By Brittany Ward
Sept. 17, 2018
Japanese Breakfast
Has it been 15 years already? Lincoln Calling marks that anniversary this Wednesday through Saturday at multiple downtown venues.
Making the festival happen, especially with major festival-circuit performers like Parquet Courts and Japanese Breakfast, comes with a lot of hard work put in by organizer Spencer Munson and his team.
Planning for this year’s edition basically started the day after Lincoln Calling 2017. Thank you cards and invitations for the artists to return next year are written and sent soon after. Fundraising is a year-round job as well as listening and researching music to find artists to reach out to and book for the following year. SXSW is a big scouting location that Munson attends every year and paying special attention to Vice, Pitchfork and Spotify for up-in-coming artists.
Fortunately, Munson also has solid relationships with a few agents that give artist suggestions. As for local artists, he also tries to rotate local favorites every year but also showcase those that are touring and recording regularly with a solid online presence.
After the holiday season is over, booking becomes a big focus for the next couple of months along with the branding ideas for the new year, which get rolled out around the end of March. Speaking of booking, getting big-name artists to come to Lincoln, how does it happen? Well, sometimes luck plays into it if the bands are on tour and needing to fill in a day other times you “pay big bucks,” but it’s worth it.
Despite Munson’s stacked resume and experience with running festivals such as Jazz in June and working side by side with Lincoln Calling’s founder, Jeremy Buckley, there have been some challenges this year. Since Hear Nebraska handed off all festival duties to him last year, Munson has had to start a new team along with the normal difficulties of fundraising, getting a lot of volunteers, the technical requirements of each band AND managing to be everywhere and do everything at once.
For those who’ve attended Lincoln Calling in the past, you may notice some big and exciting changes.
“The festival is working on our own 501c3 non-profit but are currently under a temporary partnership with the Lincoln Community Foundation,” said Munson. “We hope to partner with Hear Nebraska again in the future after they get their new merger with The Bay worked out. Many of the past organizers are still involved and we put together a great new team with local musicians and designers.”
The Night Market will have bigger stage on Friday and Saturday, which will be used as the second main stage featuring a couple of the headliners. Tugboat Gallery and Lincoln Community Foundation Garden will both have stages and feature performance art and Avant garde music. Both Duffy’s and the Zoo Bar will be hosting showcases curated by Twinsmith and Sower Records. There has been an expansion with the workshops and non-music related activities. For the beer lovers, there is a beer made specially for Lincoln Calling due to the partnership with Green Flash and Allo called GIG CITY COMMON.
Lincoln Calling features music from almost every genre out there, music that everyone will enjoy with big names and local favorites every night! Just to name a few:
Thursday:
Duffy’s Tavern (Backlot) | Midnight
Hometown: Philadelphia, PA
Genre: Indie Rock/Pop, Experimental
1867 Bar | 11 p.m.
Hometown: Birmingham, AL
Genre: Indie Rock/Folk
Bodega’s Alley | 9:30 p.m.
Hometown: Milwaukee, WI
Genre: Americana/Folk
Duffy’s Tavern (Indoor Stage) | 9:30 p.m.
Hometown: Omaha, NE
Genre: Alternative/Indie
Bourbon Theatre | 10 p.m.
Hometown: Denver, CO
Genre: Indie/Dream Pop
Zoo Bar | 11:30 p.m.
Hometown: Lincoln/Omaha, NE
Genre: “Nebraska Thunderfunk”
Lincoln Community Gardens | 5:45 p.m.
Hometown: Omaha, NE
Genre: Classical/Contemporary
Friday:
Bourbon Theatre | 9:30 p.m.
Hometown: Oakland, CA
Genre: Blues Rock
Duffy’s Taven (Backlot) | Midnight
Hometown: New York City, NY
Genre: Post-Punk, Indie Rock
Night Market | 11 p.m.
Hometown: Nashville, TN
Genre: Art Rock/Garage Punk
1867 Bar | Midnight
Hometown: Kansas City, MO
Genre: Rock/Metal
Duffy’s Tavern (Indoor Stage) | 11:30 p.m.
Hometown: Olympia, WA
Genre: Rock, Surf/Grunge
Bodega’s Alley | 1 a.m.
Hometown: Lincoln, NE.
Genre: Electronic
Bodega’s Alley | 8 p.m.
Hometown: Omaha, NE.
Genre: Hip Hop, Soul
Zoo Bar | 11 p.m.
Hometown: Chicago, IL
Genre: Rock, Indie/Folk Rock
Saturday:
Duffy’s (Backlot) | Midnight
Hometown: New York City, NY
Genre: Alternative R&B, Neo Soul
Night Market | 11 p.m.
Hometown: New York City, NY
Genre: Hip Hop/Rap
Bodega’s Alley | 9:30 p.m.
Hometown: Kansas City, MO
Genre: Alternative/Indie
1867 Bar | 11 p.m.
Hometown: Dallas, TX
Genre: Indie Rock
Duffy’s Tavern (Indoor Stage) | 8 p.m.
Hometown: Lincoln, NE
Genre: Punk
Evan Bartels & The Stoney Lonesomes
Zoo Bar | 8:30 p.m.
Hometown: Tobias, NE
Genre: Americana
With such a stacked bill for every night at every venue, there’s no shortage on incredible talent and entertainment. It’s going to be hard to choose who to see. We’ll be needing comfortable shoes to be running around to all of the venues. For a complete schedule, check out the graphics that were made for the festival. Here are some artists that Munson is most excited about:
Fantastic Negrito
“Fantastic Negrito just won the Grammy for Blues record last year. First Grammy award winning artist to play the festival. Should be exciting for blues fans. I love R&B and FUNK so Lion Babe, Radio Galaxy and Satchel Grande will be amazing. Digisaurus and The Lagoons are sleepers. Amazing electronic dance,” said Munson.
For the future, Munson hopes to move the Lincoln Arts Festival to downtown and combine efforts for next year’s Lincoln Calling. Adding more people, more murals, more art and workshops to the festival. Also, hopes to book more shows at the Bourbon to have three main stages as well as possibly adding additional venues.
If you haven’t already, grab your tickets on the website or Facebook. For those who listen to Spotify, check out listen to the Lincoln Calling playlist. The fun starts on Wednesday night and goes until the wee hours of Sunday morning, so come out and make some incredible memories.
KZUM is proud to partner with Lincoln Calling. KZUM will also be hosting many of the Lincoln Calling workshops. For a write-up of workshops, click here.
Brittany Ward is a multimedia intern with KZUM.
