Late Bloom Fest
Late Bloom Fest was the test run. I pitched a multimedia first Fridays event to Chef Bradley Gilmore one night after a serving shift. The idea had been sprouting since I started at the restaurant a year prior because I fell in love with the event space above the Lula, and the location was perfect for an art event. Chef was down with the vision and helped me with some of the planning and funding. We had no idea if it would work, but decided that if it did, we would do another 2 that summer.
The goal was to do first Fridays justice, to attract the young groovy generation of artists here in Kansas City, and to tie the Lula Southern Cookhouse brand to creativity and refreshing new ideas.
This ended up being so much work to put together. So many emails, and lots of time spent at other art events talking to creators and vendors. I was passing out flyers left and right, doing my best to find people whose work felt right for the theme (Late bloomers, and celebration of the inner child).
After lots of stress and uncertainty, lots of time spent setting up the gallery, and a lot of help from my support system, it was June 2nd. After some last second scrambling, people began to show up. Just random passers by, along with friends and family. It didn't take long for us (my family, the artists, and the restaurant staff) to realize that all of our work paid off. I remember seeing Chef, saying "it worked!" and giving him a big hug.
From there it was a matter of maintaining the flow of things, making sure all of the vendors and artists had what they needed, and ensuring that the public was having a good time. I had excellent conversations, saw old friends, and provided service to a level that I had never experienced. There was a sense of euphoria flowing through me. I found myself often speechless when people asked me how I felt, and tried to pivot to a different topic of conversation.
What I know now is that this was one of the most special experiences in my art career here in KC. There is something about your first go at something you've never tried before. I uncovered a new realm of possibilities and a new sense of trust for my vision.
Late Bloom Fest hadn't even concluded by the time I was planning the next one. What can be done better? Where can I be more efficient? Is this profitable???
Beaming Sol Fest
"Now that we know this thing works, let's push it to its peak!"
I was glad to have already created some of the systems and figured out procedures to make an event like this happen. Late Bloom was very grassroots down to the poster. Hand drawn style, hand printed tote bags, lots of feet-on-the-ground networking. Beaming Sol had a different feel to it entirely. It was set to be in the middle of the summer. The food had to be better, the drinks had to be cooler, the vendors had to be the best of the best. We brought in a dunk tank, had 3 performers outside of the jazz band, and a much more expansive gallery.
The planning phase of this event was noticeably less exciting than the first. I enjoyed creating visuals the most, and still got out to other art events to find more people to submit, but because of the amount that I wanted to 'fix', it was a lot of tweaking small details and doing repetitive tasks.
One of the main problems that we noticed at Late Bloom was the gap between the parking lot where the vendors were, and the gallery. Some people didn't even know about the gallery, which to me was the heart of the event. Using the combination of a drone shot, google maps, and a whole lot of measuring, I created a scale image of the event so that people were aware of the gallery. Another issue was getting people to engage with multiple facets of the event, so the other side of the map handout was a bingo card with activities.
The submissions for the gallery were rolling in, and I found some amazing artists. I used the ArtsKC artist directory to find a few, and did a lot of instagram promo and word of mouth to find the rest. The more art was submitted, the more I realized that the gallery was going to be incredible. I wanted to do everything I could to get people to come to this event. Because I had all of these vendors coming, all with their own followings, I created individual digital flyers for everyone to post. Here are just a few of them:
I had put so much into this event, down to an expensive shirt and pair of shoes for me to wear that day. I hired a videographer to document it, paid for a rental dunk tank, and so much more. I was in the event space finalizing the gallery until midnight the night prior to the event.
Next day, finally August 4th. The shoes I ordered didn't come in the mail, so I was on the plaza in the morning trying to figure out how to fix my outfit (really dumb, I know). I was getting texts from Brad asking when I would be there, rushing around. One of my least favorite feelings in the world is being in a rush, and that is how I started the day of my biggest project to date. I finally got to the Lula and finished up setting up the gallery. I got on my computer to do some last check-ins with artists and vendors. Some didn't respond until I was already ridiculously stressed. Others did and showed up right on queue. One or two of them got back to me and said things came up and they would not be attending. Of course one of them was bringing the puppies, which was on every flyer that was posted up around the city and online.
I had a good crew of people to help out, so I was able to run around and fix things up as the dunk tank was being filled and the vendors were getting set up.
People started to show up before the event technically started, which is fine because that is the nature of foot traffic. I was still in that state of anxiety and rushing, even though things were overall fine. I went to set up my 360 camera on the ceiling using a ladder, and got 90% of the way done before someone asked for me. The next 15 minutes I was outside running the food booth because the guy running it was the only one who knew how to fix the mic, which was spotty at best when we were testing it. He must have fixed it and got sidetracked, because when I told the booth next to me to tell people that we would be right back, my register/mic fixer guy wasn't in the event space, the performances were already starting, and the ladder was still in the middle of the room.
I remember this being the peak of my frustration. I grabbed the ladder and put it away, then found the videographer and told him to record the performances, and I slowed down to try to enjoy the music. My friends later told me that I looked so angry and stressed, it was like I had a force field around me. One friend approached and asked what I needed, and I said water and space. He grabbed me a glass of water and then walked away, because he knew that I had too much on my shoulders.
I tried to maximize everything. I expected perfection and started the day stumbling. I put together an incredible gallery, but couldn't enjoy it. I didn't talk to the vendors and make sure they were good like I did at Late Bloom, I didn't engage with the public, people didn't even know I was the host for the most part.
Yes, I am hard on myself. Let's get to the good things.
I seemed to be the only one that didn't have a good time. The dunk tank was a hit, people were obsessed with he gallery, vendors made solid sales, random people walking by flaked on their original plans to hang out; it went really well. There were a couple of people that asked where the puppies were, but for the most part, those things I saw as the end of the world didn't make it to the public eye.
Daydreamer's Fest
The first event was grass roots, simple enough that I had time to check in on everyone involved, and overall easygoing. The second was elaborate, high stakes, and a bit overcomplicated. The third had to find the perfect balance. It was a core value of mine that I personally had to be able to enjoy the event. Outside of work and planning, I had a busy few months ahead of me, so it was necessary for this to be streamlined for more than one reason.
I was creatively burning out, but knew how to get it done now. A lot of the work done for the first two didn't have to be repeated, such as the event map and the submission forms. I also had built a network of creatives and vendors, so finding people for the gallery and marketplace was way less involved.
In the month and a half leading up to the event, my dad and I had moved into a house after not having lived together in years. We all know the indefinite pain-in-the-ass process of moving, so you can imagine with that, along with popping up as artists at 2 events, and my birthday being in the mix, September was dense.
The beginning of the first day of this art show was a battle against the elements
Some prints I made for the art events
During the early planning stages of Daydreamer's, I was approached by a friend and fellow creative that attended the last event named Jonas. He has a band, and thought it would be cool to expand on the music side of these events. I agreed whole heartedly and we got to talking.
He would bring all of the equipment, and set up sound for other acts if we wanted to do that. I thought we might as well fill out that schedule, so I contacted my good friend Keeno who is a rapper, and Zee Underscore, who was performing with a band called Cease and Desist. Jonas took charge some of the details of booking, and we locked in deals such that we would have a whole night of entertainment.
I didn't pay anyone to record, nor was there a dunk tank. I got to enjoy talking to people and helping out vendors like the first one. It was an amazing night that I will never forget.
I lost money on these events, but learned so much. I have been plotting in the background, and you better believe that next time I put something together, it's gonna blow minds and bring people back to the present moment.