Update on April 18 at 10:37 a.m.: Index Fest today announced the lineup for its June 3 event in Fort Worth. Indie pop band Dawes leads the bill, followed by husband-wife duo Johnnyswim, Austin blues-folk outfit Shinyribs, and local bands Oil Boom and DJ Sober. Tickets are currently on sale.
Original post:
One of the best booze-plus-bands events in Dallas-Fort Worth is now defunct. Untapped Festival, which started in Dallas and expanded to five cities statewide, is being re-branded as Index Fest.
Index, you might remember, was a local music festival that ran from 2012 to 2014. The new Index festival will be revamped to include not just music but also art, restaurants, and — because of its Untapped roots — beer.
The new event will seemingly be a hybrid of two former festivals: It inherits the infrastructure of Untapped as a multi-city venture and the name of a cult festival locals were disappointed to see go. (Index was discontinued last year when organizers didn't have the capacity to produce it.)
Index Fest 2.0 will stop through Panther Island Pavilion in Fort Worth on June 3 and Fair Park in Dallas on Nov. 11.
The Dallas Morning News, which purchased a majority share in Untapped through its subsidiary CrowdSource in 2014, sold the event to B-Weiss Entertainment Group for an undisclosed amount. According to Alison Draper, president of CrowdSource, the sale was a result of "the decision in 2016 to scale back our expansion plans in the outdoor festival space," she said.
Texas' unpredictable weather likely didn't help. The Austin festival was canceled in 2016 due to inclement weather and Fort Worth's 2015 event was cut short for the same reason before headliner De La Soul could perform.
Brad Weiss, the festival's eponymous new owner, said the re-brand is an effort to be "more than just a craft beer festival." Untapped repeatedly invited more than 100 breweries to serve suds at its events.
"We're going to focus more on food and art, and also have the great music and the great beer," Weiss said.
Index will curate local artists and restaurants in each host city. Austin is a definite — the festival takes place May 13 outside the Austin-American Statesman building — and Weiss hopes to nail down Houston and San Antonio for fall or winter of 2017, as well. Music is still the works, but Weiss hopes to announce a lineup by mid-March. Early bird tickets cost $23.91-$99.10 and are currently on sale.
Founded in 2009, B-Weiss Entertainment Group helps produce events, both locally and at WinStar World Casino in Oklahoma. North Texans may recognize some of the group's 2016 events such as Tacolandia, Big Texas Beer Fest, and Mardi Gras Texas Style.
