LIMA — A new event coming this weekend hopes to bring a small-scale music festival feel to downtown Lima.
The Downtown Get Down will feature a number of acts perform from 5 p.m. to midnight Saturday at The Lab, alongside live art, hula-hoop demonstrations and tie-dye workshops, with the possibility for it to become an annual event.
“We feel like Lima is a community that has a lot to offer,” Josh Unterbrink, an organizer with Homies Productions, said. “We have a lot of entertainment options, but having a Saturday evening music and arts festival is something that we haven’t had for a long time in this fashion. So we’re trying to bring an event that we see in a lot of other communities from Detroit to Chicago to Columbus because we feel like people shouldn’t have to leave Lima to have a great entertainment experience to connect with live artists and that Lima can be a place that attracts a number of musicians and live musical acts.”
The event will have plenty to offer for an entire evening beyond music.
“We will have three interactive art workshops so anyone that comes can participate in a flow art or hooping workshop and demo where you can learn a new hoop skill and we have some excellent artists on hand to help guide that as well as a tie-dye workshop,” Unterbrink said. “Anyone that brings a t-shirt or a bandana or pillowcase can join in. And then we’re going to have a liquid light booth for people to use overhead projectors and liquids and oils to create unique visual looks for selfie backdrops.”
While people are enjoying music from acts like Indré, Midnight Intervention, Zoo Trippin’ and Big Blitz, they will also be able to enjoy refreshments from Taco Movil and Purple Feet Wine Boutique.
“The vision for this event is to recreate what we see at music festivals and events that we love,” Unterbrink said. ” We know that it isn’t exactly like some of those, but I’ve been to large and small festivals across the country from Lollapalooza to Electric Forest so we try to be inspired by these types of events and this is just a small sliver of what we’re hopefully building here in Lima.”
The most important thing will be that the audience walks away with a new perspective.
“I’d like everyone to feel like there is a community in Lima that supports music and art on all levels,” Unterbrink said. “Not everybody can afford some of the more expensive shows in the area and at $20 a price point and I just want people to understand that we can do cool things here in Lima and bring in unique artists and people together and start building something here where people can be proud of what’s happening. I think one of the things really holding back our community is that lack of pride across the board and I think this is just one of the many things that people are doing to help make our city a more vibrant and better place to live, work, worship and play in.”
With the amount of work organizers are putting in to the event building visuals for the acts, coordinating schedules, recruiting sponsors, volunteers and vendors it will be no surprise if the event returns in the future.
“It really takes a team to pull something off like this,” Unterbrink said. “There are about four of us really driving this work and it really takes all of us and on top of that, every vendor that we have coming is doing a lot of work to prepare their items to get their shop set up. Alter Ego Comics and Purple Feet have all their staff on board too and we’re just hoping that Lima appreciates it and that we can continue to offer these types of events.”
Tickets for the event are on sale now on the website for The Lab. Ticketholders will be able to come and go as they please thanks to wristbands throughout the event.
In case of weather, the event will be indoors only.
The event will also give away drink koozies and lightbulbs in partnership with the Mental Health and Recovery Services Board of Allen, Auglaize and Hardin Counties’ Be Seen with Green campaign for Mental Health Awareness Month. Anyone can scan the QR code on the koozies and take a mental health self-assessment.
IF YOU GO
WHAT: The Downtown Get Down
WHEN: 5 p.m. to midnight Saturday
WHERE: The Lab, 230 N. Main St., Lima
Tickets are $20 and are available at by clicking on the “Events” tab at thelablima.com.
Reach Jacob Espinosa at 567-242-0399.
