Booking

Please read this page entirely before contacting us about performing at the Indy Folk Series.

We are currently booking for our 25th Season, which will run September 2025 – May 2026. We anticipate that the booking process will be complete by April 1, 2025, and the season will be announced in late May 2025.

If you are interested in performing at the Indy Folk Series, please continue reading.

The Indy Folk Series presents one concert a month, on Saturday evenings, during our season which runs from September through May. Regrettably, we are not able to host additional concerts above and beyond those that have already been scheduled, and we cannot produce events on short notice. We are not able to present concerts on any day other than Saturday, and do not present concerts in June, July, or August.

We respectfully request that performers and agents refrain from inquiring about dates/months that have already been filled, or about months of the year during which we do not present concerts. Please note that we receive FAR more booking inquiries than we can ever hope to accommodate, but we simply do not have the capability to present additional events.

As an all-volunteer organization, we are unable to assist performers or make recommendations with regard to booking at alternate venues in the Indianapolis area. However, we suggest the following resources:

Folk Alliance International: (https://folk.org) Annual Conference for Folk Musicians/Agents/Venues and Fans; Regional conferences across the US and Canada; year-long resources and advice available to members. Performers interested in playing venues similar to Indy Folk Series should consider joining Folk Alliance International (FAI).
Folk Alliance Region Midwest (FARM) (https://www.farmfolk.org/) is the Regional Folk Alliance conference in our area, the location varies. Over the past several years, a significant number of the performers we have booked are those we have seen perform at FARM.
Undiscovered Music Network (https://undiscoveredmusic.net) is an extensive database of venues that present acoustic music throughout the United States and Canada.

We need to see a live, in-person performance before booking anyone for a spot in our season. We have not, in recent memory, featured a performer at the Indy Folk Series whom we have not had the pleasure of seeing perform in front of a live audience. In fact, we prefer to see more than one performance, in a variety of settings if possible, as well as have the opportunity to have a brief conversation at the break or after the show. We strive to present a mix of genres and styles, introduce our audience to new talent, AND bring back at least one returning favorite each season.

If you’ve already made our acquaintance at a conference, festival, listening room venue, etc., and are interested in playing our venue, please contact our Booking Coordinator at IndyFolkSeries@gmail.com. If we’ve not yet had an opportunity to meet you and see you perform, please send your press kit to our Booking Coordinator at IndyFolkSeries@gmail.com and let us know when you will be playing in the greater Indianapolis area. We will make an effort to come to a performance and say hello. Once we’ve had the opportunity to get to know you a little bit better, we can continue the conversation about booking for a future season.

We realize that this may be frustrating for performers who wish to play our stage, but do not tour through Indianapolis on a regular basis. However, our volunteer staff frequently go to nearby festivals and concerts, and we often attend Folk Alliance Region Midwest (FARM), and/or Folk Alliance International conferences specifically to meet new performers. So be sure to let us know if you will be playing nearby and/or attending an upcoming conference, and we will make every effort to see one of your performances.

The Indy Folk Series offers first-rate acoustics, an attentive audience who is there to listen to the performance, and a friendly volunteer staff. We provide a professional audio engineer, mixing board, and all sound equipment. The Indy Folk Series can seat up to 200, and audience size typically ranges from about 75 up to 200.

Given the very limited number of concerts we present each year, one of our greatest challenges is selecting just a handful of acts from among all the incredibly talented performers whom we would truly love to invite to play our stage! Please do not be offended if we are unable to host you at Indy Folk Series.