Kash, 25, and Muñoz, 24, recently discussed Art Parkd.
Muñoz: “We were both in our third year at O.U. when we met. Jennifer was already doing house shows in the DIY music scene there. I kind of found it and then found her immediately after.”
Kash: “It was really exciting when we met. Everything was super new. It was just me and one other person at that point kind of doing the bare minimum. We were getting bands in houses and finding ways to keep the cops from being called. When we met Fea, we were like, ‘Well, this is an opportunity to actually think about branding and creating something that people can recognize.’ She’s super talented.”
Making connections
Muñoz: “That all fell apart in Athens when COVID happened. All events stopped. We did the festival last year as a way to see if we could build something new from what we had already started doing.”
Kash: “Fea and I had freshly moved back to Dayton. We had never lived here as adults who are active in an arts scene and we really wanted to tap into the scene here. We figured the best way to do that and immediately become a part of it would be to throw something that gave all artists a chance to come forward and get to work with everybody. I don’t know if we anticipated it becoming an annual thing. We were just excited and focused on doing it the first year. We were figuring out how we were going to make it happen but as soon as the first one played out and it went well, we were absolutely buzzing. We had all of these ideas of how we wanted to do it better last time.”
Communal and immersive
Muñoz: “We had about eight bands and performers last year. We had art vendors but this year it’s going to be a little different. We’re trying to make it more immersive. We want it to be more of a communal space where people can share it together. We want it to be very interactive. We want everyone on the same level, all the artists and the patrons. Everyone is in that space experiencing art and music together. We have an artist that is facilitating a community mural.”
Kash: “A couple of ways we’re trying to make it more immersive is we have a couple of artists doing live art during the show. We’ll have a dancer performing to get the movement going and maybe inspire other people to dance a little more. We invested in a big stage last year. This year, we’re taking that away. It’ll feel a little more DIY in that sense, which should be really fun. We also have some friends doing this big art installation with all of these antique retro TVs that will be stacked up on top of each other. We’re super excited.”
Credit: CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Credit: CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Eclectic entertainment
Muñoz: “What we both really value in an event, especially an all-day event, is to have a lot of diversity in music and art. We want to have a little something for everyone. We both enjoy different types of music, and we also want to build a progressive experience that starts with something a little chiller at the beginning of the day and builds up as the night goes on. We tried to do that last year and I think we did pretty well. We’re trying to replicate that but in a new fresh way.”
Kash: “Another thing Fea and I focus on is trying to attract different age groups. We don’t want it to just be this niche, young adult artist hangout. We want it to feel like more of a community event. We don’t just want hip-hop. We don’t just want rock. We want both and we also want Crabswithoutlegs, which is a 12-piece jazz band. Fea and I are also really attracted to authenticity and people who take their music as art and not necessarily as a way to blow up. You run into that a little more often nowadays and we’re turned off by that so we’re trying to sniff out the genuine folk. That’s real important to us.”
A blank slate
Muñoz: “We’re kind of reimagining a concrete canvas. You see an empty parking lot and that’s all you see but when Jen and I first looked at it and imagined it being a festival, we saw the possibility of the whole event, the whole experience. You can see the Dayton skyline right there so it’s really fun once everyone is there. It’s like, ‘Wow, the community is here, and you can see Dayton and you can see the people.’ It’s pretty amazing.”
Kash: “What surprises me with these events almost every single time is how much people want to help and how much people want to be a part of it. It always feels so overwhelming when you picture a project like this but it’s something that really excites so many people. I’m not always the type to ask for help but it’s an exciting thing that people want to be a part of it. I was mostly surprised by the amount of support, and going into it a second time it feels like we have a lot more resources to pull from.”
Contact this contributing writer at 937-287-6139 or donthrasher100@gmail.com.
HOW TO GO
What: Art Parkd with Isicle, Crabswithoutlegs, Proxy.exe, Frank Calzada, the Rosies and others
Where: Parking Lot, 609 W. Riverview Ave., Dayton
When: Saturday, Oct. 7 from 3-9 p.m.
Cost: $10
More info: www.artparkd.com
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