Inkcarceration 2019: A Unique and Special Festival

It was a dark and stormy night…

Not really, in fact it was clear, warm, beautiful weekend. There was sense that something was about to happen…something special…and it did. Inkcarceration 2019 was one of the best planned and best executed (no pun intended) music festivals of the season.

The weekend started off pretty normal. We had just finished a 1400 mile road trip pulling the mobile zip-code, sat in line for one and a half hours to check into our campsite and were given a campsite on the back row. After proving that a 35 foot trailer will NOT fit into a 25 foot space no matter how hard you try, things got a bit worse; 45 minutes to get out of the camping area and back to the check-in where we were told that there was no other spaces in the dirt camp. Enter camp director Tom Guyer with that little hero glitter in his smile and a resolve that no trailer go unmoored. Mr. Guyer found an alternate spot at the fairgrounds with power hook-ups, water and grass; furthermore, it was a straight pull through with no need to jockey the trailer. Soon the other long houses started to fill in the area and we had our own little community of metalheads, right next to the shuttle bus stop. Accommodations set and it was time to head to the prison for some tunes.

I’m pretty sure the first six bands on Friday were relatively unknown outside their local areas, I had not heard of any of them before. This is not to say they were talentless but they were not a truly metal sound and their crowds were small but loyal. Skillet was the first band Friday evening that drew a sizable crowd and they put on show that got the fans on their feet and rockin’. More continued to stream into the facility and by the time Taking Back Sunday took the stage there were close to 30,000 bodies crowding towards the stage. The number was close to 45,000 by the time Shinedown brought their signature high octane brand of pyrotechnics to the stage. During the second song, Shinedown guitarist Zach Myers played a guitar donated to Cancer Sucks which will be auctioned later to benefit cancer research and he played it VERY well.

Day two was much the same as day one except the bands were different, the weather was warmer, the crowds were larger early on and they fixed the problems with the hydration stations, Oh yeah, I forgot about the hydration stations. The rules said no water could be brought into the venue. The perception was they wanted to charge a fortune for a bottle of water and increase their profits and that was partially true but it seems the real reason was they wanted to keep out clear liquors and regulate the consumption of alcohol. Empty water bottles were allowed in and all you had to do was go to one of the hydration stations and fill it up for free. Ok, no problem. Unfortunately each station had four taps and each tap took about 5 minutes to fill a standard bottle and up to 15 minutes to fill a camel back bag so the average was one fan through the station every two minutes. There were two stations so one per minute to get through the line and with 200 people in line at any given time we’re talking almost three hours waiting for a drink. Some folks left the line and headed for the beer tent. On Saturday the organizers had solved the problem by removing the unneeded filters and the line sped up by 1000%.

The Saturday music line up followed the same pattern as most festivals, a few more regional bands and less local talent to start with the big guns starting a bit earlier in the afternoon. Buckcherry, Red Sun Rising, and Motionless in White got the crowds growing again, +Live+ got everyone’s blood flowing and the evening was capped off by a good old-heart thumping hour and a half of Godsmack. The ghosts were really enjoying the weekend. Ghosts???

Saturday was also the day we toured the prison that gives this festival its name. Inkcarceration is held on the grounds of the retired Ohio State Reformatory where a number of convicted criminals were executed, originally by hanging and later via the electric chair. Some inmates committed suicide rather than spend their lives living two to a cell not much larger than a closet. Some died at the hands of others incarcerated with them, all appear to have left a part of themselves behind and it’s those ghosts that follow you throughout the tour. The prison tour is what makes this festival unique and is something all attendees should include in their schedule. The movie ‘Shawshank Redemption’ was largely filmed here and throughout the tour there are markers denoting where certain scenes were filmed.

The food also makes this venue special. Rather than set up food stands to sell the basic hot dogs, fries and nachos, they enlisted a dozen or so food trucks to hawk various cuisines to the crowd. There was Mexican food, Greek food, Italian food, there was the always present Asian wok fried noodles and there was good ole American food. My personal favorite was the SWAT burger truck built from a recycled police van and selling a large variety of burgers and wraps, long lines made for a bit of a wait but worth it. The beer tent featured a number of micro brews (unheard of in a location such as this) with standard brew fare available at multiple sites within the concert arena along with bottled water.

The other aspect of Inkcarceration was the Ink. More than 200 tattoo artists set up shop on the second floor of the prison and created over 1000 new pieces of art on various body parts, both male and female. Some artists were floral aficionados, some were satanic cartographers, most were metalheads and they came from all over to apply their ink. Mark Gaily, owner of Murder Ink, and some of his artists drove all the way in from Portland, Oregon to showcase their talents and make their mark on the festival and from what I saw they did just that.

Sunday opened up bright and clear with a sense that this day will be better than the two previous days. Excitement for the music builds early. Even the opening bands receive decent crowds and the national names work both stages. Starset, From Ashes to New, I Prevail and Seether load the crowd with adrenaline and when Five Finger Death Punch took the stage the whole place exploded with an energy that had been growing for three days. 50,000 plus rockers packed so tight you couldn’t fall down, an over-the-top fire show that lit the night and front man Ivan Moody giving the crowd all they wanted – his strong vocals and one of a kind interactions with his fans. When they finished the set and bid the crowd good night, everyone was ready to wind down and head for home, hotel and campsite for some much-needed rest.

The entire event seemed to come off without a major problem or even an unaddressed minor problem due to the wonderful work of the organizers, staff and an army of volunteers that kept this festival on track. And thanks to the local police and fire departments and the coordinated work of the paramedics when needed, there was virtually no violence or medical issues other than dehydration by those who knew not the value of water. Perhaps the SWAT teams perched high on the prison balconies overlooking everything that went on kept everyone safe and sane, or perhaps it was the ghosts of previous tenants.