Cory Graves
Index and North Oak Cliff Music Fest Move To Spring, 35 Denton Returns.
Even though we regarded last year's Index Festival as one of the two best Dallas music festivals of 2014, it still felt a little bit presumptuous when blind pre-sale tickets to the next Index Fest went on sale just a few days later.
You know what happens when you assume, and all that.
Turns out, we had good reason to have pause. Towards the close of the business this past Friday, the folks at Spune Productions, the entity behind Index, slipped through a press release officially announcing that the festival would now be scheduled to take place next spring. Originally set to go down the last weekend of September, that would have put the fest in direct competition with this year's Oaktopia Fest, which boasts headliners Edward Sharp, Minus the Bear, Thundercat, Father and The Polyphonic Spree, among others. Also that same weekend? The upstart Reunion Fest, which will feature performances from Weezer and Fitz & the Tantrums and which the Spune folks have a hand in, as well.
“This change comes after careful consideration,” says CEO Matthew Harber of Spune Productions of the news in his press release. “We spent this past year focused on building strategic partnerships and securing additional resources so that Index can continue to provide the best, quality event festival-goers have come to expect while also attracting a new audience to the fast growing music community of Dallas.”
It's important to emphasize that the fest isn't entirely going away, that it's just getting put off for a few months. Likewise, another fall festival, the North Oak Cliff Music Festival is putting off its 2015 edition to the spring of 2016 as well. The reasoning behind that one? NOCMF is thrown by the Kessler Theater folks, who, you may recall, currently have their hands full with another project, renovating a historic theater in Houston.
So, yeah, there's pretty good reasoning behind both these moves, neither of which should be read as signs that these fests are in trouble.
Plus, it's not like it's something we haven't seen before. Most recently, 35 Denton took an entire year off before returning somewhat triumphantly this past March.
Speaking of that “best ever fest ever” and its resurgence: 35 Denton, too, recently made an announcement of its own. Like Index and NOCMF, 35 Denton will return this spring, on the weekend of March 11. As such, weekend passes to that one are currently on sale here for $45.
Anyone who already bought tickets to Index for the originally scheduled September dates, meanwhile, can expect to be contacted directly by Spune, who'll give those folks the option of swapping their old tickets for either a refund of for new ones for The Reunion festival or November's Untapped: Dallas.
