Though Ballengee is known around town as the music booker and promoter of The Brightside, an event space in downtown Dayton, her primary career for the past couple of decades has been in the textbook publishing industry. “Music is not lucrative. People don’t know how I actually make money (laughs). I feel good about what I’m creating at the end of the day — a schoolbook. I (have) really learned how to work with a creative team. ‘Mad Men’ — I could not relate to something more! I’m such a Peggy.”
Ballengee, 44, lives in Historic Huffman with her husband Mitch and their little poodle, Misty.
PICTURES OF YOU
Ballengee studied Fine Art at Wright State before transferring to the now non-existent Ohio Institute of Photography and Technology, where she learned studio film photography. “It was in the ‘90s, so everything was slide film and 4x4 cameras. It was a real trade.”
Out of college, Ballengee got a job in the art department of Mazer, a textbook publisher and printing company. “Anybody of a certain generation who had any creative degree in Dayton worked there. They had a whole floor of writers and editors, and a whole floor of artists and designers.” She worked as a photo researcher, studio photographer and art buyer. “I still to this day do that work, putting art and photography in textbooks. I’ve become a dinosaur in a dinosaur industry.” She now freelances under Libby Images.
MISTY MORNING
“I usually wake up a little before 8. I have a 10-pound dog, Misty, she’s a little poodle. She’s a year old, a living teddy bear. She’s ready for me to wake up — she’s young and pretty wound up in the morning. We spend some quality time playing fetch.”
THE LEMON SONG
“I’m more of a lemon-water-in-the-morning person instead of coffee. But if I feel like I need it, I go to mushroom coffee with macadamia nut milk because it makes me less jittery than regular coffee. Breakfast is usually a protein shake. I’m so busy that mostly my husband cooks. If he doesn’t feed me, it’s something that I can crack open.”
FULL HEART
“I try to do a short meditation in the morning. Even just a couple of minutes. I do ‘Heartfulness’ meditation — which I learned from a local ashram, Dayton Heartfulness, which is an organization I volunteer with. It’s a non-denominational organization that teaches meditation.”
LITTLE FIRES EVERYWHERE
“Then I jump into email. I try to get the most important work done in the morning. Whether it’s the event side or the publishing side, there tends to be fires that pop up overnight, like some band is coming in early and didn’t let us know. I touch base with Sophia Munoz, who I’m mentoring with the ‘Art Parkd’ music festival in Grafton Hill.”
PRETTY PENNY
“Lunchtime tends to be meeting time. I touch base with co-workers. I have a team lunch meeting weekly with Carli (Dixon, owner of Brightside) and Kayelyn Hesseling (the venue manager). Wheatpenny tends to be our go-to. Carli and I both get the kale salad. We go over the staffing details for the events coming up over the next couple of weeks. We do these summer pop-up patio shows, so we’re having two this month.”
Credit: Brit Jaye Photography
Credit: Brit Jaye Photography
(NOT) GLAM ROCK
“I manage 60-plus concerts a year, so there is always something that needs to be attended to. In the summer, I’m more low-key. Carli and I are really trying to find work-life balance. I get why there’s not a million concert venues. There’s so much that goes into it. It’s so much work and it is not glamorous work. Having more family time over the summer is very healthy for us.”
WHISKEY & JALAPENOS
After lunch Ballengee runs errands. “One thing I have to do before a concert is get hospitality items from the riders.” A rider is a document that a band will send over to the booker detailing their requirements for a performance. “The bands send riders for their M&M’s. Sometimes it’s ridiculous, like weird whiskeys and pickled jalapeños.”
7TH INNING STRETCH
In the afternoon, Ballengee catches an exercise class. “I try to make it to Space Three or Speakeasy for group classes. I’m mostly into stretching or yoga because I’m such a desk worker and need stretching really bad! At the very least I take Misty on a walk.”
SAVE OUR STAGES
“Afternoons I have meetings, or I’m just doing straight up work. I do a lot of training, whether it’s for marketing or booking. I do Zoom calls with Independent Promoters Alliance. Monday, I will fly to D.C. for the National Independent Venue Association Conference. NIVA were the ones who got all the billions of dollars during COVID for the Save Our Stages (program).”
PHAT & RICH
“If I’m having a normal workday, definitely my husband cooks, which is awesome. If I’m at a show I’m probably eating off of the food truck, which is usually (Mexican-inspired local food truck) Phat & Rich. In my downtime between things, I’m an avid podcast listener. I love listening to them to keep up on tech, trends, news. I used to host Gem City Podcast.”
FORWARD FACING
At the Brightside, “I’m involved with anything that is forward facing, in terms of the ticketing side, greeting people when they come in, and dealing with the artist hospitality.” On an evening she is working a big show, she arrives around 3, doors open at 7:30, and the performance ends at 10:30.
Credit: Jordan Lynn Freshour
Credit: Jordan Lynn Freshour
TOON IN
“A lot of my publishing work I tend to in the evenings. Late at night I’m (emailing) artists I work with in Europe, so they get it at the start of the workday, their time. The main artist I work with, Jose Ramos, lives in Spain and I represent him through the agency IlloZoo.
CURLING UP
“Evenings I’m usually watching something on HBO, curled up with my dog and hanging out with Mitch. We go to a lot of concerts and try to go to cultural events around town as much as possible. We are finishing up working on our historic home — so that is an on-going project.”
MAKING IT HAPPEN
“I grew up in the era when everything was super cool here, like Brainiac and all those bands. I was also here after the economic crash when everyone complained about being here. It’s not like things just happen anywhere. Somebody has to make these things happen. Any place is what you make it.”
THE PARTICULARS
For more info on Libby Ballengee, her photography and advocacy work, check out https://www.libbyballengee.com/
Upcoming shows booked by Ballengee include band Crabs Without Legs on July 27 at The Tank below the Dayton Arcade.
About the Author