Photography: Artwork at Elsewhere Festival 6/21/24 – 6/22/24

Photography: Artwork at Elsewhere Festival 6/21/24 – 6/22/24

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 KS just a few weeks ago. 

The festival component was crafted to be a 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 on Friday June 21 but also spoke in a keynote one-on-one with Rudy Love and the Encore’s frontman Rudy Love, Jr. that afternoon. 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. 

Acclaimed emcee and actor Vince Staples headlined the festival’s second night, Saturday June 22. Toronto-based jazz outfit BADBADNOTGOOD, the wildly talented Sudan Archives, Lane 8, punk rockers PUP, Oh He Dead, Brooklyn’s THICK and a curated collection of local and regional acts rounded out the festival’s second and final day. 

The conference portion of the event welcomed music industry professionals from both around the country and internationally to help educate and form relationships with musicians and music works in the Midwest, an area that’s historically undervalued and underserved by the music industry — despite its rich musical and creative history. 

The Greater Wichita Partnership hosted one-on-one speed meetings where attendees are matched with other members in the music community in a curated setting. This was followed by a two full days of programming featuring workshops and panel discussions tackling many of the biggest concerns and issues facing the music industry today, including how to find your own path in the music industry, creating a fanbase out of virality, balancing yourself in an unbalanced industry, how to utilize your platform for change, what you need to do and know to have a successful first tour, a workshop on how to talk about yourself and not feel weird while doing so, the risks and rewards of a career in music and more. 

By creating a hub for like-minded music workers and artists, Elsewhere Festival and Conference emphasizes innovation and progressive ideology that will encourage experimentation, push artistic boundaries, nurture a culture of collaboration, and expose attendees to organizations that are bringing positive transformation to the community.

Now, if you had been following this site over the past couple of months, you might remember that Midtopia along with their partner Marauder invited me to be a panelist at Elsewhere Festival and Conference last month. Again, what a humbling and flattering experience to be part of the inaugural event — and to be able to talk openly and honestly about my professional experiences to Wichita’s music professionals and artists.

Elsewhere Fest and Conference’s visual and immersive art components were curated by local nonprofit Harvester Arts to bridge local, national and global scenes to activate the festival’s urban footprint with cutting-edge projections, street art, playful installations, striking murals, dance performances and more.

The festival was kicked off by intentionally renowned muralist GLeo, who created a mural for Elsewhere Works, a community hub described as “the go-to place for simultaneous creativity, a micro campus and a place of work,” where artists, musicians and other creative workers can gather to co-create alongside Midtopia, Elsewhere Festival attendees and other local and national collectives and programs.

Of course during the festival’s run, I was very busy with the panels and trying to coverage as much of the festival as I could when I was able. But I did stumble upon some of the artwork around the festival footprint, and I spent some time hanging out in the artist and speaker’s lounge. Photos below.

Dinosaurs!

Brightly colored dinosaurs were located all over the festival footprint, including this one. Sadly, for some reason, this one was the only one I spotted. I would have loved to see more — because dinosaurs!

Elsewhere Fest Van

Located just outside of Wave ICT, the brightly graffitied Elsewhere Fest van was a familiar site, welcoming festival goers, VIPs and others to the festival.

Artist’s Lounge, St. Francis Street

Elsewhere’s Artist Lounge on St. Francis Street was a much-needed cool respite during the festival’s run: Friday and Saturday had temperatures in the high 90s. The lounge employed a gloriously odd mushroom and cloud decor that for me evoked a psilocybin trip — in space.

Need Directions?

One of the most helpful things was coming across these signs, which gave fairly precise directions to stages and venues across the festival footprint. Most of the festival’s first day/day and a half of so, I relied on these conveniently located signs.