets like a songwriting deal and gets, you know, all this whatever.
So, he was able to stop doing Concrete and now he just, you know, tours and and writes for for people. Anyways, uh his new album's coming out and he's touring on that and he's going to be a part of the festival. He's going to be our headliner. So, great killer lineup. Like if you love country and Americana music, um you're going to love Larry Fleet.
You're going to love the Wilder Blue. You're going to love Norice. Yeah. When you when you said Larry Fleet was coming, I was excited because I I started listening to him maybe six years ago. Oh, really?
Yeah. And it was one of those things that just came across my Spotify. Yeah. And I was like, this guy can really write a song. Like he knows what he's doing.
And he his voice it's kind of like a Stapleton voice but but not as like rangy. But every note he sings sounds like it's right in his wheelhouse. Like you know when you're singing there are areas of your voice where you're like I don't really like being here. Yeah. But his everything he sings sounds has the same texture.
Sounds good. I Yeah. Apparently that's what professionals do. Yeah. No, he's great.
He's got he's got some really good songs. Uh, Working Man is an incredible song that I hope he does for this because it fits well. Um, he does a song called uh, what's it called? Everything mix. Yeah.
Yeah, that's it. Why wasn't that song written 20 years ago? It's like that should have been always been a song. It's so good. Yeah.
Yeah. So, uh, that's our headliner. Uh that arena show is going to be spectacular. Um tickets are on sale right now. You can go to tradeupfest.com and check check out the link there.
Um and all the links are there. All the artists are listed. Um but again, all this is sponsored by Gaylar Electric and ABC of Indiana Kentucky. Um two of the bigger names in the region for skilled trades. Um, but that trades village concept that we were talking about earlier, that's going to be your chance to uh bring your kids out um explore what's available in the skill trade.
It's just we talked about how broad, you know, that label is. There's so much that falls under that. And we're going to have all our sponsors set up booths and they're going to be interactive booths. So you can bring the kids out and um show them like and and learn for yourself. Parents, learn for yourself that you know college is not right for everybody.
That used to be that annoyed me so much when I was teaching like this idea of pushing towards college, push them towards college. Um it's just not right for everybody and and there are honestly better paths um than the college route for a lot of kids. Yeah. like a lot of those um degrees now I just I question the ROI on some of these college degrees right now in the age of AI and I think having a licensed skill when you graduate high school yeah at Noblesville High School you can start your junior year um in an in a in a program through ABC um that when you graduate you are already two years down the path of becoming a master electrician That's amazing. Which is crazy.
And you can graduate high school, go right into the workforce and make really good money while uh you probably get a car from your employer and you know, like there's just so much opportunity out there that people are not aware of that parents are not aware of. Um and we want to help shine a light on that. Yeah. And so bring your kids to Trades Village, come try a trade, we're calling it. Um learn more about what's out there.
Um, and really let's celebrate these these workers that have built America. So, cue the music. That would have been great. No, this is cool. So, uh me and Ginger were uh my beautiful fiance Ginger and I were uh I forget where we were.
We're just on a date and we were talking about t-shirts. I was like, "Yeah, I just don't know what the like the slogan on the shirt should be or whatever." and she goes, "Trade upfest because America wasn't built by bachelor degrees." Oh, yeah. That's it. Yeah. So, uh, getting a quote on some shirts right now.
If anybody wants to sponsor the shirts, uh, reach out, let us know. Um, yeah. So, that's kind of the overall concept. Uh, eight bands throughout the day, 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 pm on two different stages.
food trucks, that trades village where you can come try a trade and learn more about the trades. And by the way, that's not just for parents and students. That's for um anybody who's looking at job transition, right? Um I know there's been some displacement because of AI. Um and so maybe you're thinking maybe you're reading the tea leaves a little bit and you're thinking maybe I should look into Yeah.
skill trades. Come check it out. Um, and then we've got the indoor concert. Doors for the arena open at 5 and the concert kicks off at six. Um, so you can come check out the free outdoor portion and then make your way inside if you have purchased a ticket for the arena show.
That's it. It's great. I'm going to definitely bring my 13-year-old because I want to him to start seeing that as an option, you know. Yeah, the world's his oyster, but he needs to see everything that's possible. Yeah.
I've got what, seven teenagers right now. I mean, you could put a real dent in that 700,000 just with your family alone. I've got you got three juniors, um, a sophomore, a freshman, and an eighth grader. And like I just want them to see like if you want to go to college and you want to become a doctor, become a lawyer, I get that. Yeah, college you have to do that, right?
But if you're like, I just don't know. Like that's how I was in high school. Like I didn't know what I wanted to do. Yeah. Um spent two years in college trying to figure it out.
Yes. Well, I spent five years overall in college because I couldn't ever really figure out what I wanted to do. Um but yeah, I think had I been more aware Yeah. of what was available as a skilled tradesman, um I think things would have been different. Yeah.
You wouldn't have suffered so much with all those thousands of jobs you've ran through. Yeah. But you take like a skilled license trade and you put your entrepreneurial brain to it. Like who knows what happen? You can start an empire.
Start an empire. Anyways, that's Trade Upfest. Again, free outdoor portion. Uh starts at 11:00 a.m. Goes till about 5:30.
Uh doors for that open at 10:00 a.m. Do get a pass. Help us out by getting a pass. Go to tradeupfest.com. Just register for a free pass.
Interestingly, uh there is an option to buy a VIP upgrade. So, you can buy a VIP rest band for that for the free portion. Uh you can just go enjoy the music for free, bring your family out or whatever. But if you're if you want, you can upgrade to a VIP experience and that gets you um entrance to the Grand Hall in the arena during the free portion. Right.
So, if you want to have a a little bit of air conditioning, yeah, you get to cool off. That's worth it. Get the get the private bar, you get um the indoor bathrooms, you get um just a place to kind of sit and lounge and relax. We're going to have some acoustic musicians, including this guy. Oh, no.
Tyler Meechum is going to be one of our acoustic me might not sell those wristbands. So, there's the free portion. You can get the VIP upgrade. And then, of course, the arena portion um that night. Doors open at 5.
Concert starts at 6. Again, all this information available at tradeupfest.com. We have all the links to uh tickets and passes and everything there. Yeah. So, super excited about it.
Uh we got to get out there. We got to start promoting it and we need your help. So, yeah. Um, if you if you are a skilled trades person, you have those people in your family, let them know about this. Let's spread the word.
Um, tradeupfest.com is the easiest place to send people. Um, and and just help us really get the word out because we want to celebrate like this is genuinely a celebration of the skilled trades. Um, and music is is really just um a way to make it culturally relevant. and kind of a catalyst. We're using music as a catalyst.
Um, but the event is a celebration of the trades and gosh, there's going to be some good music. Let's I we should talk about the outdoor. I mentioned Yeah. Who's who's playing that? Yeah.
So, for that free outdoor portion, um, again, two stages. Kicking things off, uh, is going to be Hank Ruff, um, who is a re I think he's out of Evansville, actually. Uh, but he he tours, um, all over the place. Uh, but great country music singer, songwriter. But what's cool about him and why what really sealed the deal for me on Hank Ruff is he's got a saxophone player in his band.
That's out of left field. I know it's totally country, but there's a saxophone player. So, it's got this kind of Springsteen quality, which, you know, I'm a sucker for Springsteen. So, Hank Ruff is going to kick things off. He actually has a gig that night in Teroot.
Um, so I I waited too long. I was like I reached out to his management and said here's what we're thinking. Um and then I came back on Monday and I was like okay let's do it. And he's like oh well now he has a gig in Teroot that night. I was like no.
Uh but we worked it out so he could open up okay at 11. Uh then we go over to the other stage. We've got a group called Distant Soundwaves. Distant Soundwaves is going to play. Uh they're out of Greenwood, I want to say, south side of Indie for sure.
Then we go back to the other stage. Um Jay Baker Trio is gonna play. Yeah, very excited that those guys wanted to join. Um we've got on the other stage after Jay Baker's done and of course I mean Jay plays all over the place and always does a great job. Uh super excited about that.
Over on the other stage, a band called Lost Anchors. Again, South Side of Indie. Uh I want to say the bass player, but I'm not sure about that. Um plays in both Lost Anchors and Distant Sound Waves. So, that's kind of how Man, he's doubling up.
Yeah. Yeah. Um then back over to the other stage, uh we've got I kind of forget the order now, but I'll just start naming bands. We've got uh the Failers are playing our buddies, the Failers. Um they used they've been around the indie area forever.
Used to be in a band called Paging Raymond, but they are a great Americana um music. Rootsy Rocky, great. Um we've got Kelly Ray Yates who's been on the podcast. Her band are gonna play. We've got Fousey and the All-American Ghetto Band.
Super excited about that. Fousey, of course, has been on the podcast. We've got Aiden Brown uh closing out the outdoor solo or band. He's got a full band. Yeah.
Oh, I'm excited to hear that. Yeah, I I messaged him. I don't know. It's probably probably two months ago. He actually put a post up said he was looking for bass player, drummer, guitar player.
And I saw that and anyways, I reached out to him a few weeks later. was like, "Hey, do you think you could put a band together because I got a gig for you if you can." And so he did. He found a band and put it together and uh he's going to close out that. So great. I mean, that's a really good lineup.
That's better than I thought it was going to be. Me, too. Yeah. I'm pretty impressed. Yeah.
I was a little worried that Middle West was going to have to get up there, man. Yeah. So, that I mean that's a killer killer lineup of great music. So, come out for that. Again, that's all free.
That's two stages. That's free. And by the way, uh I told you I was excited about the stages. So, we've got two of those uh mobile stages that kind of they're like on trailers. They just sort of unfold.
Um which is super cool. But, um I'd locked down the uh sound guys for that yesterday. Um, in this they sent me their like list of tech that they're going to use. It's going to be like top level, man. Like, I'm so excited.
Uh, he's like, "Yeah, we we'll go ahead and we'll put four four subs on each stage. We'll go ahead and we'll fly." I think he's doing eight line array speakers on each stage. It's going to sound good then. Oh my gosh, it's going to sound incredible. So this is like really you mentioned it's like turning into a big thing like this is going to be huge.
Yeah. And yesterday, no, Monday, um had a talk with one of our sponsors, um and they work with a gal named Kaen McCabe who had a show on HGTV for a few seasons, but she's um she's a I think she's a electrician, licensed electrician. Um, but she has kind of transitioned from HGTV into her nonprofit which is all about getting kids um into the trades like Oh, so she gonna come out and she's going to be our MC. Yeah. Perfect.
Yeah. So, her and I will MC the indoor arena um together and um she's going to help out with some stuff outside and just kind of walk around, talk to people, get people into the booths and yeah, this is really big. Incredible. One of our sponsors is Milwaukee Tools. I love I'm team Milwaukee.
I know. Yeah. So, super excited about that. Um, got some incredible sponsors. Um, and again, all this information on the website.
You couldn't be more excited about where this is heading. A lot of work to do. Need all the help that we can get with just spreading the word. Um, again, tradeupfest.com is where to send everybody. This is the first I've heard a lot most of this information.
This is exciting. I know. I'm pumped. I've been keeping it under wraps because I'm like just trying to get all the pieces to fit together. And so now I feel like I'm they're fit together enough that I can talk about Trades Village.
I can talk about the free concert. I can talk about the arena concert, too. I had to get some those arena guys under contract. So, yeah. Yeah.
And you did say something the other day. If we sell it out, you're going to let the rest of us pick out a tattoo for you to get. Is that right? Uh, sure. Yeah, we you can pick where, we'll pick what, but if we sell this out, we get to pick a tattoo for you to get.
All right. Okay. This is going to be great. The sad thing is like where I would put it, I don't think we can show it on the podcast. Uh, yeah.
So, did I miss anything, Krist? Did I miss anything? No. Uh, we'll put together a Spotify playlist kind of featuring that. That's a good idea.
Uh, what do you want to call it? We'll name it right now. Hamco tradeupfest. Hit trade. Hamco trade-up fest.
Yep. So, look for that on Spotify. We'll put together a Spotify playlist of the eight bands that are going to be on the free portion outside and then the uh three bands, potentially four, by the way. I just found out recently. We'll see.
Uh, but right now three bands that are doing the arena, the ticketed arena portion on the inside will put together a Spotify playlist so you guys can start familiarizing yourself. I'm telling you, killer. I mean, this is a absolutely killer lineup. I got my tickets and tickets, I should mention that, too. Like, tickets are reasonable.
Yeah, I was surprised. I thought you were going to gouge me. Yeah, tickets are are really reasonable. So, that was the one thing I I wanted the free portion outside. Um, but with tickets inside, I still wanted it to be affordable that you could bring your whole family.
Like, I could bring my whole family, which I've never had a concert to which I could bring my whole family. No, that's a lot of people. Yeah. So, that's a lot of tickets. Um, so great ticket prices.
Uh, and again, go to tradeupfest.com, check all that. They start as low as uh 26 plus ticket master fees. So, super excited about this. Uh, help us spread the word. That's what this episode is about.
Um, telling the story behind Trade Upfest, uh, where it kind of came from and we just want to give you the details. So, share this episode, too. You can do that. Yeah. If you haven't subscribed, make sure you subscribe to YouTube.
Um, if you're not following us on Facebook, there's going to be a lot of content coming out on Facebook as we promote this. And of course, uh, the newsletter. Sign up for the newsletter if you haven't done that yet. So, anything you guys can think of. Question.
I got a question from producer Chris. And if anybody wants to join the uh Hamco Trade Upfest street team, distribute posters and hand builds great on our behalf. We could use some help. Um Hamco is is essentially me and Chris. It's not the big conglomerate everybody thinks it is.
Yeah. We are not Live Nation. Uh we are a twoman operation. Um and we could use some help uh handing out posters. Um we want to stretch these posters as far as we can.
So all obviously all over Hamilton County, but down into Indie, um up into Fort Wayne. Like I think this is an experience that is strong enough to bring people from, you know, not just Hamilton, even Cincinnati, you know, like that kind of thing. Uh, so we could use some help from a street team handing out posters. Um, day of we're probably going to need a little bit of help just setting up booths and and that sort of thing. Um, we would love some help there.
So, if that's you, uh, let us know. Also, um, how am I doing on time? Okay, I'm good. Um, I mentioned this to, well, I guess both of you yesterday, but we want to put together um some um, you know, local local cool stuff. Yeah.
Baskets for our artists to put in their green rooms. Um, the arena artists put in their green rooms. So, uh, if you have ideas of local goods, products that we could put in this basket just to say, "Hey, this is who we are. Um, we're proud Hooers. And here's just a little taste of taste of Indiana.
So, for example, um, we're going to put some of LM guitar straps. By the way, I use code hamco at checkout at lmmproducts.com and you can save yourself 25% off one of these guitar straps. Uh, so we're gonna put a couple of guitar straps in there. Um, Front Porch Records is going to donate a collection of all all the records that they put out. We'll put those in there.
Um, I thought about getting like a bottle of either Hard Truth whiskey or Moonrops Distillery or West Fork Whiskey. Like something from those people. Uh maybe some shirts. I don't know. Whatever you can think of.
Broadripple potato chip. That's a good one. That's a good Oh gosh, I love Yeah. Uh what's the There's a popcorn one too. Just pop in.
Just pop in. Something like that. I don't know. If you have ideas or you have something and want to donate it to these baskets, we'd love to talk to you about that. So, anyways, tradeupfest.com is the place to go.
So, let me just give you the high level here real quick. One time here at the end, tradeupfest.com. Um, we've got the free outdoor portion from 11:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Um, that is free.
That is open to the public. Bring your chairs. No coolers. Don't bring the coolers. You can also upgrade uh to a VIP experience for that.
Um and you can get uh entrance into the grand hall there at the arena. You can have private bar, place to sit, maybe a little AC. It's going to be September 19th. I guess I should mention that September 19th. Um and it may be a little bit warm, so AC might be good.
And you get, of course, a bathroom in there. And you get some acoustic shows from people like Tyler Meechum. I think Kelly Ray Yates is gonna double up and do an acoustic set as well. Um, again, all that that morning portion 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 pm is free.
Then we've got the ticketed arena show with Norah Reese opening uh Wilder Blue in the middle and Larry Fleet headlining. You can check out all this music on our Spotify playlist, Hamco Tradeupfest, and you can learn more and get tickets at trade-upfest.com. All right, fellas. Yeah, go get your tickets. Go get your tickets.
What are you listening to? Let's end it. Chris, what are you listening to? Oh, man. Yesterday I was listening to the Mighty Underdogs and uh the new Vince Staples album.
Both of which I've featured previously in my what are you listening to segment. Still listening to them. Still listening to them. They're that good. Tyler, what are you listening to?
Prof. Got a CD in the mail. I can't play it, but Okay. I went on tour with Prof once. That's awesome.
Well, they didn't know that I was there, but I I You followed them around? I followed them around. Yeah. Uh, Garden of Eden is an incredible song. It's the last song.
It's the last song on his album. And that's what I do. When I find an artist I like and I want to know about, I listen to the last song they put on their album because I think that tells the most about um an artist, what they put on their last song. Interesting. All right.
I'm listening to a lot of Stephen Kellogg lately. Been heavy rotational on Steen Kellogg. So, yeah, he's solid. Yeah. All right.
Hey, that's all for this episode. Again, check out tradeupfest.com and make sure you're following hamco live on Facebook, on Instagram, and subscribed here on YouTube. Thank you for helping us spread the word about tradeupfest.com. Couldn't be more excited about it. September 19th, 2026.
Go to tradeupfest.com to learn more. That's all for Hamco Live. We'll see you at the next show. Hamco, over and out. Sticky floors, buzzing ears.
Stands on a sheet for years. Tiny stage, big time sound. Every lost kid. Home word found. Turn it up in the light bar.
Light bar. Scream along like we're going to be stars. Everyone, every shout, every star. This is our night bar. Late bar.
Late bar. Scream along like we're going to be star. Every shout, every star. This is our night for late park.
