FEATURED CASE STUDY
Lower Town Arts & Music Festival
EVENT LEADERSHIP · COMMUNICATIONS · DIGITAL · COMMUNITY
The Lower Town Arts & Music Festival is a free, community-centered arts and music festival in Paducah, Kentucky, bringing together artists, musicians, vendors, volunteers, sponsors, local businesses, and thousands of attendees.
My involvement with the festival has grown from communications and design into full festival leadership. As Festival Director, I oversee year-round planning, partnerships, digital strategy, sponsorship support, volunteer coordination, communications, and the many moving parts required to bring the event together.
ROLE · FESTIVAL DIRECTOR
THE CHALLENGE
A large community event needs more than good intentions.
Bringing the Lower Town Arts & Music Festival together means coordinating a large number of people, organizations, deadlines, systems, and public-facing details at the same time.
The work includes everything from sponsorships, vendors, volunteers, music, permits, and partnerships to website content, public information, marketing, logistics, and communication across multiple groups. Each piece affects the others, which means the festival needs clear systems and year-round coordination rather than a series of disconnected tasks.
As my role expanded, one of the biggest priorities became creating more structure around how information is organized, how responsibilities are tracked, how partners are supported, and how decisions move from planning into execution.
The goal is not only to produce a successful festival weekend. It is to build a stronger foundation that makes the work clearer, more sustainable, and easier to carry forward from year to year.
MY ROLE
Festival leadership across the full planning cycle.
As Festival Director, my role spans both the public-facing work people see and the behind-the-scenes systems that make the event possible. I move between strategy, communication, coordination, problem-solving, and execution throughout the year.
LEADERSHIP + PLANNING
Keeping the whole picture moving
Year-round planning, timelines, priorities, board coordination, partner communication, decision-making, and maintaining continuity across the festival.
COMMUNICATIONS + DIGITAL
Making information clear
Website strategy and content, public messaging, marketing materials, sponsor recognition, event information, social content, and consistent communication across audiences.
PARTNERSHIPS + FUNDING
Building key relationships
Sponsorship support, donor and partner communication, local business relationships, community partnerships, and coordination with organizations that help make the festival possible.
OPERATIONS + PEOPLE
Turning plans into a working event
Vendor coordination, volunteer systems, logistics, permits, site planning, event-day needs, and communication among the people responsible for different parts of the festival.
WEBSITE + DIGITAL
Building a clearer digital home for the festival.
The festival website has to serve several audiences at once: attendees, artists, vendors, volunteers, sponsors, partners, and people simply trying to understand what the event is and how to participate.
My work has focused on creating a clearer structure for that information, improving navigation, organizing event details, and making the site easier to use across devices.
I also use the website as part of the larger communications system for the festival, making sure public-facing information stays consistent with marketing, sponsorship, volunteer coordination, and event planning.
WEBSITE DESIGN · CONTENT STRATEGY · INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE · RESPONSIVE DESIGN · EVENT INFORMATION
BRAND + COMMUNICATIONS
Keeping the festival recognizable across every touchpoint.
Festival communication has to do more than look consistent. It has to help people understand what is happening, where they need to be, how they can participate, and why the event matters.
My work includes shaping public-facing messaging and applying the festival’s visual identity across digital and print materials, sponsor recognition, event information, social content, and other communications used throughout the planning cycle.
The goal is to make each piece feel connected to the larger festival while still working for its specific audience and purpose.
PUBLIC MESSAGING · PRINT DESIGN · SOCIAL MEDIA · SPONSOR RECOGNITION · EVENT INFORMATION · VISUAL CONSISTENCY
EVENT OPERATIONS
The work behind the weekend.
A successful festival depends on hundreds of details being coordinated long before anyone arrives. My role includes helping those pieces connect so artists, vendors, volunteers, partners, staff, and attendees can move through the event with as much clarity as possible.
SITE + LOGISTICS
Making the space work
Site planning, access points, vendor placement, infrastructure needs, event-day flow, setup and breakdown, and coordination around the physical footprint of the festival.
VENDORS + ARTISTS
Supporting the people participating
Communication, applications, expectations, schedules, placement, arrival information, problem-solving, and making sure participants have what they need before and during the event.
VOLUNTEERS
Creating systems people can follow
Shift planning, check-in processes, role instructions, communication, coverage, and making volunteer participation easier to understand and manage.
PERMITS + PARTNERS
Beyond the festival team
Working with city and county contacts, local businesses, venue partners, service providers, and other organizations whose support and cooperation are necessary for the event to happen.
IMPACT + SCALE
A community event built at a meaningful scale.
The Lower Town Arts & Music Festival brings together thousands of attendees, dozens of artists and vendors, local musicians, volunteers, sponsors, businesses, and community partners across a two-day event.
~20,000
ATTENDEES
70+
VENDORS
2
DAYS OF PROGRAMMING
DOZENS
SPONSORS + COMMUNITY PARTNERS
The numbers help communicate the scale, but the larger impact is in the relationships behind them: artists getting in front of new audiences, local businesses participating in the event, volunteers contributing their time, sponsors investing in the community, and thousands of people gathering in Lower Town around art, music, and shared experience.
MORE WORK