There's no way the arena will say yes. And the arena goes, "Yeah, let's do that." And so now I had this crazy idea and now it's just let's go pull it off. I want to just look at the lookbook. [music] Yeah. You want Morgan Wallen, you're going to need $2 million in your left kidney.
Career paths within the skill trades. They need to be celebrated as rival or even exceed college. Right. I need to know what's the best kept secret in music [music] in Hamilton County. From South Bend to Evansville and everywhere in between, this is Get In, the show focused on the Hooser State and the incredible stories happening here today. I'm Nate Spangle, founder of Get Indiana, and I will be your host for today's conversation.
My guest today is Josh [music] Cecil. He's a Noblesville based creator, storyteller, and event producer. He launched [music] in 2024 Hamco Live. It's a platform dedicated to making Hamilton County the premier destination for live music in the Midwest. [music] He's also the host of the Hamco Live Hot Ticket podcast, which spotlights local musicians, previews weekend shows, and covers what's happening across Hamilton County and beyond in the music scene. And the Hot Ticket is now part of the Get Indiana Podcast Network, which is how we got connected.
Josh, I'm really excited to dive into what's going on in live music around central Indiana, why you started this, and what big initiative you have coming up, man. Welcome to the show. Thanks for having me. Yeah, I'm excited, too, man. Yeehaw. So, I mean, we first got to connect when I was doing my live music tour of Hamilton County, which first off, that was the crazy piece.
I don't know if people realize how much live music there is around Hamilton County. Yeah, I didn't realize until uh I started doing Hamco Live and that actually came about. I was just I had a free night uh some random Friday night. I was like, I should go see some live music. Um and I kind of realized, well, I don't really know who's playing where. I'm gonna have to look up every band's website or every bar's website just kind of figure that out.
I said, man, it just be nice if there was one place I could go to that had it all. And there wasn't. So, I went and created it and that became Hamco Live. And then it really just started out as as an online calendar. And I would have to kind of scrape the internet for all the live music. And that's when I like kind of like what you're saying there.
I discovered, man, there is so much live music around Hamilton County. It took me uh 3 4 hours to build out this calendar. We've refined our process quite a bit, but um yeah, at the beginning, man, there's just so much. I mean, 30 40 uh bars across and venues across Hamilton County. Um in the summers especially, you'll have weekends where you can have 60 to 80 different opportunities to see some live music. So, Wow.
There's a lot. Yeah. I mean, what were like the original ones that you knew? Like what are the big music venues in Hamilton County and what are the smaller like lesser known but still great venues that you love to go to? Yeah, I mean when I started um so I I live in downtown Noblesville, so I was very familiar with those uh like Sids and Primeval and um those and then as it kind of I started kind of stretching out like well Urban Vines has a great stage, outdoor stage. Uh their sister company Urban Apples has a great indoor stage.
Joe's Grill 2 in Westfield has a great stage. Uh Britain Tavern has a great stage. Um Al Emporium um kind of converts their space into a really nice stage. But then there's like these kind of smaller places that like uh Peacewater Winery. Uh there's one in Fischers and one in Carmel. Like they bring in live music, great acoustic acts.
Um one that kind of surprised me is uh Hot Boys in uh Caramel. Yeah, they've got they bring in live music, too, dude. They on Friday nights, that place is going crazy. Yeah. Yeah. So, there, you know, there's Gosh, there's just so many.
But, like, what inspired you to go all in on live music in Hamilton County? Well, I mean, it kind of goes back to what you said at in the opening, like I truly believe uh Hamilton County can be the premier live destin or m destination for live music in the Midwest. Um, and I think Noblesville in particular. So, I think that was probably a part of it was just my heart for uh Noblesville and their live music scene. So, yeah. Well, what I'll say first is at first people are going to hear that and be like, why would Noblesville, Indiana be the heart of live music in in the Midwest?
But then you think about what the anchor tenant of it is. Sure. The greatest outdoor amphitheater in the United States of America is in Noblesville. it it if you leaned all the way into the brand. If it just said Noblesville, Indiana is going to be all in on live music. We're going to have it seven nights a week in different bars and restaurants.
You're coming into town for whatever concert you're here for. There's going to be a place to pregame. The night before there's going to be a great like live local regional band coming in. Like it's not as crazy when you really get into the nuts and bolts of it. Here's what I tell people about that. They say that's kind of ridiculous.
There's no way that could happen. And and here's what I tell them. Well, yeah, we have RUAF. So, it is the best performing amphitheater in Live Nation's portfolio in terms of revenue. Um, almost year after year. Um, many of the artists come through.
So, I used to work security there. Uh, Fish would tell you that favorite venue, favorite amphitheater to play because the staff is so good. We just they just do a really good job. So, there's that. Sure. But let's move to downtown Noblesville.
On Saturday, well, here's a great example. Not uh Saturday, August 29th, we'll have the Front Porch Music Festival. Um right off of Logan Street in downtown Noblesville. Um you can go two blocks over to like the square, the Noblesville Square. You've got live music at Grindstone. You've got live music at uh Primeval.
You got live music at the Courthouse Club. You've got live music at uh Sids. You've got live music at Bar Ellis. You'll have a concert down at Federal Hill. And of course, our new venue, The Pretender, will have great music, not live music, but great music spinning. So, there's uh seven different opportunities plus a music festival.
Let's call it eight in downtown Noblesville within few blocks of each other. Right. So you can spend a whole night bar hopping in Noblesville and hear great live music no matter where you choose to go. Yeah, that is it's crazy. It's nuts. Yeah.
And here's another one for you. So when I first started doing Hamco, um like I said, I lived in downtown Noblesville and I just did this as an experiment. Uh I drew a/4 mile radius around my house on Google Maps in in Noblesville and I kind of zoomed in and I started looking at this house. So I go, "Oh, well Tyler lives there. Dean lives here. Jeff lives there."
I started naming all the musicians, working musicians, gigging musicians that I knew within that quarter mile radius and there was over 20, which is, you know, some people think, "Oh, that's interesting." But if you tell a musician that, like that level of density in such a small space is unheard of outside of like a college campus or like a Nashville or an Austin or something like that. So Wow. Yeah. I mean it the bones are there. Yeah.
The raw materials that you need are all there. So you then make it Yeah. this mission to help promote live music across Hamilton County. Yeah. Uh how do you start to I don't know. I mean you're spending 3 to four hours.
How do you get the word out? How do you actually like operationalize this? Like it's one thing to just like dedicate all of your time and it's like I'm going to go track all this down and I'm going to I'm going to know. But how do you start to get the word out to other people? Early on it was a lot of sort of just grassroots um you know putting little pop-up tents at the different bars that we would promote. And I mean the I guess the the proposition is is fairly simple, right?
If you like live music, sign up for the newsletter and you'll see who's playing where every week, right? And if you're a a bar, you want to support us because we're supporting you. If you're a band, you're like, "Yeah, extra promotion. Great. Sign me up." So, um it's sort of win-winwinwin for everybody.
And it just sort of spread um very organically um through um just word of mouth. uh you know, we printed up some coasters and um just kind of showed up at places uh that would have us and hand out material and hey, will you sign up for our newsletter? We'll give you a sticker, you know, like just very very simple stuff. Yeah. Um but eventually, I mean, people who like live music find us and start following us. So, Wow.
Okay. What is like do you have a measurement of success for like how many live music fans there are in Hamilton County that are kind of plugged in with you guys? I would say 5 to 10,000 there has to be out there, right? Um right now we're at like 5,000 followers on Facebook, got like 2500 uh on our email list. Like that's a lot of people that are interested in knowing where music is happening across their their little neck of the woods. I think that's super super cool.
That also then parlayed you into doing the homegrown concert, what homegrown music concert series. [clears throat] So then you took this like digital thing where you're uniting all these different venues from around and you actually brought this to Noblesville. Where did that idea come from? Well, sort of a couple areas. Like I'm a songwriter myself, so uh my heart beats a little bit faster for original music. And we have incredible cover bands in Hamilton County.
Like I would put them up against any cover band from Nashville, right? Um and that's great and you love to go to to a bar and see a band play all these songs that you know. It's just fun to sing along to or whatever. But there's also something fun about discovering new music. And so I wanted to be able to showcase um showcase that original music. And part of the the problem you run up against to in that is that bars don't want to pay uh an original band to come in and perform music that no one necessarily knows, right?
It's sort of a a gamble on the ROI on that. And I actually don't think it's that big of a gamble. I think there's a bigger fan base for that style of music uh than bars want to consider, but that's neither here nor there. So, what I said was, "Let me do this. Let me pay the band. Bar, you pay nothing.
I'll pay the band. Um, we'll do three bands. Uh, we'll make it an event. It'll be all original music and um there's no risk for the bar and the band gets to play their songs for a nice crowd, right? And so we did four of those in Noblesville, uh Sids, Primeval, Beer Brewery, and then Federal Hill Commons. And it grew every weekend.
It grew. Um so that kind of proved the concept. And part of the heart behind that was if we're going to make Hamilton County and Noblesville in particular the premier destination for live music in the Midwest, I think we have to launch some homegrown talent um and help put the name on the map uh by having these talents uh stretch out from here. So, if we can kind of incubate that, um I think that's one of the keys to what we need to do. And um Homegrown was sort of the first step in doing that. Wow.
All originals, which I will say, yeah, there is something about going to see a cover band and you're just like jamming your radio hits. Yeah. But there is something about the art and the ability and like appreciating originals and discovering new things and like you know, you're listening to music, you might be having a beverage or two, you're hanging out. That's a good time. Yeah. So that was last summer you did the last summer.
The homegrown music. Okay. Uh, and yeah, grew every time you're rocking and rolling there, getting more people in tune with like how are you meeting other people in the space? How are you meeting these musicians and bands and songwriters? You know, as I'm filling out the calendar and I'm seeing who's on the calendar, I'm meeting these people, you know, I I'll always go up when whenever I'm out and I see some live music, I'll always go up and introduce myself, say, "Hey, I'm with Hamco." Sometimes they know the name, sometimes they don't.
Or I remember uh one of the bands I was running Facebook ads at the time and like, "Yeah, you keep popping up on my on my feed or whatever." So, um, that's part of it is just introducing myself and, um, trying to connect and, uh, we would we would do songwriter nights at Beer Brewery in Noblesville. Um, we did, I don't know, six of those, eight of those, something like that. So, uh, it was an easy way to invite them to come out and and share their original music. Um, and so it's just really just connecting when you see live music, connecting online. Um, hey, here's what we're trying to do.
We're promoting you. Would you, um, help us kind of spread the word, too? So, just making connections, just networking. Yeah. And you then are rolling that experience with the concert series last year into a big initiative that's coming up here soon. talk to me about the idea and the execution of an entire music festival.
Yeah. Uh yeah. So it's kind of interesting. So uh Gayler Electric was a sponsor for the homegrown music series last summer and rolling into 2026. I was like instead of doing one or instead of doing four smaller concerts, what if we just took a big swing? like we just take a giant swing and we do one huge concert and we try and blow it out.
And um got to talking with the uh newly opened arena at the time um there in Noblesville, the Review Health Arena, Innovation Mile, and they were like very interested in partnering with us to do something kind of local. And I was like, "Okay, well, what's my what's what's my angle on this?" Well, I was a teacher, a high school teacher for eight years. And one of the things that always kind of bothered me throughout my teaching career was something called college go week. I don't know if you're familiar with this, but um all the teachers during college go week would decorate our doors with our alma modders. Um in the passing periods, we would play college fight songs and you know, it's an interesting event or interesting week.
Um, but my issue with with it was like the implied message was you should go to college after you graduate high school. You got to go to college after you graduate high school. And I was I had a couple of classes with kids that were not collegebound. How did they feel during college go week, right? And my problem there was that this idea that college is the only path to success uh is just not true. There's so many opportunities particularly in the skilled trades.
And so I'll give you an example. Um I had left teaching um and mean some buddies were hanging out at SIDS in Noblesville and a former student walks in, Alex. And I got to talking to Alex, you know, hey man, what are you doing? What's up? Uh, he said, "Yeah, I just got back from Texas. I was there, I think he was there for 6 or nine months, something like that, on a welding gig.
He was a welder." And of course, he's 23, 24, something like that. And he couldn't wait to tell me, a former teacher, how much he made. [laughter] So, he said, "Yeah, with overtime, I I made about 120 grand in that 69month stretch, right?" And I'm thinking, man, my last year of teaching, I was making 54 and paying off student loans. And here this kid is making six figures, no student loans.
I may have been sold a lie. Yeah. What the? So, uh, my heart has always kind of, um, bent towards, um, the skilled trades, advanced manufacturing, that large umbrella for students because I don't know that I was ever given that option or told that that was an option. Right? So between me and my fiance, we have seven teenagers that are all trying to figure out what does life look after look like after high school.
And I want them to have a clear picture of all the opportunities. If you want to go to college, great. I'm not anti- college at all, but at least know all your options. You can't make an informed decision if you don't know all your options. And as I started looking into it, um the skilled trades uh are in high demand right now. Yeah.
Oh, for sure. Huge demand. In fact, uh interesting statistic. For every five skilled tradesmen that are retiring, only two are entering skil trades, right? So, there's a huge gap. Um I think something like 1.
4 four million um job openings by 2030 across seven skilled trades, seven of the biggest skill trades. So that's a huge need that that needs to be addressed for a multitude of reasons. Um but there's so much opportunity in there, but people don't know about it and and there's this sort of stigma attached to the skilled trades. um from when like I graduated in 1997 from Washington High School. Go Hatchets. Um there's this sort of stigma that oh well the skilled trades are a good backup plan or if you're not, you know, smart enough to go to college then you can go to the skilled trades.
It's just not true. Like there are incredible opportunities um incredible career paths uh within the skilled trades and they need to be celebrated as um options that rival or even exceed uh college, right? And so, Inter Trade Upfest, I'm thinking about how are we going to get a sponsor on board like Gayler um to [clears throat] take a big swing. Yeah. And I was reading a book on Farade at the time and it just sort of clicked. I was like, well, what if we did Farmade for the Skilled Trades?
And that was the cleanest picture I had of it. I pitched that idea to um the team at Gayler. They loved it. um ABC came on board their training academy and uh we were off to the races and I said, "Okay, let's let's figure it out." And so we just developed the whole festival out of that. Wow.
Called Trade Upfest. Trade-upfest. Yeah. Wow. Isn't it crazy that it all starts like you can be reading something somewhere and you're like, "Wait a second." Yeah.
Like what about this? Yeah. You know, it starts with a crazy idea and then someone says yes. It was almost like I was I was telling uh buddy like I'm kind of like the dog that caught the bus. I pitched this crazy idea thinking, "Hey, there's no way the arena will say yes." And the arena goes, "Yeah, let's do that."
Well, there's no way Gayler will say yes. And then Gayler's like, "Yes, let's do that." And so now I had this crazy idea and now it's just let's go pull it off. Yeah. And it all comes down to execution. So when planning a big festival like this, where do you even start?
like what are all the different plates that you have to spin to get this to be an insanely awesome festival? Yeah, so we're there's sort of two portions to it, a daytime portion, a nighttime portion. There's um an outdoor festival with a couple of stages uh eight bands going back and forth. Um and then in between those uh stages is our what we're calling Trades Village. And this is like this is the centerpiece of the event. It this is not just a music festival.
This is uh workforce development kind of camouflaged as a music festival, right? There's uh our sponsors are all in the skilled trades arena at some level. Arena. Uh yeah, [laughter] there it is. And they're going to have uh like interactive booths set up. So um we're encouraging people to like come try a trade.
Um so like virtual welding um Vincent's University is bringing her robotic dog you know there's chance to like go around to these different booths and try different things and explore like what all the trades are and then also enjoy live music, enjoy the food trucks and um that evening then we would move inside the arena for uh just a a true concert. That is really interesting. It's like a full day. Like obviously you come for music, but you're going to get exposure and knowledge to a lot of like who doesn't like listening to live music, right? I don't know. That'll be interesting for younger people or people looking at a career change.
Like maybe you'll just get to discover or try something hands-on that you didn't even know was out there. Yeah. Cuz I do feel like there is a huge push or maybe it's not huge. There's still I feel like the push that you can only be successful if you go to college has started to fall. Yeah. like people are open to I mean especially now with on the other side let's say if skilled trades are one option you don't have to go to college like the AI coding content like there's also a lot of career paths that don't involve trades that also like you don't have to go to college but al all sites point to things like this are important because you need to weigh out your options it is not like everyone must go to college if you want to be successful because some people have gotten behind the eightball they have student loan debt they have all these things it's the economics of it are never going to pan out.
Yep. So, it is interesting to be all in on skilled trades, tradeupfest, which I I love. Absolutely. Uh are there other are there pieces that are going to be in that um the village? You talked about robot dogs. Talked about what I think you do a flight simulator.
Yeah, there's going to be some flight simulators there. Um I I mentioned it, but uh the uh virtual welding. So, imagine like a welding mask that comes down, but it's like a VR, right? And then there's, I don't know, welding tools, virtual welding tools, and you do some virtual welding. Um, there's uh there's like a healthc care simulator that I'm not exactly sure what you're doing, but it's within the healthcare industry. Um, Gayl's bringing their innovation trailer that's going to have all kinds of different activities to explore, you know, building circuit boards and um, just I I want kids to see to get excited about something, right?
The the music's cool and that's really just a a cultural catalyst, right? We want to make the it's a marketing issue. That's what the trades are having right now. It's just a marketing problem. It's a storytelling issue. Let's make it relevant.
Yeah, absolutely. And it's like one, you can make a lot of money or like a good you can make a great living in the trades in the skilled trades for sure. Like there is a great living to be had. You don't go into debt with college. A lot of times they'll pay you to get training like whatever your hands on a couple of my so I um I coach high school wrestling team and I and you know largely you're like yeah go to college go to college but it's not the right thing for everybody. We had a kid go through Gayl's.
They have like an apprenticeship program and he didn't go to college and is living his best life, making money. He bought like a new motorcycle. He drives it way too fast. But but it's cool. He's thriving and it's like cool to see kids find their place. It's just a little bit hard especially you think about again the way that we all talk about it where it's like you're growing up like you're we we invested in this 529 for you to go to college and it's like that is the perfect scenario for some people like I loved it it was perfect for me it's helped me immensely but two of my best friends both are in one's a farmer back in northern Indiana and the other one runs his own construction company and like college just wasn't for them but they both went like one got their associates degree and the other one like gave it a the old college try and they like wasted wasted a semester, wasted, you know, some money cuz it just wasn't the right thing for them to do.
Granted, sometimes you have to try something to realize it's not right for you. But like I I wonder if you go back if they would have foregone that if it there wasn't this exterior pressure to go that you can't be successful if you don't go. Yeah. I mean I wonder that about myself. um you know as I'm digging into these trades careers had I been exposed to carpentry or an electrician when I was you know in 1996 97 when I was looking at life after high school what would be different but I think too what needs to be expressed is whether you go to college or you go into the workforce whatever you need to have the mentality of a lifelong learner right because even if you go into the skilled trades and you don't advance your knowledge and build your skill set and stay up to date on your credentials and you know those continuing education courses um you do hit a ceiling right so and that's true regardless of what career you enter so even if you're if you are currently a a skilled trades like a member of the skilled trades community you're working in a job like that this would be a great time you go rub some shoulders learn about you know the latest and greatest trainings and certificates and all those fun things.
Yeah. And you mentioned too the the 529 account. Those can be used for some of these skilled trade programs too for the the education, the apprenticeship pathways. And let's go. Yeah. Yeah.
I love it. Okay. So, talk to me about putting together a festival slash a trades v. It just seems like a lot of things to manage. How do you start when it comes to planning a big festival? I need to find my headliner if we're going to have an arena show.
uh what's that going to look like? I was pretty confident I could find the bands for the outdoor stages um fairly easy. I just you know having all the contacts but that indoor arena it's it's going to end up seating about 4,000 um how we have it configured but who do I find like where do I even start with that? That was the biggest learning curve was have you ever booked like a national talent? No. No.
I don't even know how putting out emails like what do you do? Yeah. So, talk to someone who's done it before. Yeah. I've got a a pretty good relationship with uh the guys from the Hi-Fi. Um I connected uh with the guy that used to own uh the Vogue and he he's been a great mentor and a good resource.
Um but really I started down the path of just going to an agency, a talent agency. So, I was working with CAA and William Morris, which are the two biggest talent agencies, and I just got connected with an agent and Brian Waymire is his name. Um, started talking to him. Um, and he just sort of helped guide me down the path of well, you know, you're looking at a 4,000 C. You got to think of artists that will um fill that, right? So, he starts listing me some names.
He said, you know, let's consider budget as well. We got to consider that. and started just naming off names and he said, "You know, I've got this guy Larry Fleet. He he's up and coming. He wrote u wrote a song with Morgan Wallen, man-made a bar. Um, but he used to be a skilled tradesman in the uh concrete masonry uh industry before he got discovered.
He played at some friend's wedding and some I can't remember who the country music star that was in the crowd uh or in the audience there um was for that but kind of discovered Larry and gave him a shot and now he's doing music full-time but he's like I just I kind of like that story of here's a former skilled tradesman um now he's your headline in in 2017 country singer Jake Owen Jake Owen discovered Fleet [laughter] performing cover songs at a wedding and booked him as an opening act. Isn't that cool? No way. Yeah. What? Yeah.
And he's Man, he's really good. He's got kind of this raspy um Chris Stapletonesque type voice. Um got some great songs. Mix it with Whiskey is one I've been listening to on repeat. Yeah. Where I Find God is like his his big one for sure that like was all over the Spotify charts and all those fun things.
Um, but that's that's interesting. It'd be fun to go through the pro I want to just look at the lookbook, you know? I want to just like I want someone to send me the PDF where they're like, "Yeah, you want Morgan Wallen, you're going to need $2 million in your left kidney." [laughter] Yeah. Yeah. Well, so I'll kind of peel back the curtain for listeners because this is a whole world I didn't understand.
Um, so I'm basically renting the arena. Yeah. Yeah. And then producing my show at the arena, right? which is not typically how it works. Typically, a a venue does all the booking for themselves, right?
Yeah. So, when you're working with these national acts through a CA or William Morris, um every artist has a guarantee. So, typically, let's say Fischer Event Center. Yep. Who produces that show? Typically, that will be booked inhouse or you might have like MKB presents has done shows there in the past.
Yeah. cuz there is a piece of like agents go out and find the venues and so venue just takes like a rental fee in a in a thing of concessions right like you know like hey we're going to put on Larry Fleet is going to play at Nolesville and it's not like like this is unique is a unique structure cuz you rent out your okay I'm going to need the space right and then they're like great and like if you wanted to you could just rent out the space and sit there for 12 hours I mean you'd spend a lot you'd spend a lot of money that Yeah. So, you run out the space and then you start to go, okay, now let's build what this is going to look like, right? Wow. Which also means though, you probably don't have the same support staff if uh if the arena was putting it on themselves. Yeah.
So, that this is what I discovered. Well, all that gets worked into the cost of rental, right? But the interesting thing for me, like, you know, I was kind of crunching some, you know, what do you call it? napkin math, you know, in the beginning. It's like, okay, um, well, this guy only costs, you know, x amount of dollars, so if I can sell this many tickets, uh, we can make a little bit of money off this, right? Um, well, what I learned is that artists will have a guarantee.
So, let's say, you know, it's $2 million to show up. I don't know who would fall into that category. I never got that high. But um then they also have um a lot of times a clause where they take 85% of ticket sales after costs, right? So the venue is making 10 15% off of ticket sales, which I had no idea. Well, so how does the venue make their money?
Well, it's off of uh concessions and um food and bev and uh some ticket fees, some parking fees, that sort of thing. That's how like, you know, a huge venue would make That's why all of a sudden, you know, your your favorite venues start to add in parking fees for the first time ever in history, [laughter] right? Yeah. And upsets a community of music goers. Yeah. I mean, the the economy around live music is fascinating as I've kind of gotten into it.
Wait, wait. So, so it's 85% sometimes. Yeah. It can be less. Let's say let's say it was that though cost well like I would just be like oh yeah and and it cost a million dollars for my time too or like like how do they how do you calculate cost? So that comes down to what they call settlement at the end of the night.
So show's over manager band manager comes to uh the back room. We're in the back room and you're you have to show them where your marketing dollars went. Uh here's all here's all your different costs. Um, and so then there's probably I'm assuming there's probably some negotiation in that as well, you know. I don't know. We'll we'll see when I go to settlement.
[laughter] Oh, dude. Don't get It sounds like you're like walking into a shakeddown. I know. I know. Yeah. What?
Yeah. It's uh Man, it's just so fascinating. I I luckily negotiated um just a flat fee up front, so there won't be any of the um like the variability of that. Yeah. Yeah, which I had to do because it was just like there was so many variables on something like this cuz I'm really I booked the show before I had the money. You know what I mean?
So, do you put a deposit down? [clears throat] Yeah. Yeah. Wow. Told you we were going to take a big swing. Yeah.
So, you So, you start there. You get the space. Yeah. Negotiate that. And then you're like, "Okay, now you start doing math. You're like, you know, we're in for, you know, x amount on the space.
Now you're in X amount on music. Like when you were in that, did they try to like give me a rough idea of like what a a touring act, what were the ranges? 10 15,000 all the way up to in the numbers I was doing, the acts that I was looking at all the way up to 75 to 100. Wow. And that's for one hour. That's for the guarantee.
Yeah. And do they have like a time or like hey this person's going to play for 2 hours or is it like they'll play? Yeah, that all comes out um in negotiation. I typically it's you know uh 75 to 90 minutes something like that. Dang. Yeah.
Or 2 hours depending on the day. I was just at I was just at Gar Brooks and it's like 7 they so show was supposed to start at 7:30 probably started at closer to 8 and then ripped till after 10. Yeah, just him up there. Well, not just him. There was lots of people up there, but no openers, no nothing. You're just there for two in some change hours to listen to Gar Brooks rip.
And it was awesome. Yeah. Yeah. But it's like I have to wonder that one. Like I can't even imagine. I can't I cannot imagine what it cost if you were like, "Yeah, like we want to bring Gar Brooks to town."
Like that's one where it's like they probably have their own thing of like planning out venues. Yeah. Yeah. Well, gosh. Yeah. I would assume.
I don't really know. Yeah. I mean, you get to a certain level and it's like, you know, if Gar Brooks wants to play somewhere, he can pretty much have his pick. Like, if he wants to play the moon, Elon Musk starts to say, "All right, let's get the rockets going." [laughter] Right. That's right.
U Okay. So, that part. So, then then you're hoping with sponsors and with ticket sales that will cover the venue rental, that will cover the cover all my costs. All your costs. Yeah. So, so like how does anyone not that this is like a you know huge you know profitable entity to get into but like how does anyone get make any money with festivals?
Yeah, that's a great question that I don't have an answer to. Still figuring it out. You know, I think it's well it's sponsorships. It's food and bev is where it's going to come down to. But then do you have to use the venues? But can you bring in anybody you want or do you have to use that concessionire?
Yeah, they're covering all that. So they'll make the venue will make their money off of that. But if I were going to say do an outdoor festival in downtown Noblesville, right? then I could um I guess make the money off of food and be that like if you were hosting an I you are hosting a huge event, but like if there were other people listening to this that have questions about event hosting, like what what advice would you give to people that want to host big events? For me, it's been just take the next step. Yeah.
Take the next opportunity. Take the next open door and just here's a list of things. um chop away at them, right? And I found and I think kind of to answer your question, I I I think you'll find your people along the way. People like to be a part of something that has a little bit of steam behind it. So, if you're going to go out and take a big swing, you'll find people that want to help.
Yeah. Yeah. And I I don't know if that's true everywhere, if it's just true here in Indiana, but um I think people want to help. So, I one totally agree on that. People are great and the right people come alongside and help help make cool stuff happen. Uh, if people want to learn more about Trade Upfest, Yes.
When is it? How do I get tickets? What can we expect? Like, take us through the rundown on on uh why we should go. So, it's September 19th. Um, Saturday, September 19th.
Um, you can go to tradeupfest. com. That's the best place to go. tradeupfest. com. Um, it has all the information, has the bands there, it has, uh, ticketing links, um, and just all the details, uh, sponsorship opportunities, um, anything you need to know.
tradeupfest. com. It is an all day festival. Like I said, the unique part that 11 to 5, 11:00 a. m. to 5:00 p.
m. is the outdoor festival. Again, that's two stages, eight bands in that trades village. That is free. That is open to the public. We do have a link on tradeupfest.
com for free passes just to help us kind of gauge numbers. Um, if you show up and you don't have the free pass, obviously just you still get to go. Um, but yeah, that's free and open to the public. Why should you go? One, it's going to be great music. Who do we got?
What's the lineup? Yeah, so we're bringing in Hank Ruff. He is from I believe he's from Evansville, but I think he's an IU guy. He Yeah. runs the Bloomington Circuit. Yeah.
Yeah. Bluebird a lot. You know, he plays Bluebird. Um great country music guy. Kind of has a throwback to 90s country feel to him. But what kind of sold me on him is he also has a sax player in a country band.
Like, okay, let's go. All right, come on now. Um we've got Jay Baker, uh who's locally, I mean, this dude plays all over the place. Nearly every night this guy's playing out. Um, they do an incredible job. We've got uh Kelly Ray Gates, great singer songwriter out of Noblesville.
Her and her band are coming out. We've got uh the Failers. They've been in the indie music scene for gosh uh years and years. They were actually part of a band called Paging Raymond and they became the Failers. and Paige Raymond goes all the way back to when I first moved up here in 2002, 2003. Um, so they've been around forever and they they've got kind of a rootsy rock.
Um, we're trying to stay in that kind of country music and Americana type vibe. Um, we've got a group called Distant Soundwaves out of Greenwood and Lost Anchor. They're also out of Greenwood. Um, more down the rock vein. Um, we got this kid Aiden Brown who is like the second coming of Tyler Childers. I think incredible songwriter.
Uh, great voice. Just has the package. Uh, and then one of my favorites, uh, Fousey in the All-American Ghetto Band. Uh, Fousey has an incredible story. He's from east side of Indianapolis. uh combines, man, he he combines hip-hop with almost like gospel, almost jam band type stuff.
He's blurring all kinds of lines. Incredible storyteller. Um incredible rapper. Uh just an amazing story. Um people should go check him out. Um and that's the outdoor portion of the day.
And then we go indoors. We go indoors. We've got Nora Reese. Nora is incredible singer songwriter. She reminds me of I almost hesitate to say this because it's like it's a lot of weight for her to handle, but like early Taylor Swift like remember when Taylor was when Taylor was like country music tear drops on her guitar. [laughter] Yeah.
Drew was looking at her. Come on. So, uh kind of that great songwriter, great voice. Um she's opening up. It's just her and another guy. couple guitars and bogals and then the Wilder Blue.
Um they were touring with Luke Combmes uh when Luke played Lucas Oil two tours ago. But Wilder Blue people are going to I swear they they're going to discover their next favorite band. The Wilder Blue remind me of the Eagles. Like if you like the Eagles, if you like tight harmonies, um, insanely good musicians and just really well-written songs, you're going to love The Wilder Blue. I I tell people it's like seeing the Wilder Blue at Tradeupfest would be like seeing the Eagles, you know, 40 years ago. So, they're incredible.
Wow, that's big praise. And I Yeah, they actually do a uh a uh Eagle song, Seven Bridges Road with Luke Combmes, in fact. Um it's on one of their albums, but uh and then Larry Fleet is our headliner. Wow. Okay. So, you could go listen to eight 11 different bands in the course of a day.
What's the time? Uh gates open for the morning portion at 10. The first band, Hank Ruff, starts at 11. Uh Aiden Brown finishes out that morning afternoon portion at uh I think he goes on at 4:45. He'll probably end around 5 5:30 somewhere. And then the doors for the arena open at 5 and Nora kicks things off um at 6.
Let's go. I'm so excited, man. This is going to be uh going to be a ton a ton of fun. If people want to get tickets, where can they do that? Yeah, I would go to tradeupfest. com.
Um, we'll have the ticket master link there for the arena. Uh, the free pass link is there as well if you want to go and get and anyone can come those first eight from 10:00 a. m. to that's 100% free. 5:00 p. m.
When the gate the doors open for uh 5:00 p. m. 5. So 10 to 5. You like like you like live music, you want to go learn a couple new things, you want to hang out, have a fun day. Boom.
Yeah. I would really encourage families that have middle school and high school students to go. Yeah, a it'll just be fun. Um, but b that trades village, just go let go let the kids explore that. Just see what see what's out there. If you have a high school or middle school student that is figuring out what they want to do with their life, not sure that college is the right route, this is a great option, a great way to get exposed to new industries that could provide a lifelong career path.
Yep. Yeah, it really is. And not put you in college debt. Yeah, we'll have I mean sponsors there that will be able to speak to apprenticeship pathways. Um even like recruiting opportunities. So I mean if you're a skilled tradesman right now and you're looking for something new or you know if you've been displaced by AI recently, you know, you might be considering a a career change and this could be the ticket.
I mean if you uh if you you might come for country music and leave employed. That's right. New job. Yeah. Wow, man. This has been a ton of fun.
We've come to the final portion of the show where we talk all things Indiana. So, this question is brought to you by our friends at JC Hart. They're a leader in creating enjoyable living experiences at apartment communities all across Indiana and beyond. Check them out at home isjart. com. My question for you, why do you call Indiana home?
That's a great question. So, I used to live in Las Vegas. I went from Indiana to Vegas and I came back to Indiana. And I would say it's it's the people, right? Like I think about where I live, Noblesville specifically. Um it's my people that, you know, we look out for each other.
My friends have carried me through some some tough times and I know that I can call on that that who's your humbleness, that who's your hospitality. And um if I need help, I know my my people around me, you know, Noblesville just had some historic flooding and just to see the way that community has come together um to support those that have been affected. Um that's incredible and I think that's that's indicative of who's your mentality, who's your heart, and you know that's why I choose Indiana. Heck yeah, brother. Okay. I need to know what's the best kept secret in music in Hamilton County.
The downtown square of Noblesville. I mean, routinely Thursday, Friday, Saturday, you can see five, six different bands, artists perform in a twob block in walking two blocks. And then and then I would also say that the Front Porch Music Festival, I mean, a lot of people know about it, but I still think it's it's flying under the radar a little bit. Yeah. All right. You talk about being the the live music capital of the Midwest, Noblesville, Indiana.
You got to talk about Rudolph. Yep. Deer Creek as as some of uh as some of our more experienced listeners would call it. I got to know what's the best show you've ever seen at Deer Creek. Yeah, we talked about this on on the podcast, the Hot Ticket podcast, part of the Get In Podcast Network. Gate, check it out.
Um, my favorite show that I went to was that 2005, I think, Tom Petty, uh, Black Crows opened. Tom Petty was the headliner and it was the, uh, concert where the power cut off during, um, is it refugee? I can't remember the song off the top of my head, but the crowd was singing along, right? And the power shuts off, so all the music dies, but the crowd keeps singing. And of course, they do whatever they do and they get to power back up, everything comes back on, the band just right in time with the the audience like this magical moment of the audience carrying on the song and then it kicks back in and and it was incredible. It was really cool.
That would be nuts. That's Yeah, it's a big storm. And uh yeah, that was incredible show, dude. That's a good one. I think I have officially made it my new favorite concert I've ever been to. Gar Brooks at Gamebridge.
Yeah, he for He's 64. He makes me look like a librarian. His energy is off the charts. He's running around up there. He's sweating. He's Stone Cold Steve Austin.
Uh [laughter] uh not beers, Fiji water. He just got the Fiji water coming down. throwing it everywhere. [laughter] He's like crying at moments when people sing back his song. He He's an entertainer. Yeah, he's like if if there's a there's an interesting piece that you learn that he like when he's performing he kind of says Yeah.
kind of talks about himself in third person like he like has this kind of alter ego like who here's been to a G show [laughter] and he's like it's a little bit weird but then you're like it's almost like he's having like an out of body experience. You got to disassociate from Yeah. He's like, I'm the persona. I might be G Brooks usually, but on this stage tonight, you're at a G show and [laughter] I'm just like, hell yeah, I am, brother. Let's go. It was crazy.
It like the energy was contagious. And you would see us at moments again. Like it just fel like it took his breath away. He cuz he's been he doesn't perform a ton. Yeah. Like he'll do like pop up for a few shows and then hibernate for a while then pop up for a few shows and like most of his bands been there for 30 years.
Like it's crazy. Yeah. Did his drummer do the uh big drum solo thing? Yeah. Yeah. Oh, dude.
They had two drum kits. I'm assuming. Okay. I didn't I didn't say it like there, but I'm assuming was cuz you know they started in 88. They weren't young. I mean, they were young, but not like they weren't like kids in 88.
They were like, you know, 20 year 20ome year old adults, I believe. So, it's like they were like they're they're seasoned. So, playing a full 2 and 1 half hour show like they have two drum kits in there, I'm sure, is to like get a little backup in case somebody gets [laughter] tired. Got like five guitarists cuz somebody might need like a little a little bathroom break, you know? [laughter] Oh, man. Well, this has been super fun.
We have the same three questions that we ask every guest who comes on. So, first got to know this is your opportunity to shed some light on a part of the state that more people need to be talking about. Okay. What is a hidden gem in Indiana? I I want to shine a light on Michigan City. I just went up there this summer um for a weekend, little getaway.
Uh it's kind of on the up and up, right? It's a [clears throat] very industrial town, but it's uh they're starting to see some changes and it's got a cute little downtown. Um, of course it's on Lake Michigan, so you've got a little great beachside. We did like a sunset tour. There's a cool little record shop downtown. Um, great restaurants.
Shoreline Brewery is there. That's a really good hidden gem. Michigan City. Go Wolves. High School mascot. There you go.
All right. Next. This is where we get new guest ideas and learn about other Hoosiers that are doing cool things. Who's a Hooser we need to keep on our radar? Someone who's doing big things. Man, I I said his name earlier, but I I can't stress it enough.
Fousey. Fousey. Fousey. Go check out um Fousey. Uh he's released two albums. Uh the second one isn't quite out yet.
Um but he's available on Spotify. Fousey uh is born and raised east side of Indie. Um Mapleton Fall Creek guy. Uh but he's got an incredible story that I won't do justice, but I'll just touch on it briefly. Um when he was, I think 19, he went to prison for I think 20 years, something like that. While in prison, taught himself to play guitar.
Started writing through like I think it's called the Hooser Writing Project or something like that. um like creative writing in in prisons and uh just started creating raps around acoustic guitar. Um when he got out, put this band together and just goes around inspire. He's inspiring, man. He's so inspiring with his stories. um his positivity uh just incredible songwriter and the band is amazing and you get a chance to see him at Trade Upfest.
Um you should take it because he's just an incredible performer as well. But um he's done some stuff on NPR recently and uh I'm going to need to bring him out. Yeah. Yeah, you should make an intro. Awesome. That would be sick.
Okay. This has been so fun. We have one final question to ask you. Yeah. Uh, you know, it's clear you have passion for Hamilton County. From the live music to just the people, the whole 9 yards, it's great.
I got to know though, when you think about what it means to be a Hooser. When you close your eyes and think about it, what is your favorite Indiana memory? Going to the county fairs, Monroe County Fair, Davies County Fair. Um, I was a fair kid. But I I would say anything around music. Um, you know, front porch music festival in Noblesville every year is just Yeah.
one of my favorite memories. So, I'd have to put something music or event related. I love it. Well, hopefully it'll be the trade up. Yeah, I think so. I think so.
Uh, Saturday, September 19th up in Noblesville at the Riverview Health Arena at Innovation. That just rolls out the rolls off the [laughter] I need a little We need like a little abbreviation for that. But it's going to be awesome. Doors open at 10:00. Music starts 11:00 to 5:30 on the outside stage. Inside doors are at 5.
Show starts at 6:00. It's going to be a heck of a time. I mean, huge kudos to Gayler Electric and ABC of Indiana, Kentucky and all our sponsors. Step it up, man. It got We got a great crew. I love it, man.
Well, hey, we'll see you out there. We'll talk to you soon. Thank you, brother. This show is made possible by our friends up at Sweetwater. Whether you're looking to start a podcast or take your content to the next level, click the link in the description to see all my gear recommendations at [music] Sweetwater. If you want a behind-the-scenes look at everything we're doing across the state, make sure you follow me on Instagram and [music] Tik Tok, Nate Spangle.
Thank you so much for listening and being a part of what makes the Hooer State great. We'll see you next time here on Get