This coming weekend, Fountain Square Music Festival will be taking place in Indianapolis. Fountain Square, which started in 2013 as a simple passion project for the locals, has grown exponentially: nationally known talent at four Indianapolis venues: White Rabbit Cabaret, Radio Radio, the Hi-Fi, and Joyful Noise Recording. Additionally, this festival functions as a non-profit and donates 50% of all proceeds between Musical Family Tree and Girls Rock Inc. The fest won “Best Festival” in the reader poll “Best of Indy,” and boy, does this line up look good. Between local artists, a huge variety of genre and talent, local Indy beer and food vendors, and Lil Bub (!!!), I was convinced to dedicate my weekend to this festival almost instantly. This festival provides something for every fan: there is folk, a hip-hop stage, a dance stage, and eclectic, diverse headline artists.
The festival will take place on March 25 and 26. On Friday night, Andrew W.K will headline the Theater Building, Ghost Gun Summer rounds out the night at Pioneer, Andrew Belle will cap things off at the Hi-Fi, and Helado Negro will headline White Rabbit. Notable acts on Friday also include Reptar, Kimya Dawson, Mathaius Young and obviously Lil Bub.
On Saturday, the line up is sure to delight. Headliners include (venue in parentheses): Thurston Moore Group (Theater Building), Kishi Bashi (Pioneer), Mexican Institute of Sound (Hi-Fi) and Yoni Wolf (White Rabbit). Acts to note earlier in the day: Bloomington-based Hoops, (they'll also be at Culture Shock on April 9), Surfer Blood, Emperor X and Big Colour.
The scheduled line-up will take place from 7 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. at respective venues, followed by one main show at the Fountain Square. I will personally be found rocking out to Andrew W. K. on Friday night, and you can find me splitting my time between Kishi Bashi and Thurston Moore during Saturday evening. As for the rest of the day, I look forward to going with the flow, seeing the local art and venues, and discovering new talent. I have never been to Indianapolis, and I couldn’t think of a better way to explore a new city.
In addition, for early birds, there are activities during the day revolving around the local Indy music scene. These can all be found on the website, but some interesting events I will be checking out include: WFYI Public Radio Studio Session at 1 p.m., the New Day Folk Stage, and an intimate artists panel at 2:15 p.m., featuring artists (TBD) discussing tours, publicity and the industry. Lastly, there is an after party at the Hi-Fi, which is sure to be a hit.
Every artist performing this weekend has a biography and a YouTube video on the FSMF website, allowing festival goers to check out the music and create a personal schedule based on interests. Check it out and hopefully, I will see you at the Square!
