The Harrison Center’s annual Bloombox Festival returns this weekend with a full day of music, art and food from Indy’s backyard.
Celebrating its 22nd year, Bloombox Festival — formerly IMAF — is one of Indianapolis’ only festivals featuring entirely local artists, musicians and food vendors. Bloombox is one of, if not the only festival organized by high school students. It is also entirely free to attend.
“Bloombox is a music and arts festival that works to represent the local talents in Indianapolis, so it’s usually the local artists and local musicians and local food vendors,” Grace Graves, co-coordinator of the festival, said. “We work with the INDIEana Handicraft Exchange that primarily works with local vendors so they can display and sell their art.”
Bloombox Festival prides itself on being a space where Indy’s local artists of all ages can display their work, local musicians can present their original music, and local chefs, restaurant owners and food trucks can feed their community. The entire festival is family-friendly and aims to be accessible to as many people in the community as possible.
Moriah Miller, Creative Engagement Administration, said all the Harrison Center exhibitions will be open inside during the festival, some of the resident artists will have their studios open and a handful of vendors and artists will be outside, including some of the Greatriarchs, Johnson Simon and Quincy Owens.
“It’s fun every year to see — even though it’s largely the same festival — the interns always bring their own perspective, so it’s always fun to get to see them enjoy that day,” Miller said. “Something that I love about the Harrison Center’s intern program is that it gives you guys the power to do something like this.”
Alongside Graves, Taylor Solomon is also a co-coordinator for Bloombox. Both are Herron High School students and began organizing Bloombox in August 2022 through an in-school internship with the Harrison Center. Graves said she and Solomon met with the festival board monthly while she worked on negotiating contracts with musicians and Solomon secured food vendors.
“I’m definitely excited to see all the musicians that we researched actually perform live,” Graves said. “In general, all of our hard work comes to fruition, and we’re seeing what we just thought up on our computers play into real life.”
This year’s festival will look a little different, Graves said. Rather than implementing new programming, Graves said Bloombox will instead feature more vendors, artists and musicians than in years past due to the pandemic. They also worked to have a roller-skating rink for guests to enjoy and have a lineup of five food trucks, including That Vegan Joint, Johnson’s BBQ, New York Slice, J&J Roasted Corn, and Books, Bourbon and Bacon, Taylor said.
“(I am) really excited about … seeing what people like the most, eating the food and really getting to hear the feedback and seeing how it all plays out,” Taylor said.
Live music will be featured on two stages in the Harrison Center courtyard in partnership with the INDIEana Handicraft Exchange, a DIY contemporary craft fair, Miller said. Graves said the festival will showcase ten artists throughout the day, such as KC King and the Soul Collective, Radar Gold, Sadie Johnson, Shvdy Rollins, BOOKS and Joyce Award resident musician Seaux Chill.
Brandi Caruthers, known professionally as The Girl Called BOOKS, was born and raised in Nashville but moved to Indianapolis to pursue her career in music. The singer-songwriter and producer — who plays 12 instruments and has a master’s degree in arts administration — will make her Bloombox Festival debut this year after attending for several years.
“I really enjoy the festival; I really appreciate that it is a space for artists to perform their original music,” BOOKS said. “We don’t have a lot of that in Indiana really, but Indianapolis especially — it’s really cover band heavy and cover music focused — so it’s really refreshing and great to see when venues and festivals really champion original music.”
One of the things BOOKS said she admires about Bloombox is how it places an emphasis on artists like herself — who create original music rather than covers — and gives them a platform where they can share their music with the community. Dexter Clardy, the lead singer of Shvdy Rollins, echoed that sentiment and said the festival presents a good opportunity for them to play some of their new music to a crowd that normally might not hear it.
Shvdy Rollins is also new to the Bloombox stage. Rollins is a member of the alternative R&B group formerly known as Huckleberry Funk. The group met in college and have been exploring different music genres, such as R&B, hip-hop, alternative and funk.
“It sounded like a pretty cool opportunity, and, you know, we’re always happy to play in the city,” Clardy said. “I know the Harrison center, they’re always doing a lot of really cool stuff for artists and for the creators of Indy; so, you know, just happy to be a part of it.”
The 22nd annual Bloombox Festival takes place June 17 from noon to 8 p.m. at the Harrison Center, 1505 N. Delaware St. For more information, visit harrisoncenter.org/programs/imaf.
Contact staff writer Chloe McGowan at 317-762-7848 or chloegm@indyrecorder.com. Follow her on Twitter @chloe_mcgowanxx.
