COLUMBUS, Ind. — A first-time music festival and fundraiser that rocked The Commons Friday with three bands and about 550 people hopes to return next year as a two-day event.
Those are the tentative plans of organizers with the nonprofit Landmark Columbus Foundation that helps preserve the cultural heritage of Columbus. The evening called HutchFest with classic ensembles Cottonpatch, Brown 25 and Oddz R generated slightly less than $25,000 to be shared between the foundation and the continued fund drive to reopen the storied Crump Theater on Third Street.
“I think we’re on to something,” said Richard McCoy, executive director of the foundation. “People were asking me if we were going to hit the maximum number of people allowed in the space. We weren’t, but it felt full.”
So, full, in fact that some mentioned that the atmosphere presented a “good” challenge: finding enough space to dance.
That estimated 550 attendance figure makes it one of the largest entertainment draws at The Commons in years. (The local annual Ganesh Festival usually attracts 800 plus, but that is a mixed cultural event spread over an entire Saturday). Also, a Christian pop-rock Christmas concert with nationally touring artist Francesca Battistelli drew 900 people, including seating well behind Chaos I, in December 2013.
The name for the latest event was affixed after organizers picked a date for the gathering and realized that it fell on local leader and philanthropist Hutch Schumaker’s 75th birthday. They said they begged him for a month to use his name to draw added attention, especially because he has long been one of the most visible supporters of The Crump and is a Landmark Foundation board member.
In fact, McCoy said he believes using the name probably helped attract a wider audience for the $10 ticket price.
Schumaker chuckled at the notion.
“Well,” he said, “I didn’t know I was quite that cool.”
For the complete story and more photos, see Tuesday’s Republic.
