Illustration by Kendall Regan
Five years ago, Shaina Wagner sat in on a show on Crescent Hill Radio called Flies on the Wall. DJs Kevin Gibson and Butch Bays were talking about how expensive the Forecastle Festival had become — general admission tickets in 2012 were $159.50; this year’s started at $149.50 and worked up to $189.50. One of them made the joke that there should be an alternative for those of us without so much cash to blow — a “Poorcastle Festival.”
“It donned on me that we had all the resources to make that happen, being involved with Crescent Hill radio,” Wagner says. “We had contacts with local musicians, and we also had a cause to make Poorcastle a non-profit organization to raise money for Crescent Hill radio.” The inaugural festival crammed 11 bands into one day, and raised about $1500. Since then, the festival has grown into a three-day affair with 36 local bands that supports musical nonprofits like the Louisville Leopard Percussionists and AMPED, an organization that provides free access to musical instruments, performance opportunities and music education to Louisville youth. And, of course, it’s still affordable. “It was important to us from the first year to keep it at $5 a day,” Wagner says. “That’s what keeps Poorcastle what it is, is that it is accessible to everyone.”
Last year, we caught up with Wagner for our “21 Questions” interview series. We talked about “terrible, horrible, really bad B horror movies,” running into Twin Limb in Texas and having a crush on El Mundo’s queso.
