🌾 What is Somewhere Fest?

Your Guide to Somewhere Fest this Weekend

Author

Landon Huslig
June 11, 2025

Together With

Good morning, Wichita!

Today is National Making Life Beautiful Day. It is also National Corn Cob Day. In other words, basically the same thing.

Let's get to it!

- Landon Huslig

Together with White Crow Cider Company

Crafted in small batches from fresh‑pressed culinary apples, every cider they pour is naturally gluten free and typically vegan, so everyone can join the flock at White Crow Cider Company.

Choose from crisp brut dry to dessert sweet pours, plus a couple of zero‑proof taps perfect for kiddos and designated drivers. 

Bring your friends, leash up the pup, and settle in for rotating food trucks or easy snacks like chips, peanuts, and the fleeting Fio Rito hummus and pimento cheese. Friendly crew, fun events, memorable pours.

Fly over and check it out today!

SOMEWHERE FEST & CONFERENCE

People love to complain that there is nothing to do in Wichita.

What will they say now?

Coming off of a great turnout at Riverfest, the second annual Somewhere Fest is THIS WEEKEND and starts in just two days!

Somewhere Fest is the evolution of Elsewhere Fest that kicked off last year.

Now that Wichita is on the map, it isn’t just “Elsewhere”, but rather “Somewhere”.

Last year, Elsewhere Fest was a bit of a question mark. No one knew what to expect.

It started with the stylized diamond E spray painted at various locations downtown before it was officially announced and ended with people getting caked at Steve Aoki.

What is Somewhere Fest & Conference?

Somewhere Fest & Conference is a chance for music enthusiasts of all genres to come downtown and celebrate big acts as well as local acts.

It consists of a few pieces - the educational conference portion which will take place during the day, the festival portion in the evenings, and a block party right smack dab in the middle.

To hear it from the hosts themselves:

Somewhere is a place you go to step away from the noise of the world to gain clarity within a community of deep thinkers and creative explorers.

The intention of Somewhere is to communally immerse ourselves in the vastness of the unknown, explore all that we cannot yet conceive, experiment purposefully, and embrace our shared consciousness to discover meaningful and impactful concepts and creations for the betterment of all.

Somewhere Festival and Conference’s mission is to build community and opportunity for musicians and music workers in the Midwest, an area historically undervalued and underserved by the music industry despite its rich musical history.

Check out my interview with conference spokesperson Marquis Bradley:

Music Festival

There is no one genre at Somewhere. You’ll find everything from hip-hop to alternative to EDM to punk and much more.

The genre-agnostic festival will feature performances from BigXThaPlug, Flying Lotus, DeadMau5, Suki Waterhouse, Aloe Blacc, 2LOT, XV, and more.

To put it in perspective a few of these acts and how big they are (on Spotify):

  • BigXThaPlug - 20.9 million monthly listeners. Rapper, songwriter, and producer from Dallas.

  • Flying Lotus - 1.4 million monthly listeners. Record producer, DJ, filmmaker, and rapper.

  • DeadMau5 - 5 million monthly listeners. Canadian DJ, producer, and performer, known for his music and giant mouse head.

  • Suki Waterhouse - 10.6 million monthly listeners. Singer, actress, English model, businesswoman, and partner of that vampire guy from Twilight - Robert Pattinson.

Deadmau5

You may notice there is no country on the list and that is mainly due to Wichita already getting a wide-range of awesome country music from huge artists to smaller ones (we saw Ian Munsick at Wave last year and are headed to Dylan Gossett next month).

When you look at some of the other genres, Wichita is pretty stagnant on the bigger stage.

Somewhere Fest gives Wichita a chance to see bigger artists who would typically not book Wichita.

“A festival like (Some)where is the type of place where if I walk to this stage as a kid and I see this and I’m like oh that’s amazing and then I walk next door and see this other thing and then in 10 years I put those things together and I’m playing Elsewhere. That’s the dream” - Rudy Love Jr. on Wichita by E.B. Podcast

Get the Somewhere Fest App for up to date info.

There is also a WHOLE art component that I will not have room to cover today, but you should check out.

Conference

The Conference portion is the educational component of the weekend.

It is a chance for those who work in music to learn from and grow their community and network both locally and nationwide.

There will be workshops, one-on-one meetings and more covering topics ranging from everything from putting together a press-kit to learning touring essentials.

The goal is to get rid of the gatekeepers and elevate artists.

Change Starts Somewhere

Change Starts Somewhere Block Party (presented by Stand Together Foundation) is a two-day celebration of community, creativity, and social action held during festival weekend.

It will take place from 4-8pm both days of Somewhere Fest and is COMPLETELY FREE - no festival ticket is required.

There are four central themes to the Block Party and each consists of hands-on activities, interactive installations and calls to action:

  • Build Somewhere (economic mobility)

  • Learn Somewhere (education)

  • Heal Somewhere (mental health and addiction recovery)

  • Create Somewhere (freedom of expression)

I also encourage you to explore the State of our City Dashboard and provide feedback.

Where is Somewhere Fest?

The hub of Somewhere Fest is on St. Francis from 2nd St down past Somewhere Streets.

A Taste of Somewhere

Nnanna and Festive ICT are bringing the HEAT again as they curated the new A Taste of Somewhere food court. These are the people behind Taco Fest, Margaritas & Mojitos and so much more.

Who is behind Elsewhere Fest?

​Midtopia is a nonprofit organization that supports bands by providing opportunities and resources. They are also the brains behind Somewhere Fest.

(we had Jessie on our podcast a couple of years back!)

​It was started by Jessie and Adam Hartke who run Wave, The Cotillion, D Tour and more.

I can not think of a better group of people or organization to throw this level of music festival in Wichita.

“Midtopia was created to serve a need in Wichita, but really applies, well, elsewhere. There are so many talented artists and music workers alike, and such wonderful local scenes, but industry support is really lacking and systematically flawed.

Midtopia is an opportunity to reimagine the traditional industry structure and its ability to positively impact society, and create a new framework that puts artists and music workers first. We want to do the same thing with (Some)ewhere and create a new kind of music event that is truly built to support the community and artists, both local and from afar.” - Jessie Hartke

How much does it cost?

You can get a single day pass for $84 or two-day pass for $138.

You can also get a single day VIP pass for $181 or two-day VIP pass for $278.

A two-day conference pass is just $37.

VIP comes with premium sightlines of main stages, VIP bar access, expedited entry lanes, and VIP restrooms.

Some people say this is overpriced. Some people also say $20 Riverfest buttons are overpriced.

​Electric Forest up in Michigan (also coming up soon) has passes for thousands of dollars. Dancefestopia in KC is double the price. Coachella has tickets starting at $500.

Deadmau5 concerts alone are typically $100+ in various locations. There are dozens of artists coming to Somewhere, so in my opinion this is a heckuva deal.

There are plenty of studies out there about the economic impact of concerts, festivals, and events that show for every dollar that is spent on concert tickets between $3-12 are brought into the local community.

I'll leave you with a quote from The Shout article and interview with Jessie Hartke:

"There’s no way we could sell enough tickets to break even. Fortunately, profit is not driving us. Our big return on investment is culture.”

Let's help support the culture here in Wichita.

Wichita now has a chance to make a mark in our own unique way with Somewhere Festival and Conference.

Quick Event Rundown

Anyway, that's it for today!

If you enjoyed today, share this email with someone who loves the Riverfest.

Thanks!

- Landon

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