Maha Festival Bringing Live Music to the Omaha RiverFront with Local, National, and Worldwide Bands

The following program was previously recorded. It's time for another installment of Live and Local from the studios at 33rd and Burt. I'm your local host, Mike Hogan. Thank you for joining me today. Well, the Maha Music Festival is a nonprofit organization. It is focused on bringing people together. by curating and producing cultural experiences. And since 2009, the Maha Music Festival has welcomed hundreds of music acts. And it is happening this summer on Saturday, August 8th at the Heartland of America Park in Omaha, Nebraska. Here to talk about it, the Maha Music Festival board chairman, T.J. Twit. T.J., thanks so much for joining me today. Thanks for having me. I appreciate it. Oh, man, we are full bore down at the riverfront. Talk about the venue down there. What's that like? So the park itself, Heartland of America Park, it's just east of 8th Street. And we put the stage on the far east end of the park. So from a spectator perspective and an artist's perspective, it just couldn't be much better. The park was the people who planned the park consulted with Maha and the founders of Maha. to make sure that the venue was conducive to a festival. And last year, I would say, proved the concept. Can you talk about the lineup? Who's coming to play for us? You bet. So I will start with the first act on stage is Carver Jay Jones, a local Omaha, and then Dave Nance from central Nebraska. And then we've got Whitney, a Chicago, kind of very, I would say, conventional rock band. And then Blonde Shell. They're an L.A. kind of rock band Killer Mike, who this will be a second time on the Maha stage. He was one half of Run the Jules who performed in 2017. And then we've got local legend, bright eyes, and then our headliner wetleg. Maha Festival.com. That's a place to go. You can see this entire lineup and tickets as well. There's two sets of tickets involved, right? A VIP package and then general admission tickets, right? Correct. VIP is sold out. We sold out of VIP tickets in record time, actually, this year. But we do still have GA tickets available. Like you said, go to mahafestival.com, and you can pick up your GA tickets there. Festival grounds will be open from noon to 11 p.m. And what time does the music start with the grounds opening up at noon? First band will go on at 1 o'clock. So we do have one extra one extra band this year. One more than we had last year. So we'll start an hour earlier. And with music beginning right at 1 o'clock and the last note will we played somewhere around 11. I believe that we're contractually obligated to say that the music will end at 11.

But if the crowd starts singing for he's a jolly good fellow, you know, we're going to hang on. We're not giving any way to the hook. We're not giving any way to the hook, that's for sure. That's beautiful. Can you talk to me about how to get there and where to park? You bet. So there are thousands of parking spots available. Everything that was available last year for parking will still be available. So if you came down last year and found a parking spot, that parking spot will be available. I think what most people are concerned about. though is the streetcar construction and some of the other construction that's going on downtown and we are working with the city very closely to make sure that access points will remain open for maha so the experience of getting to and from maha will be exactly like it was last year actually it's a long day so plenty of food and drink options available right We will have plenty of food and drink options. We have on Douglas Street, east of 8th Street, will be kind of our food truck food court, where we'll have that road will be closed and we'll have food trucks facing each other and with lots of different options, quick service, and like I said, lots, lots of options for every palette. I got to ask you, since you have to deal with this on a daily basis as the Maha Festival board chair, how anxious are you for this thing to fire up on August 8th? Oh, man, I'm telling you. No, it's funny that you say that. I'm always very, very nervous about it until people start showing up, actually. We've been selling tickets. We've been very fortunate. We started off like gangs. Busters and and usually you know the last month it picks up and fortunately as of you know last Wednesday ticket sales picked back up but no I look I mean There's a lot of people who put a ton of time and effort into this. And the payoff, obviously, is day of show. But you sit there and you wait and you wait until people start showing up. And fortunately last year and hopefully again this year, we had a line of people waiting for the Bill Gates to open. But really up until that point, yeah, I'm pretty nervous. That's fantastic. Last thing I want to add is children 10 years and under our free admission with a paid adult admission, of course. That's right. You can't just drop the kids off and leave them there. No, I wouldn't advise that. I wouldn't advise that. No. He got to show up with them. Anyway, it's all happening on Saturday, August 8th. It's from noon to 11 p.m. wink, wink. It's the Maha Music Festival information and tickets at MahaFestival.com. He is the Maha Music Festival board chair. His name is T.J. Twit. TJ, thanks a bunch and have a fantastic festival, man. See you on the 8th.