The Halfway to Everywhere Music and Arts Festival is, in several ways, going halfway this fall. And there are reasons for that.
The event is getting rebranded, at least for this year, as Halfway to Halfway. Lead organizer and event spokesman Hank Osterhout joined KVOE’s On-Air Chat on Wednesday to discuss the changes, indicating it was time for a change.
Part of the changes reflect the balance of successfully operating a festival alongside leading Kansas Free for Arts. Osterhout says the big changes between Halfway and Everywhere this year are “scale and purpose.”
Activities will be Oct 2-3. Bob Log III is the headlining act, with several local and area musicians filling out the remaining schedule. The stage area will be on 7th Avenue in downtown Emporia, with a main stage and spaces for what Osterhout calls variety acts.
Starting in 2019, the Halfway to Everywhere event came out of an undergraduate research project on music performance and marketing. Osterhout says a festival fit into those disciplines, as well as his other study areas of biology and psychology, and later research into a National Endowment for the Arts white paper on creative placemaking spurred his interest in developing the festival with an eye towards helping Emporia’s cultural identity and community well-being through music and arts. The general format had several tweaks, but there were two big changes over the last couple years: paid admission and a move from downtown Emporia to Champions Landing. Osterhout says he’s constantly looking at ways to improve the event.
Osterhout says activities at Champions Landing were great, and he also sees potential for more community activities there down the road with the blessing of owner Jeremy Rusco. The Halfway events, though, may not be on that list.
Regardless of the changes in location and format, Halfway to Halfway will still have the same goals and objectives — or, as Osterhout says, “the goalposts are still there.”
Besides attending Halfway to Halfway, Osterhout is asking the community to donate to the cause, join the one of several associated committees or volunteer.
More information about Halfway to Halfway is available through the Kansas Free for Arts Facebook page. The ksfreeforarts.org website is getting rebuilt. Tickets will be available online once the website reactivates.
