West Indy Art and Music Festival celebrates fourth year

Over 350 local musicians perform at Speedway festival

SPEEDWAY, Ind. (WISH) — Speedway’s West Indy Art and Music Festival celebrated its fourth year on Saturday.

The festival brought together seven local bands, including over 350 local musicians to perform at Meadowood Park.

“It’s really hard to find places for community bands to perform, so that’s why I contacted Tammy originally was to find a place where we could perform and this idea of having one or two bands became seven bands, and that’s what we’ve been consistently having for the past four years,” Lori Doran, a member of West Indy Winds Community Band’s leadership, said.

Tammy Smith is Speedway’s parks director and handles coordinating the art vendors for the festival.

“In addition to the music, it’s nice to have the artists and the crafters come together and be able to show what they hand make to the community,” Smith said. “We only allow people who make their items to be in this festival. We have everything from photographers to artists, we’ve got a really cool caricature artist today.”

The festival also featured a beer and wine garden, along with several food options.

Cie’s Treats has been a part of the event for years and their business manager, Tasha Johnson, enjoys interacting with all attendees. The dessert spot features a wide array of treats and is known for their ability to complete custom, made to order, desserts.

“It’s about community,” Johnson said. “It’s about love. It’s about family. It’s about fun and meeting new people, meeting new vendors, and just being a part of Speedway we have really enjoyed very much.”

Making sure the community is impacted is a priority for the leaders, too.

The event featured an instrument drive to benefit local young musicians. The drive brought in instruments for kids in the area, focused on refurbishing them, and them giving them out.

“We also give scholarships out to high school students, who also need some help financially to play in the band,” Doran said.

If any bands are interested in joining in next year’s event, they can reach out to West Indy Winds Band directly via Facebook. Any artists or vendors interested should plan to submit their application with the town of Speedway in the spring.