August 11, 2025 • 12 mins
Join me as I talk to the creator of Inkcarceration Festival - Daniel Janssen! Dan talks about how how took over the old "Ink In The Clink", formed it into Inkcarceration, almost quitting the music business entirely and more. There's great content here for fans of the festival and bands wanting to one day perform.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Hey guys, it's Kevin Pell with Kevin Pell Podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
I am here with the man himself, Dan Janton, Dan,
how are you feeling today?
Speaker 3 (00:11):
I feel a lot better than I was yesterday.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
I was gonna say, I can only imagine the amount
of stress every single day. Oh yeah, this so I
want to know. I mean, we're gonna start the beginning.
When did incarceration? By the way, if you know this
is the guy behind incarceration, Okay, I've talked to Whalen Rape.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
I mess up his name, Whalen Revis. Thank you, Tyler.
That's a joke we have. By the way, talked to
Whalen of Killer's confession and he.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Talked about you know, we used to play back in
the day with Ink and the Clink, and you know
that's how Dan got's involved, and you know, we're super
grateful for him for that. So one shout out to
you from them to you too. If you don't right
know of that right right to take me back to
the beginning days. How did you wake up one day
and go, you know what, I'm gonna do a festival?
Speaker 4 (00:53):
So basically, you know there was the festival before incarceration. Okay,
call it ache and the Clink and that fast went
away in twenty seventeen was the last year of that
and one of the guys that was one of the
people who funded that event was also a friend of mine,
and basically, you know, the Reformatory was like, you know,
we still want to do something here because you know,
the other man was gone, but you know, you know,
(01:16):
what would you want to do with it?
Speaker 3 (01:17):
And he's like, I have no clouds funding it. I mean, like,
I mean, but I know the other guy.
Speaker 4 (01:21):
So they brought me in as a promoter for the
show at the time, and I looked at the situation
and I thought, you know, this had so much more potential.
And I was just basically like, you know, if you
want to do a festival, let's do a festival. You know,
eaking the Click was a smaller event, you know, and
so I basically pitched my ideas and my partner, Mike Minski,
(01:42):
the guy that was working with it and the Click
at the time, he really liked it and he's like, hey,
you know, and I said, there's one more thing.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
I don't like the name. I want to change the name, and.
Speaker 4 (01:52):
That came out, but I said, it's got to be
called incarceration. I love one word festival titles. That's just
a thing for me. So so we came with the
name he loved, that loved. Then we were off to
the races. In twenty eighteen was our first year.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
So yeah, my first year with you guys, I think
was twenty twenty two or twenty three, I quite remember,
but every single year. I mean, this was my first
dating Women Presents festival, and I've joked about it with
bands before who have played here and have played other festivals.
You always like incarcerations like the best thing ever. It
is well run machine. I don't know how much of
(02:25):
a hand you have with everything involved, but we're going
to get to that. Okay, top notch all round. Like
I've worked with other music promotions and like I'm behind
the scenes with security, I'm behind the scenes with like
artists and stuff like that, and genuine comfort that artists
feel coming here is great. So number one, you make
your artist feel comfortable. Number two, everyone knows.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
What they're doing.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Like there's not one security guard who just started yesterday
and doesn't have any idea, so that's great. Everyone feels
nice and safe, and you guys have been working NonStop
around the clock. This is day two of incarceration. Big
difference between day one Day two.
Speaker 4 (03:00):
Yes, yeah, I mean obviously yesterday we hit.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
Got hit with weather really early. Yeah, it just it
causes a snowball effect, right, Yeah, it's all.
Speaker 4 (03:07):
Ficked and traffic accident, and then all of a sudden,
the parking lots get backed up because there's lines of
cars and your fault camping shuttles.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
Happened, right, and you're right, it's totally my fault.
Speaker 4 (03:17):
But anyways, look, I we have no excuses, right, so
we we were like, hey, there's issues, we have to
fix them, right, So, you know, over after that happened,
once we got everything caught up by about three thirty
four o'clock or so, basically we're like, okay, now, great,
we have everything caught up.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
What do we do for tomorrow?
Speaker 4 (03:33):
And we spent probably three hours in meetings with traffic,
with the police, with everybody.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
This was all day.
Speaker 4 (03:39):
This started about probably five o'clock I think we started
going and then all wait, about seven thirty we just
we're having meetings about how do we fix tomorrow?
Speaker 3 (03:47):
So you know, it's really on stakeholders.
Speaker 4 (03:49):
Yeah, on site all the stakeholders of every different department,
and how do we fix it, how do we make
it better for the.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
Fans, and let's execute it.
Speaker 4 (03:55):
So we just go through it and we come up
with ideas and then we do it the next day.
So it's just got to have the ability to kind
of you know, go back and rethink and revamp things
and just you know, you could pinpoint where things went
wrong and how to fix them. And and a lot
of credit to you know, Danny Wimmer, my partner.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
His team. DWP's team is the season bets here.
Speaker 4 (04:16):
I mean they're the ones that have been doing this
for well over a decade.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
They do multiple vets a year.
Speaker 4 (04:21):
I get the one event, but you know, they have
a lot of them, and then so they're very seasoned.
And like you said, everybody knows what they're doing, so
the companies they hire are always the best. They all
know what they're doing at all times. And it's really,
you know, it's really I'm very fortunate to have them
as my team on site.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
You know.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
And you guys were keeping fans updated all all all
to night. Yeah, I mean, you guys were active on
social media making sure everyone knew what was going on.
There's no I mean, hobby thro There's gonna be people
that are confused. That's all it goes. Yeah, however, I've
never seen anyone more involved directly with fans than incarceration, DWP,
(04:57):
all those guys, So thank you for that.
Speaker 3 (04:59):
Yeah. Media t is on site. I mean, our our
social media team is here.
Speaker 4 (05:03):
They're in the trenches with us, and I mean, transparency
is the best thing and communicating with fans. The worst
thing you can do is go silent and not tell
people what's going on, tell them what the options are
going to be.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
I swore there was no festival where that happened before.
No comment, no comment, But I.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
Talked to bands about that, and there has.
Speaker 4 (05:20):
Been, there has been, There has been several festivals like that.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (05:23):
So yeah, I mean it's you know, you got to communicate,
and I think that's the key, and you know, but yeah,
we do that and the fans appreciate that, and and
then we hope that we could turn around like we
did today. We got everybody in here quickly, and everybody's
having a great time. They had a great time yesterday
too when they were here, they were like, this is great.
So I thought I thought Yesterday ended really strong. You know,
we were able to get everybody out really quickly, out
(05:44):
of the venue and no big issues at.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
That so it was it was good there. And then
that's the key.
Speaker 4 (05:49):
You know, it started slow, but we had to strong
yesterday and we hope to continue that throughout the weekend.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
So and you know, again, I've been here since twenty
twenty two or twenty twenty three.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
Yeah, we start.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
Blending together after a while. It's how I get a
hundred percent. But there's a big change from last year.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
This year. You gotta switched out the layup. Yes, what's
been the word on that? How's the reception?
Speaker 3 (06:06):
All right?
Speaker 1 (06:07):
What do you think?
Speaker 3 (06:08):
Well?
Speaker 4 (06:08):
This was my baby here, this this whole switching the
site around. You know, I heard a lot of feedback
over the last six years from fans from the lack
of shade. People wanted more shade, they wanted more space.
Suns in the yes, wash their eyes when you're watching
the stage. The biggest thing for me was shade, and
we were utilizing a whole side of this prison that
(06:29):
literally has all these trees right, yes, and also space.
We outgrew the setup we were at last year, and
you know, just giving people more elbow roam, a little
better flow back and forth between stages, things like that.
So you know, I've been trying to get this new
setup done since about twenty two actually, okay, and it
just took a lot of.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
Different redesigns and designs and redesigns.
Speaker 4 (06:49):
And also we had to do some infrastructure on the
site that we put in this year that we finally.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
Got approvals for.
Speaker 4 (06:54):
So that helped a lot, some roads that we put
in to be able to get production vehicles in. But yeah,
this year came to other. I got everybody on board
with it with some help. I had some people that
were rallying for it on the DVP side as well,
and and whim are let me run with this thing.
And I'm like, all right, cool. So so it's been great.
It turned out better than I could have expected. And yeah,
I mean we're excited where we're at right now, at
(07:15):
this festival has grown to a really nice, a nice,
a nice spot right now.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
I was gonna say, I have seen a significant growth.
I mean, I know you have to you get to
see the numbers and the fighting all that stuff, but
definitely the growth is there, and I know that like,
all right, we did that change of the layout.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
You're not done. You're gonna do something now.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
Yeah, we're always going to continue to if you're.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
Listening to feedback, Yeah, and you're listening to you know.
Speaker 4 (07:35):
Everything there's there. I mean, the sites, we're never done.
We're always looking on how we can make it better
for that next year.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (07:41):
Now, as far as getting bigger and wider and more capacity,
I think we're at a good spot right now. But
what do we do with this spot now? Right there's
things we can keep doing to improve the site, improve
the le improved just the what we were working with now.
And we'll listen to the feedback this year after the show,
you know, and see what the fans are saying and
if there's constructive criticism in there that I mean, we
(08:02):
read all of it. We're like, hey, you know what,
like that guy's got a good point, you know. So yeah,
I think we're just gonna We're gonna hear the feedback
after the event and go from there. So that's the way. Actually,
what you do is you just expand the prison.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
Don't worry.
Speaker 4 (08:14):
I'd love to finish the insides of these of the prison,
you know. But yeah, it's this this this prison is one.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
Of a kind. I mean, obviously that's the staple of
this festival.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
And the location.
Speaker 4 (08:24):
It's probably the most unique backdrop for a festival. That's
the other two we'd even mentioned. With this new setup.
The back Yeah, this is this amazing like prison. So
it does awesome views, awesome shots. I mean you couldn't
you could it kind of you couldn't ask for a better.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
Backdrop for for a for an event.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
So will like walk by.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
And if you have no tour, yeah, you gotta do
one of the tours. You got the tattoos side of
things as well as they talked to a big.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
House fire wanted house.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
Now, if you could go back in time to twenty sixteen,
Dan and tell.
Speaker 3 (08:55):
Them one thing, what would it be, Gosh, one thing?
Speaker 4 (09:00):
Well, I would say keep going, because about twenty sixteen
I almost got out.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
Of the music business, Like she went back to college and.
Speaker 4 (09:06):
Was trying to finish off my business degree, and I
was like, you know what, I'm just gonna kind of
drop all this and do something else. And then you know,
a little bit of luck, Mike Kimiski calls me and says, hey, man,
I got this opportunity, you.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
Want to do it, and I'm like, I've always wanted
a festival, you know what I mean.
Speaker 4 (09:22):
So I remember I used to go to Rock on
the Range a lot back in the day, you know,
and I remember like leaving there the one year and
I was just like, you know what I've like, I
don't think I ever want to come back to one of.
Speaker 3 (09:31):
These things until I own my own, you know what
I mean. And I didn't.
Speaker 4 (09:35):
I never went back to any other festival until I
had my own, and I was like, now I got
my own festival. I feel good.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
So yeah, because you're already planning for next.
Speaker 4 (09:41):
Year, Oh yeah, yeah, we've got we've got twenty six
already booking right now.
Speaker 3 (09:45):
That's where we have confirmed acts already. You have to though, Yeah, it.
Speaker 4 (09:49):
Is wild, because I mean that's what the one thing
that's cool about this event is is the bands want
to play here, and we're we're getting confirmations a year
in advance, which used to never happen. So like, I
think it's really great that, you know, we're getting the
support from the artists and the agents and the managers,
and I think they're seeing the growth of it and
we're not that small, little tiny fest anymore, and they're like, hey,
(10:11):
this is something big.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
I mean, look at any of your socials. Yeah literally
all right.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
Prime example, we were side stage for a bear Tooth
for a little bit and kN awck lose for sure,
just looking out at the sea of people as wild
and that's awesome. Also part of the reconstruction you guys
did from last year this year.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
Correct, yea.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
I love the fact that the VIP said that I
can't mind to see that, but that's okay, so I
don't need to. That's for them, not for me if
I was up there watching perfect.
Speaker 3 (10:36):
Right, Yeah.
Speaker 4 (10:37):
I mean that was the one thing too, is with
the double stage, you really have to make sure your
view lines are good. And that VIP when we set up,
I literally walked every place on that VIP to make
sure it had good view lines on stage two because
we knew we do stage one, we want stage two
have views as well. So, I mean, I really like
the way that turned out. I think the fans have
got their getting their money's worth up there. We had
to shade structures and more seating and like, I just
(10:59):
really proud of like the team to put all this
together because you know, I thought it'd be good, but
like they'll do that, wud be great. But then like
when I went out there and really looked at things,
I'm like, they did better than I had expected.
Speaker 3 (11:10):
That's awesome.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
Yeah, that's all part of the team too. It's not
just you.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
You got a whole set of people people, they're all
on board with you.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
That's a good feeling.
Speaker 4 (11:18):
Yeah, it's pretty wild. And like I said, a big
shout out to DWP. They provide most of the staffing
for this event. And you know, they have their teams
and their teams are locked in and this is they
take it seriously and they're in. Danny Wimmer is always
walking around. I mean his thing is fan first. He
had experience and like he's been great to learn from,
you know, while working with him over that since we've
parted with them in twenty one.
Speaker 3 (11:39):
So yeah, it's been a fun.
Speaker 4 (11:40):
It's been a fun experience and they've helped get this
thing to where it's at, which is amazing.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
Last question for you is sure had to give advice
to any band who wanted to see their way to incorsation,
what would it be?
Speaker 4 (11:51):
Yeah, I mean, look, I like I like giving opportunities
to unsigned to acts, to like smaller bands that aren't
quite there yet or newly signed to acts.
Speaker 3 (11:58):
I mean, I love it.
Speaker 4 (11:59):
As you guys know, we we put a lot of
bands on this show that don't play a lot of
the festival circuits. And aren't you know there a lot
of festivals to either done space for or whatever.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
We we really pride ourselves on that.
Speaker 4 (12:10):
So I say reach out, you know what I mean,
info at incarceration dot com, email us, you know, set
us some music. It'll get it'll be it'll get on
some ears so people will hear it. And if it's
something there, if they got if they're ready for that,
you know, if they've got a fan base growing and
they're in their home markets and stuff, and they've got
some some some some some momentum in there in their favor,
like we'll do what we can to help them out.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
Awesome, Dan, I appreciate a little bit your time today. Awesome,
Thank you so much, sir.
Speaker 3 (12:34):
That's Dan.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
You gotta get out to ink next year.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
He didn't tease anything, but I know it's gonna be bigger,
it's gonna be better, it's gonna be great. So get
out to ink get out to any Danny who presents festivals.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
We'll see you next time.
Speaker 3 (12:43):
Awesome,
Hey guys, it's Kevin Pell with Kevin Pell Podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
I am here with the man himself, Dan Janton, Dan,
how are you feeling today?
Speaker 3 (00:11):
I feel a lot better than I was yesterday.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
I was gonna say, I can only imagine the amount
of stress every single day. Oh yeah, this so I
want to know. I mean, we're gonna start the beginning.
When did incarceration? By the way, if you know this
is the guy behind incarceration, Okay, I've talked to Whalen Rape.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
I mess up his name, Whalen Revis. Thank you, Tyler.
That's a joke we have. By the way, talked to
Whalen of Killer's confession and he.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Talked about you know, we used to play back in
the day with Ink and the Clink, and you know
that's how Dan got's involved, and you know, we're super
grateful for him for that. So one shout out to
you from them to you too. If you don't right
know of that right right to take me back to
the beginning days. How did you wake up one day
and go, you know what, I'm gonna do a festival?
Speaker 4 (00:53):
So basically, you know there was the festival before incarceration. Okay,
call it ache and the Clink and that fast went
away in twenty seventeen was the last year of that
and one of the guys that was one of the
people who funded that event was also a friend of mine,
and basically, you know, the Reformatory was like, you know,
we still want to do something here because you know,
the other man was gone, but you know, you know,
(01:16):
what would you want to do with it?
Speaker 3 (01:17):
And he's like, I have no clouds funding it. I mean, like,
I mean, but I know the other guy.
Speaker 4 (01:21):
So they brought me in as a promoter for the
show at the time, and I looked at the situation
and I thought, you know, this had so much more potential.
And I was just basically like, you know, if you
want to do a festival, let's do a festival. You know,
eaking the Click was a smaller event, you know, and
so I basically pitched my ideas and my partner, Mike Minski,
(01:42):
the guy that was working with it and the Click
at the time, he really liked it and he's like, hey,
you know, and I said, there's one more thing.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
I don't like the name. I want to change the name, and.
Speaker 4 (01:52):
That came out, but I said, it's got to be
called incarceration. I love one word festival titles. That's just
a thing for me. So so we came with the
name he loved, that loved. Then we were off to
the races. In twenty eighteen was our first year.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
So yeah, my first year with you guys, I think
was twenty twenty two or twenty three, I quite remember,
but every single year. I mean, this was my first
dating Women Presents festival, and I've joked about it with
bands before who have played here and have played other festivals.
You always like incarcerations like the best thing ever. It
is well run machine. I don't know how much of
(02:25):
a hand you have with everything involved, but we're going
to get to that. Okay, top notch all round. Like
I've worked with other music promotions and like I'm behind
the scenes with security, I'm behind the scenes with like
artists and stuff like that, and genuine comfort that artists
feel coming here is great. So number one, you make
your artist feel comfortable. Number two, everyone knows.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
What they're doing.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Like there's not one security guard who just started yesterday
and doesn't have any idea, so that's great. Everyone feels
nice and safe, and you guys have been working NonStop
around the clock. This is day two of incarceration. Big
difference between day one Day two.
Speaker 4 (03:00):
Yes, yeah, I mean obviously yesterday we hit.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
Got hit with weather really early. Yeah, it just it
causes a snowball effect, right, Yeah, it's all.
Speaker 4 (03:07):
Ficked and traffic accident, and then all of a sudden,
the parking lots get backed up because there's lines of
cars and your fault camping shuttles.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
Happened, right, and you're right, it's totally my fault.
Speaker 4 (03:17):
But anyways, look, I we have no excuses, right, so
we we were like, hey, there's issues, we have to
fix them, right, So, you know, over after that happened,
once we got everything caught up by about three thirty
four o'clock or so, basically we're like, okay, now, great,
we have everything caught up.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
What do we do for tomorrow?
Speaker 4 (03:33):
And we spent probably three hours in meetings with traffic,
with the police, with everybody.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
This was all day.
Speaker 4 (03:39):
This started about probably five o'clock I think we started
going and then all wait, about seven thirty we just
we're having meetings about how do we fix tomorrow?
Speaker 3 (03:47):
So you know, it's really on stakeholders.
Speaker 4 (03:49):
Yeah, on site all the stakeholders of every different department,
and how do we fix it, how do we make
it better for the.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
Fans, and let's execute it.
Speaker 4 (03:55):
So we just go through it and we come up
with ideas and then we do it the next day.
So it's just got to have the ability to kind
of you know, go back and rethink and revamp things
and just you know, you could pinpoint where things went
wrong and how to fix them. And and a lot
of credit to you know, Danny Wimmer, my partner.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
His team. DWP's team is the season bets here.
Speaker 4 (04:16):
I mean they're the ones that have been doing this
for well over a decade.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
They do multiple vets a year.
Speaker 4 (04:21):
I get the one event, but you know, they have
a lot of them, and then so they're very seasoned.
And like you said, everybody knows what they're doing, so
the companies they hire are always the best. They all
know what they're doing at all times. And it's really,
you know, it's really I'm very fortunate to have them
as my team on site.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
You know.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
And you guys were keeping fans updated all all all
to night. Yeah, I mean, you guys were active on
social media making sure everyone knew what was going on.
There's no I mean, hobby thro There's gonna be people
that are confused. That's all it goes. Yeah, however, I've
never seen anyone more involved directly with fans than incarceration, DWP,
(04:57):
all those guys, So thank you for that.
Speaker 3 (04:59):
Yeah. Media t is on site. I mean, our our
social media team is here.
Speaker 4 (05:03):
They're in the trenches with us, and I mean, transparency
is the best thing and communicating with fans. The worst
thing you can do is go silent and not tell
people what's going on, tell them what the options are
going to be.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
I swore there was no festival where that happened before.
No comment, no comment, But I.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
Talked to bands about that, and there has.
Speaker 4 (05:20):
Been, there has been, There has been several festivals like that.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (05:23):
So yeah, I mean it's you know, you got to communicate,
and I think that's the key, and you know, but yeah,
we do that and the fans appreciate that, and and
then we hope that we could turn around like we
did today. We got everybody in here quickly, and everybody's
having a great time. They had a great time yesterday
too when they were here, they were like, this is great.
So I thought I thought Yesterday ended really strong. You know,
we were able to get everybody out really quickly, out
(05:44):
of the venue and no big issues at.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
That so it was it was good there. And then
that's the key.
Speaker 4 (05:49):
You know, it started slow, but we had to strong
yesterday and we hope to continue that throughout the weekend.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
So and you know, again, I've been here since twenty
twenty two or twenty twenty three.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
Yeah, we start.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
Blending together after a while. It's how I get a
hundred percent. But there's a big change from last year.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
This year. You gotta switched out the layup. Yes, what's
been the word on that? How's the reception?
Speaker 3 (06:06):
All right?
Speaker 1 (06:07):
What do you think?
Speaker 3 (06:08):
Well?
Speaker 4 (06:08):
This was my baby here, this this whole switching the
site around. You know, I heard a lot of feedback
over the last six years from fans from the lack
of shade. People wanted more shade, they wanted more space.
Suns in the yes, wash their eyes when you're watching
the stage. The biggest thing for me was shade, and
we were utilizing a whole side of this prison that
(06:29):
literally has all these trees right, yes, and also space.
We outgrew the setup we were at last year, and
you know, just giving people more elbow roam, a little
better flow back and forth between stages, things like that.
So you know, I've been trying to get this new
setup done since about twenty two actually, okay, and it
just took a lot of.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
Different redesigns and designs and redesigns.
Speaker 4 (06:49):
And also we had to do some infrastructure on the
site that we put in this year that we finally.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
Got approvals for.
Speaker 4 (06:54):
So that helped a lot, some roads that we put
in to be able to get production vehicles in. But yeah,
this year came to other. I got everybody on board
with it with some help. I had some people that
were rallying for it on the DVP side as well,
and and whim are let me run with this thing.
And I'm like, all right, cool. So so it's been great.
It turned out better than I could have expected. And yeah,
I mean we're excited where we're at right now, at
(07:15):
this festival has grown to a really nice, a nice,
a nice spot right now.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
I was gonna say, I have seen a significant growth.
I mean, I know you have to you get to
see the numbers and the fighting all that stuff, but
definitely the growth is there, and I know that like,
all right, we did that change of the layout.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
You're not done. You're gonna do something now.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
Yeah, we're always going to continue to if you're.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
Listening to feedback, Yeah, and you're listening to you know.
Speaker 4 (07:35):
Everything there's there. I mean, the sites, we're never done.
We're always looking on how we can make it better
for that next year.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (07:41):
Now, as far as getting bigger and wider and more capacity,
I think we're at a good spot right now. But
what do we do with this spot now? Right there's
things we can keep doing to improve the site, improve
the le improved just the what we were working with now.
And we'll listen to the feedback this year after the show,
you know, and see what the fans are saying and
if there's constructive criticism in there that I mean, we
(08:02):
read all of it. We're like, hey, you know what,
like that guy's got a good point, you know. So yeah,
I think we're just gonna We're gonna hear the feedback
after the event and go from there. So that's the way. Actually,
what you do is you just expand the prison.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
Don't worry.
Speaker 4 (08:14):
I'd love to finish the insides of these of the prison,
you know. But yeah, it's this this this prison is one.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
Of a kind. I mean, obviously that's the staple of
this festival.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
And the location.
Speaker 4 (08:24):
It's probably the most unique backdrop for a festival. That's
the other two we'd even mentioned. With this new setup.
The back Yeah, this is this amazing like prison. So
it does awesome views, awesome shots. I mean you couldn't
you could it kind of you couldn't ask for a better.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
Backdrop for for a for an event.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
So will like walk by.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
And if you have no tour, yeah, you gotta do
one of the tours. You got the tattoos side of
things as well as they talked to a big.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
House fire wanted house.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
Now, if you could go back in time to twenty sixteen,
Dan and tell.
Speaker 3 (08:55):
Them one thing, what would it be, Gosh, one thing?
Speaker 4 (09:00):
Well, I would say keep going, because about twenty sixteen
I almost got out.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
Of the music business, Like she went back to college and.
Speaker 4 (09:06):
Was trying to finish off my business degree, and I
was like, you know what, I'm just gonna kind of
drop all this and do something else. And then you know,
a little bit of luck, Mike Kimiski calls me and says, hey, man,
I got this opportunity, you.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
Want to do it, and I'm like, I've always wanted
a festival, you know what I mean.
Speaker 4 (09:22):
So I remember I used to go to Rock on
the Range a lot back in the day, you know,
and I remember like leaving there the one year and
I was just like, you know what I've like, I
don't think I ever want to come back to one of.
Speaker 3 (09:31):
These things until I own my own, you know what
I mean. And I didn't.
Speaker 4 (09:35):
I never went back to any other festival until I
had my own, and I was like, now I got
my own festival. I feel good.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
So yeah, because you're already planning for next.
Speaker 4 (09:41):
Year, Oh yeah, yeah, we've got we've got twenty six
already booking right now.
Speaker 3 (09:45):
That's where we have confirmed acts already. You have to though, Yeah, it.
Speaker 4 (09:49):
Is wild, because I mean that's what the one thing
that's cool about this event is is the bands want
to play here, and we're we're getting confirmations a year
in advance, which used to never happen. So like, I
think it's really great that, you know, we're getting the
support from the artists and the agents and the managers,
and I think they're seeing the growth of it and
we're not that small, little tiny fest anymore, and they're like, hey,
(10:11):
this is something big.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
I mean, look at any of your socials. Yeah literally
all right.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
Prime example, we were side stage for a bear Tooth
for a little bit and kN awck lose for sure,
just looking out at the sea of people as wild
and that's awesome. Also part of the reconstruction you guys
did from last year this year.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
Correct, yea.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
I love the fact that the VIP said that I
can't mind to see that, but that's okay, so I
don't need to. That's for them, not for me if
I was up there watching perfect.
Speaker 3 (10:36):
Right, Yeah.
Speaker 4 (10:37):
I mean that was the one thing too, is with
the double stage, you really have to make sure your
view lines are good. And that VIP when we set up,
I literally walked every place on that VIP to make
sure it had good view lines on stage two because
we knew we do stage one, we want stage two
have views as well. So, I mean, I really like
the way that turned out. I think the fans have
got their getting their money's worth up there. We had
to shade structures and more seating and like, I just
(10:59):
really proud of like the team to put all this
together because you know, I thought it'd be good, but
like they'll do that, wud be great. But then like
when I went out there and really looked at things,
I'm like, they did better than I had expected.
Speaker 3 (11:10):
That's awesome.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
Yeah, that's all part of the team too. It's not
just you.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
You got a whole set of people people, they're all
on board with you.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
That's a good feeling.
Speaker 4 (11:18):
Yeah, it's pretty wild. And like I said, a big
shout out to DWP. They provide most of the staffing
for this event. And you know, they have their teams
and their teams are locked in and this is they
take it seriously and they're in. Danny Wimmer is always
walking around. I mean his thing is fan first. He
had experience and like he's been great to learn from,
you know, while working with him over that since we've
parted with them in twenty one.
Speaker 3 (11:39):
So yeah, it's been a fun.
Speaker 4 (11:40):
It's been a fun experience and they've helped get this
thing to where it's at, which is amazing.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
Last question for you is sure had to give advice
to any band who wanted to see their way to incorsation,
what would it be?
Speaker 4 (11:51):
Yeah, I mean, look, I like I like giving opportunities
to unsigned to acts, to like smaller bands that aren't
quite there yet or newly signed to acts.
Speaker 3 (11:58):
I mean, I love it.
Speaker 4 (11:59):
As you guys know, we we put a lot of
bands on this show that don't play a lot of
the festival circuits. And aren't you know there a lot
of festivals to either done space for or whatever.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
We we really pride ourselves on that.
Speaker 4 (12:10):
So I say reach out, you know what I mean,
info at incarceration dot com, email us, you know, set
us some music. It'll get it'll be it'll get on
some ears so people will hear it. And if it's
something there, if they got if they're ready for that,
you know, if they've got a fan base growing and
they're in their home markets and stuff, and they've got
some some some some some momentum in there in their favor,
like we'll do what we can to help them out.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
Awesome, Dan, I appreciate a little bit your time today. Awesome,
Thank you so much, sir.
Speaker 3 (12:34):
That's Dan.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
You gotta get out to ink next year.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
He didn't tease anything, but I know it's gonna be bigger,
it's gonna be better, it's gonna be great. So get
out to ink get out to any Danny who presents festivals.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
We'll see you next time.
Speaker 3 (12:43):
Awesome,
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