I Made Rock ‘N’ Roll music festival hopes to honor the history of black rock musicians

INDIANAPOLIS – A music festival honoring the legacy of black rock musicians will rock downtown this weekend! It’s all taking place on Saturday at the American Legion Mall.

Organizers, Forty5 and GANGGANG are collaborating for this large-scale project, to change the way people might think and feel about rock music.

“Building in that sense of identity and ownership in this music that we’ve typically labeled as white music, it’s like, no, this is ours too,” said Hayes Barnes, marketing director for GANGGANG.

“The Truth is in the Chords” is one of their festival taglines, hoping people can hear the rich history of black musicians that came before.

“There was Little Richard, and there was Sister Rosetta Tharpe, and there was Big Mama Thornton,” said CEO of Forty5, Jenny Boyts. “So how do we tell that story both visually, but also in the experience that we really hope people take away a bit of a history lesson in that way?”

The influence of these musicians evolved over time, inspiring the major stars of today.

Local artists and national names are taking the stage to bring all types of rock n roll to Indy.

“I think for our first year festival, this talent lineup is out of the park,” said Boyts.

“The cool thing about our lineup is everybody’s bringing something different,” said Barnes. “We got hardcore, to pop punk, to soft indie rock, to like soulful blues sound Gary Clark Jr., who’s like more core rock, and then Janelle who’s just a little bit of everything.”

The festival is open to all ages and organizers hope that the crowd will be able to envision themselves rockin ‘and rollin’ up there one day too.

“What future Lenny Kravitz is going to be here tomorrow night? You know what I mean,” said Barnes. “Who’s going to be inspired? What new rock bands are going to come out of us doing this just from our first year?”

Organizers add they’re expecting around 4,000 people to attend.

The gates open at noon and music will be blaring all day long!

Tickets are still available at the box office and online. For tickets, click here .

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