A Word with the Creator of 'Lubbock Live: A Festival for the Arts'

Name: Jeremy Couture

Age: 28

Instagram: lubbocklivefestival

Facebook: lubbocklivefestival

Personal Insta: _jeremycouture

Personal Facebook: JeremyCoutureMusic

Lubbock Live Vendors and Artists [Full Lineup]

Vendors:

Voter Registration

Pomona Bags

Izzy Money Vintage

Gnarled Roots

Lee Elmer's

Acre & Rust

Sweet Pup Co.

Foxling & Fae

Candle Freak by Abby

London Blue Accessories

Rebellious Bowties

Brewjeria Coffee

Visual Artists:

Death Notice: An Immersive Storytelling Experience

Sam Gaitan

Mary Greenlee

Peyton Leigh

Danielle Demtria

Half Caff Design

Julie Raven

Till Bill Art Studio

The Brand Tattoo Studio

Rachel Gililland

Food Trucks:

Taste Buds Food Co.

Pete's Curbside Grill

Mi Mesa Food Trucks

J&R Family Catering

The Lunch Box

Farm to Fork

Bella J's

Dance Performers:

West Texas Dancing Raiderettes

Ballet Folklorico

Sparrow Dance Company

Flatlands Dance Theatre

Musicians:

Main Stage Spivey John Sprott The Keegan Peck Quartet Jeremy Couture Fleshrot Beat Garden Marcos Crew Cowboy Cold Hannah Jackson Ronnie and The Redwoods

Two Docs Stage Russel Joe Thompson Brian Findley Junior Vasquez Jim Dixon Gunner Fore & The Interstate Bleach Kings Indego Mouse Shadow

HEB Stage

LHUCA Icehouse Casey Heckman Joy Harris Yung Cry Baby Kalico Sam Choate and The Deeper Musicodec Sharon is Karen

“Lubbock Live is a project made from love and admiration of what I feel is one of the most important things in life: Art. It is my hope that people will continue to make it and support it and I hope that our event helps to garner that.”

A bit about your background:

I was born and raised in Lubbock and graduated from Monterey Highschool in 2012. I received a Bachelor's degree in Cello Performance from Texas Tech in 2016 and have been playing music full-time since 2018. After college, I began moving more into commercial music and started writing songs on guitar. Now I have about 4 hours' worth of covers and original music that I play at bars and restaurants. I recently began looping guitar and playing cello over the guitar parts for my solo sets. I also have a band under my name (Jeremy Couture) that plays what I would consider being Soul/Rock genre. I also play cello in a tango ensemble called Tango Llaneros that plays tango festivals around the country as well as in various dance studios for their tango nights.

What prompted you to start this festival?

Back in 2018, I decided I wanted to start performing my original songs for people and play music (eventually) full-time. So, in order to break into the scene, I started doing some digging (and played every open-mic I could find). I researched and found the times and places musicians were playing. To my surprise, there was live music almost every night of the week! I knew that to get my foot in the door, I would have to get my face recognized so these artists would know who I was. I began going to every show I could find, stayed for the entire performance, and introduced myself to the musicians after the gig. I quickly realized the sheer amount of talent within the Lubbock music scene and still am dumbfounded by the quality and diversity of music being made every week. I remember listening to a band play that was thoroughly melting my face off one evening and I turned to look at the crowd to see if they were witnessing what I was. I noticed there were only five or so attendees at this venue. I was floored. How could I be witnessing such a high-quality performance and there were only FIVE people to witness this with me? Honestly, it really pissed me off.

A few months later, I was thoroughly invested in the scene. I was playing full-time both solo and with a band while getting involved with many, if not most, of the bands in town. I’m still in awe of the Lubbock musicians’ artistry and simultaneously annoyed that they weren’t receiving the recognition I believed they deserved. Fast forward a few months to me, again, sitting in a venue while listening to another group play (experiencing the same frustratingly small crowd), when an idea struck me: what if I developed a festival where all of these musicians could play and then promote the heck out of it so all Lubbock can experience the awesomeness I was lucky enough to experience on a weekly basis? So, that’s what I’m doing! I put out some feelers to see if anyone would be interested in such an event and the response I got back was astonishing. People absolutely loved the idea. So, I decided to expand it. Why stop at music? I met so many incredibly talented painters, sculptors, graphic designers, dancers, actors, and other artists (all with their own high-quality scenes) in my short time performing here in Lubbock.

I decided to frame this event as a music festival that would also help expose the general populous to all the different artforms our city has to offer them and connect them to the artists active in their own community. This began Lubbock Live, but something was missing. We needed to give back. I’ve lived my entire life involved with the arts here in Lubbock (student, performer, and educator) and I have found that most arts programs are substantially (and chronically) underfunded. I can’t think of a better way to give back than to donate the profits of this festival to a different art program every year! I believe that the arts are not only an integral part of society but are pivotal to the education of our youth. My goal is that Lubbock Live: Festival for The Arts will be monumental in recognizing and supporting the artists within our community and provide a means to finance the arts programs that enliven our city.

Is there anyone else involved in running this festival?

We have a board that consists of Myself, Amelia Jamieson (Creative Director), Taylor Swift (Chairman of the Board), Joy Harris, and Rocky Ramirez. We also have Jonathan Phillips as our CPA.

What were/are some of the biggest challenges you faced in putting on this event? How did you solve it?

Some of the big challenges in our first year were getting our non-profit status as well as getting sponsors. Honestly, the biggest way I figured out these challenges was by asking for help. I asked all the people I knew had experience with being involved with or running festival style events what I needed to do to get this event up and running and took their advice and did it. My friend Jonathan Phillips who is now our CPA for advice on getting our non-profit status and I ended up having some contacts of people in the news who did a story about Lubbock Live on the news that helped up to get sponsors for our event.

A lot of the logistics of running a festival style event I had some experience with from having played at events similar to it and I realized the things that didn't work well and did my best to not have those same issues at ours. The people at LHUCA also helped tremendously with advice about security and permits for street closure and the timing of such things as scheduling food trucks and making sure we had water and all of the small things one might not think about when just attending a festival.

What would you rate the success of the first Lubbock Live?

Our first year went incredibly well! We ran on time for the entire day which is very rare for festival style events, we sold around 450 tickets, and were able to donate $10,000 to our beneficiary, the LISD Fine Arts Department. We only heard good feedback from the attendees as well as the artists involved.

What are you hoping to do differently this time?

This year we will have 3 stages and will have more visual artists. Last year we started at 10am and not a lot of people showed up until later in the afternoon so we are starting this year at noon instead.

What is the mission of Lubbock Live Fest / alternatively, what do you want people to know about this event?

The purpose of Lubbock Live Festival For The Arts is to give back to the local arts community. Our goal is to gather the local artists that make our city great in one place to show the citizens of Lubbock just how much art is available in our community. Our mission is to raise awareness for Lubbock citizens who may have been uninformed about the wonderful art happening all around us, while simultaneously giving back to and supporting these artists and ultimately, our city.

I want people to know that our event is made so people can find cool artists they like and follow them so they know what all is going on in Lubbock during the rest of the year and not necessarily about the actual festival itself.

Why do you choose to live in, work in, and grow Lubbock as opposed to any other city?

I feel as though there are so many talented artists in Lubbock and that it has the potential of being a place like Austin or Dallas where the arts are a huge part of the culture.

Where do you hope to see Lubbock (as a city) in the next 5 years?

My hope is to see Lubbock become a place where the locals know what is going on in the scene and actively want to go out to places and support the arts. I think that is already starting to happen in some ways with the First Friday Art Trail getting bigger and bigger and I want that to continue in the next 5 years.

Do you plan to continue Lubbock Live in future years?

Yes. I want Lubbock Live to be a staple in the community and eventually turn into a SXSW of sorts in the future. I would like to get it to a point where its a guarantee that Lubbock Live happens every year.

What can people do to support Lubbock Live?

If people are able to donate monetarily to Lubbock Live, that would be amazing but the biggest thing is to spread the word and share social media posts and come to the event. The more people know about it, the more opportunities there will be for the artists that are involved with the festival.

Are there any people you want to thank for their support?

I would like to thank all of our sponsors for this year: HEB, The Tom Couture Team at Texas Tech Credit Union, Weston Drilling inc., Western Title, School of Rock, Amusement Park Studio, The Tadpole Agency, and McGavock Nissan of Lubbock. I would also like to thank everyone involved in the production of it, our board members, our artists, and everyone who will be in attendance. This event wouldn’t be possible without all of these people.