Last Thursday, I was heading to Wichita, KS for the inaugural Elsewhere Festival and Conference. Created and produced by Midtopia, a Wichita-based nonprofit artist and music-worker collective striving to build new models for the music industry, Elsewhere is a not-for-profit event created to facilitate the building of community around artistic and musical endeavors.
The festival component was crafted to be a be a multi-disciplinary showcase of national, regional and local artists featuring an eclectic, genre-defying collection of artists including the multi-Grammy Award-winning emcee, entrepreneur and activist Killer Mike, who not only headlined the festival’s first night on June 21, but also spoke in a keynote one-on-on talk with local artist 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 day, 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 day.
The conference portion of the event welcomes music industry professionals from around the world to help educate and form relationships with musicians and music workers 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 conference speakers and VIPs in a curated setting.
Norton’s Brewing Company hosted two full afternoons — June 21, 2024 and June 22, 2024 — of programming featuring panel discussions and workshops tackling many of the biggest concerns and issues facing the music industry, 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.
I had a 10:02AM flight from LaGuardia Airport. So I took the Q72 bus from my apartment to the airport and got there at a little after 8. I went through security and had a minor, very weird issue — the zipper on my shorts caused the alarm to go off for some reason. So, I had to get the additional pat down. I should have told the TSA agent that he needed to take me out to dinner first; but honestly, I just wanted to get my stuff, find my gate and get a beer.
At 8:30am, I found my gate and a bar near my gate for a pre-flight beer. You’re not a degenerate when it’s at the airport, and you need to calm your nerves a bit for a flight.
Why the passport? Well, my understanding is that you need REAL ID in order to get on a flight or do anything related to the federal government. I’m not paying $80 for a new ID that I’ll maybe use two or three times, when I already renewed my passport.
In the days before the trip, I thought about The Church‘s “North, South, East and West” off 1988’s fantastic Starfish.
I take my payment, I catch my flight,
And don’t wait up for me tonight
(And you might find me there) and you might find me there
North and south and east and west
This summer has me traveling quite a bit. So I will be hitting the road yet again in a few days.
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