Small businesses in Muncie’s Village live and rock through construction
This weekend, Locked Groove Records in the Muncie Village neighborhood held an all-day music fest that showed that small businesses have to be agile in adjusting to what the day brings. IPR’s Daniel Huber reports.
Store owner Celeste Outen had a vision for this concert.
“It was supposed to be like a mini music festival in a way, celebrating the fact that Locked Groove has made it three years through a lot of challenges.”
But Outen already knew changes needed to be made. With two major streets closed off and construction sites, it was going to be a hassle for people to get around.
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“What I want people to know is that businesses like Locked Groove Records, Well Made Vintage, The Art Mart, Little Snack Stop – we all want to come out on the other side of this construction so we can thrive once it’s done.”
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Several bands played through the day.
“Who’s the band playing right now?”
“This is Fox Runs East”
Muncie native Jake Martin is the singer and guitarist for Bloomington-based band, Fox Runs East. He says construction was always a challenge for businesses in the Village.
“Like since, even like we were young, when this was Village Green Records, Travis, the former owner, was fighting construction all the time. This block just has that curse, sadly.”
The event also had to be moved indoors because of rain, and a few bands dropped out the day of the festival. However, that didn’t stop people from showing up. Fox Runs East’s drummer, Cameron Parker, says the fest was a lot of fun.
“I think people really made the best of it and tried to keep the energy up despite the kind of poor weather.”
The show must go on. Outen says she’s now planning another event in October that was closer to the shop’s original vision.
Daniel Huber is a news fellow with Ball State Public Media’s Public Media Accelerator student fellowships.
