Live concert photography of Elsewhere Festival's second day feat. Vince Staples, BADBADNOTGOOD and Sudan Archives.

Caption: Thank you Midtopia and Marauder for having me down to Wichita. That was a lot of fun. Can we do that again real soon, please?

Created and produced by Midtopia, a Wichita, KS-based nonprofit artist and music-worker collective striving to build new models for the music industry, Elsewhere Festival and Conference is a not-for-profit event created to facilitate the building of community around artistic and musical endeavors. The inaugural festival and conference took place in Downtown, Wichita’s Old Town section last month.

The festival component was specifically crafted to be a multi-disciplinary showcase of national, regional and local artists featuring an eclectic, genre-defying collection of artists including Grammy Award-winning emcee, entrepreneur and activist Killer Mike, who not only headlined the festival’s first night, Friday June 21, but also spoke in a keynote one-on-one conversation with Rudy Love and the Encore‘s Rudy Love, Jr. earlier that day. Crowd-pleasing electronic music producer Steve Aoki, JOVM mainstays A Place to Bury Strangers, TOKiMONSTA, Sunflower Bean, funk outfit The Motet, and a curated collection of local and regional acts rounded out the festival’s first day.

The festival’s second and final day, June 22, 2024 was headlined by acclaimed emcee and actor Vince Staples. Toronto-based jazz outfit BADBADNOTGOOD, the wildly talented Sudan Archives, Lane 8, punk pop outfit PUP, Oh He Dead, Brooklyn’s THICK and a curated collection of local and regional acts rounded out the festival’s final day. And like the previous Elsewhere Festival post, the complete day 2 lineup is below — for the olds who can’t see the print on concert posters. (We know who you are!)

Saturday, June 22, 2024

Wave Outdoor:
Vince Staples
BADBADNOTGOOD
Sudan Archives
The Encore with: XC, Miss V, Chris Barnett, Sir Charles, Cash Hollister

Wave Indoor:
Josue Estrada Band
Mambo Sauce
Keo & Them
The Whips

WherElse:
Lane 8
Sultan + Shepard (DJ Set)
Le Youth
QRTR

Norton’s:
Oh He Dead
Jigsaw Youth
Curl
Delirium

Barleycorn’s:
Chew
Glass Age
Gildahouse
Horse Bitch
Buddy Crimes
JACK
The Travel Guide
Milkwave
Apathy Unit

Naftzger Park (Free Stage):
PUP
Thick
King Youngblood
Social Cinema
Ferris Wheel Regulars
DJ Carbon

Although I’ve included the second day’s full lineup, I wasn’t able to see as much as I would have liked. I’ve covered dozens of festivals like Elsewhere Fest over the years, and I’ve learned — generally speaking — how not to literally kill myself: It involved developing the understanding that I can’t and won’t cover everything, and that’s perfectly fine. Hell, you need to rest, bullshit with new festival friends, drink a cold beer, drink some water, get a good meal — or just have a moment where you’re not rushing around. It’s work; but goddamn it, it’s fun work. Also, for most of the time that I was in Wichita, it was sweltering: I was in a photo pit about to work and it was 98º F at 7:00pm CT.

The festival’s second day, my office was the headlining stage at Wave ICT, where I caught Vince Staples, BADBADNOTGOOD and Sudan Archives.

Funnily enough, I had fully intended to write detailed notes about each of the festival sets I intended to catch. But I wound up having so much fun with locals and colleagues that I completely forgot about it after catching the first set of my festival set. Ooops! That’s a good problem to have on occasion. But hey, there are photos. Lots of them. Check it out.