Affordable shows have a place on summer concert calendar

The summer concert calendar is bursting with shows, but events that fit in every music fan’s budget aren’t necessarily easy to find.

Top touring artists command eye-popping ticket prices into the hundreds of dollars. Meanwhile, no single general-admission lawn ticket at Noblesville’s Ruoff Music Center is available this year for less than $39.95.

The Ruoff venue—which ranked No. 1 worldwide for tickets sold by an amphitheater in 2023, according to Pollstar magazine—no longer offers a season pass for lawn seating. The pass sold for $239 in 2024 and applied to more than 40 shows, or an average of less than $6 per event.

The door isn’t closed, however, on opportunities to catch concerts for a nice price.

Event organizers, with the support of funders, sponsors and other partners, are bringing prominent artists to Indiana this summer and placing minimal financial burden on attendees.

Three examples that feature free admission:

◗ Grammy Award-winning bluegrass band Steep Canyon Rangers will perform May 31 in Muncie as part of the Muncie Three Trails Music Series.

◗ Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Mavis Staples will perform June 7 in Bloomington as part of the annual Granfalloon festival that celebrates the work of late Indianapolis author Kurt Vonnegut.

◗ Esteemed folk musician Bonnie “Prince” Billy will perform Oct. 12 at the Tube Factory campus in the Garfield Park neighborhood on the closing date of this year’s Levitt VIBE Indianapolis Music Series.

The Levitt VIBE (Vibrant Inclusive Beats for Everyone) series made its Indianapolis debut last year. For the second consecutive year, the series is co-produced by nonprofits Big Car Collaborative and Arte Mexicano en Indiana.

Although admission is free, it’s important to note that artists are compensated, said Jim Walker, co-founder of Big Car Collaborative.

“The musicians are not performing for free,” said Walker, whose organization also implements the temporary public park Spark on the Circle on Monument Circle. “And we’re not doing it for free. We just figured out another source to pay for the music and for our time.”

Walker said the Los Angeles-based Levitt Foundation, which has supported concerts with no admission fees in the United States for 59 years, contributed about $30,000 for the Tube Factory campus shows. The Efroymson Family Fund, Lumina Foundation and MIBOR Realtor Association provide additional funding locally.

While musical styles that include soul, jazz, folk, country, pop and rock are represented among 20 artists playing the series, Latino and Latina performers provide a connecting thread for seven monthly events planned on Sunday afternoons.

Latin rock band Daglio performed April 13 to open the 2025 Levitt VIBE Indianapolis Music Series. Upcoming performers include Peruvian folk act Criollisima con Sentimiento, Venezuelan folk singer Florelis Jimenez and Mexican folk group Mariachi Zelaya.

Walker said sponsors appreciate the series because it builds community.

“People from different backgrounds get together in the same space,” he said. “They enjoy art, and they find new music to listen to.”

The summer concert season features other bargains, like the Indiana State Fair’s shows that are included with fair admission of $13 if tickets are purchased in advance. This year’s fair is scheduled for Aug. 1-17, and initial artist announcements are expected in June.

Indiana Black Expo will present its annual Summer Celebration outdoor concert, billed as Music Heritage Festival, on July 18. The artist lineup has yet to be announced, and tickets start at $10.

For the past decade, Los Angeles-based concert company Live Nation Entertainment Inc.—which owns Ruoff Music Center and schedules shows at Everwise Amphitheater at White River State Park, Old National Centre and other Indiana venues—has announced a “National Concert Week” ticket promotion. The annual deals traditionally arrive during the first half of May and offer a limited number of discounted tickets ($25 in 2022, 2023 and 2024) for dozens of concerts.

Happy trails

The Muncie Three Trails Music Series, which kicks off its 2025 schedule May 31 with Steep Canyon Rangers, was founded in 2013 by Rick Zeigler, who owned Indianapolis store Indy CD & Vinyl from 2002 to 2014.

As Zeigler phased out of his record-store career (he owned a shop in Utah before he opened Indy CD & Vinyl), he wanted to stay involved in music. For the Three Trails series over the years, he’s hired artists such as Béla Fleck and Abigail Washburn, Michael Cleveland, John Scofield and Betty LaVette to play shows that fans attended free.

While several Indiana communities hire tribute acts to play free summer concerts, Zeigler doesn’t take that approach.

“We focus on artists who are continuing to be creative and putting out their own new, original music,” Zeigler said. “The thing I loved when I owned a record store was turning people on to new music, and I knew I was going to miss that. I thought, ‘This is a way I can continue to do that, but you aren’t going to turn people on to new music if you’re booking tribute bands.’ I wanted to introduce the people of Muncie to artists who I felt, in most cases, they wouldn’t otherwise have a chance to see.”

This year’s lineup is made up of four shows at Canan Commons in downtown Muncie and three concerts at Brown Family Amphitheater, which opened on the campus of Ball State University in 2023.

Performers include the Harlem Gospel Travelers, a nominee at the 2025 Grammy Awards, on June 13 and blues saxophone player Vanessa Collier on Aug. 23.

Zeigler said he’s happy to say no tax dollars support Three Trails shows. The series initially was financed by philanthropic entities such as the George and Frances Ball Foundation and the Community Foundation of Muncie & Delaware County Inc.

“My pitch was, ‘Give me money to start this off for the first few years,’” Zeigler said. “‘If it’s successful, I’ll ask you for less money as I get businesses to climb on board.’ That all worked out. We have quite a lot of businesses here that support us.”

For more information about this year’s series, visit munciethreetrails.com.

Celebrating Kurt

Author Vonnegut invented the word “granfalloon,” which he defined as a proud and meaningless association of human beings, for his 1963 novel “Cat’s Cradle.”

This year’s Granfalloon festival draws inspiration from “Cat’s Cradle,” said Adrian Starnes, associate director of Indiana University’s Arts & Humanities Council, which presented the first edition of the festival in 2018.

The novel addresses “an array of timely topics such as science, war and technology, cultural anthropology, the arts and humanities in general, but also religion,” Starnes said.

The religion component factored into the selection of Granfalloon’s musical headliner, Mavis Staples, who made her name in music as a member of the Staple Singers. Meanwhile, IU’s African American Arts Institute is celebrating its 50th anniversary this spring.

“We thought it would be the perfect time to bring soul-gospel legend Mavis Staples to the stage,” Starnes said.

Past musical headliners of Granfalloon include the Flaming Lips, Sleater-Kinney and Father John Misty.

Starnes said the concert is free thanks to the support of multiple IU units, the city of Bloomington, Downtown Bloomington Inc. and dozens of community organizations.

Staples and supporting act Thee Sacred Souls and Murder by Death will perform June 7 on a stage placed on East Kirkwood Avenue between IU’s campus and Bloomington’s downtown courthouse square.

“The most exciting part to me has always been people coming out not only to experience live music but to create together and to bond over an authentic sense of community,” Starnes said.

Fair deals

In 2012, the Indiana State Fair expanded the styles of music presented at the Hoosier Lottery Free Stage from a primarily country lineup to representatives of several genres. Since then, the roster of headliners has featured MC Hammer, Barenaked Ladies, Kool & the Gang, Rick Springfield and dozens of other popular acts.

Anna Whelchel, chief marketing and sales officer at the Indiana State Fairgrounds & Event Center, said it’s common for Free Stage shows to attract 4,000 to 5,000 attendees on a lawn in the northwest corner of the Fairgrounds.

Whelchel said the fair specializes in hiring artists just below A-list level.

“Live Nation’s No. 1 outdoor amphitheater is up the street, so we can’t compete in that space,” said Whelchel, referring to the Ruoff venue. “The bigger shows are not something that’s in our current plan. We found our niche.”

Because state fair expenditures are public record, the Free Stage provides a glimpse into what touring artists can receive in terms of a payday.

At the 2024 fair, the three top earners were Buddy Guy ($130,000), Bell Biv DeVoe ($125,000) and Gladys Knight ($111,500).

Big Car Collaborative co-founder Walker said the Levitt VIBE series was able to hire Bonnie “Prince” Billy—who’s toured as a supporting act for Bjork and performed at Chicago’s Millennium Park—thanks to Indianapolis-based musician and Big Car staff member Landon Caldwell.

“Landon had been on a lineup with [Bonnie “Prince” Billy, otherwise known as Louisville native Will Oldham] and made a connection,” Walker said. “He was able to talk to him and make it happen.”

Following the first season of Levitt VIBE shows in Garfield Park, this summer’s lineup is being spaced out, from concerts on seven consecutive Sunday afternoons to seven monthly concerts on Sunday afternoons. The setting also has changed, with Big Car’s headquarters near the intersection of Shelby and Cruft streets becoming the new location.

Attendees will find the same “no barrier” to entertainment as last year, Walker said.

“You can come right in and see what you think,” he said. “There’s a food truck, or you can bring in your own food if you want to picnic. There’s some art you can see and creative activities to do in a family-friendly environment. People might discover something new. As an arts organization, that’s what we set out to do from the beginning.”•