Five young professionals organize non-profit to put on inaugural MAHA Music Festival

After launching their website a week ago, the organizers of the inaugural MAHA Music Festival held a press announcement today making it official. Saturday, August 29th, Dashboard Confessionals will be headlining a six band line-up that will be expanded in coming months to include local acts, as well. The announcement, which took place at the…

090629_mahamusicfestivallogoAfter launching their website a week ago, the organizers of the inaugural MAHA Music Festival held a press announcement today making it official. Saturday, August 29th, Dashboard Confessionals will be headlining a six band line-up that will be expanded in coming months to include local acts, as well.

The announcement, which took place at the future site of the festival, Lewis & Clark Landing in downtown Omaha, was conducted by Traci Hancock, one of its five organizers. The others are Mike App, Tyler Owen, Tre Brashear and Mike Toohey, and together they formed YFC, Inc., a non-profit, 501(c)3. “YFC” simply stands for “Your Festival Committee,” but their goal is a bit more elaborate:

YFC is committed to building MAHA in to an annual, multi-day event for the community, featuring music and arts in multiple venues throughout the city, culminating in a weekend, outdoor event.

With this goal, they’ve already caught the attention of those who carry some serious weight in the community – Mayor Suttle offered his words of support at the announcement and Alegent Health and McCarthy Capital Corp. have signed on as sponsors.

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If their line-up doesn’t impress or entice you, remember that it’s in its infancy and that, at least from my experience, the event just isn’t about what’s on stage, it’s about the community that you immerse yourself in. So now, there’s a challenge to Omaha to match the excitement and enthusiasm that they’re hoping to bring to the city. (And a big plus is the ticket price: all general admission, $29.50/each.)

In July, there will be a call for volunteers – App estimates that they’ll need between 120-150. And in the coming months there will be a call to local bands to become involved in the festival. The specifics of that are unknown but we’ll make sure to break it to you when we learn. You can also follow them on Twitter @mahafestival.

Check out the videos below to hear more from a couple of the event’s organizers and watch the press conference in its entirety (sorry about the shakiness of the last one, it gets pretty bad at parts and, for your safety, might be best listened to and not watched).

Mike App

Tyler Owen

Maha Music Festival Announcement

This story is part of the AIM Archive

This story is part of the AIM Institute Archive on Silicon Prairie News. AIM gifted SPN to the Nebraska Journalism Trust in January 2023. Learn more about SPN’s origin »

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One response to “Five young professionals organize non-profit to put on inaugural MAHA Music Festival”

  1. Pauline Avatar
    Pauline

    How does one communicate with the group of YFC Inc.? We are so happy that Omaha has gotten involved in the festival topic. With the Blues festival annually the Maha is a great second. We have attended festivals all over to include Europe before it went to these large venues of 100,000 people. We follow the British show “Later, with Jools Holland”, where we saw the band feature in 2014 at the Maha festival “RadKey” who was great…. I would like to know if your group takes input from the public. I assume since an email to review the last Maha was sent out. I know the Maha web site needs help. We are both programmers and we may be able to help if you don’t have anyone.

    Thank you for giving to this area of the U.S.
    Pauline