Ohio’s Inkcarceration Festival says hobby and lifestyle elements are more important than ever for drawing fans to multi-day events, as its tattoo and prison-themed event drew 90,000 fans across 17-19 July
As themed festivals go, Inkcarceration’s site in the surrounds of the Ohio State Reformatory prison — made famous in The Shawshank Redemption —mean organisers can claim to be a “one-of-a-kind destination event” without much challenge. The reformatory, now a tourist attraction, allows the festival to incorporate prison tours, haunted house themes, and horror aesthetic elements into its programme, ingredients which organisers say festivals should increasingly offer to accompany live music.
But as eye-catching as these elements might be, it is the festival’s tattoo offering on which it hangs its hat, with over 100 tattoo artists setting up shop in the festival grounds to sell to fans and compete in art competitions
Co-produced by Danny Wimmer Presents, this year’s event booked some of the biggest names in modern metal, including Limp Bizkit, Disturbed, and Bad Omens, as organisers say site expansions in recent years have enabled the festival to reel in these bigger names
“The main two things that have changed are the size of the festival, which helps bring in large acts, and how early the process starts,” co-founder and general manger Daniel Janssen tells IQ
He explains that as this growth has taken hold, preparations for each edition have become more intense, with now starting 14 months in advance. Explaining how the team approach the first stages on booking, Janssen says fans’ contributions are central
“Generally we start with a wish list of bands that the fans have been asking for based on various surveys throughout the year,” he says. “Working with the agents we get lists of artist availability and which artists are working in the U.S. during the summer. Once we align on those, we get to work on sending out offers and piecing it all together”
Janssen emphasises, however, that the bands playing are only part of the battle
“Every year when the festival ends, we start brainstorming new and exciting ways to entertain the guests outside the amazing bands that play,” he says, noting that lifestyle activities outside of music are growing in importance at a time when fans face higher costs to make a trip to a festival
He also points to the larger catchment area that the non-musical offerings give Inkcarceration, explaining that this is what makes a festival in an otherwise isolated small city in North East Ohio “so appealing around the world”
“Every year when the festival ends, we start brainstorming new and exciting ways to entertain the guests outside the amazing bands”
Among this year’s event’s highlights, organisers listed sets by Gojira, Ice Nine Kills, and Motionless In White, with anniversary-marking performances including Sleeping with Sirens celebrating 15 years of Let’s Cheers To This, and Alien Ant Farm celebrating 25th anniversary of ANThology. The breadth of acts leads Janssen to say, “I don’t consider us headliner heavy”, instead saying “Ink is known for having very deep lineups top to bottom”
“The fans pack the place when doors open and stay until the last note, which is a testament to the early bands and headliners,” Janssen said in reflection upon this month’s festival. “We’ve noticed this more and more as the years have progressed. Every act is booked with the same thoughtfulness and care from top to bottom.”
While arguing the hobby and lifestyle is indispensable to the festival, rather than a direct revenue source for promoters, Janssen believes it “brings in culture more than anything”. Tattoo artists receive the majority of revenue generated from attendees getting tattoos, Janssen explains, adding that the festival has estimated that tattoo artists have done somewhere around 7,000 tattoos since the festival started back in 2018. Ultimately, he says, the lifestyle elements have grown to be almost as essential to the event as the music.
“It’s the ‘ink’ in Inkcarceration and, along with the prison itself, is one of the reasons the festival is so appealing around the world. And let’s be honest, who doesn’t want to say they got a tattoo in a prison,” he says. “It’s the only prison you can do that at without actually committing a crime.”
All of this leads Janssen to conclude that such multifaceted festival offerings are the sensible response to a trend of audiences demanding more to the festivals than only music, and he says Inkcarceration’s plans in this area are never at a standstill
“So far we have introduced a haunted house, prison tours, tattoos, camping entertainment, various activations around site from different sponsors, and we plan to be adding even more elements in the next couple years,” he says
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