The fifth annual For Dayton By Dayton is Saturday, June 8, at Riverscape MetroPark in downtown Dayton. The one-day music festival is free and family-friendly, and features twelve local artists of multiple genres performing from 4-9pm.
Before the festival, For Dayton By Dayton (4DBD) organizer Kevin Carter joined WYSO music director Juliet Fromholt on Kaleidoscope to preview the event.
Kevin Carter, who is also the closing performer at Saturday’s concert, founded 4DBD in 2019. He told Juliet that the festival was designed to encourage cross-pollination of Dayton musicians of different genres, and their audiences. “My vision was doing something that could bring all genres of music together for one show,” he said. “It seemed so simple, but it really wasn’t happening.” Initially, managing the logistics of the festival wasn’t easy, he recalled.
“The first year was hard, honestly, because it was a learning process to understand what it takes to put on a festival. It’s not just a show—there’s insurance involved, and timing with the MetroParks, and paying for this, paying for that. It was a lot to do.”
Yet the effort paid off. The festival was a hit, drawing widespread support from Dayton’s music fans and business community, and Carter decided to make 4DBD an annual event. “I would have never thought it would be five years of doing this,” he said. “It just tells you about the community and how appreciative everybody is, because I literally can’t do it without the community.”
Carter says he is especially proud to showcase artists who typically play for adult-only audiences in a public, family-friendly environment. “The artists know how to edit their music if they need to—it just opens things up, ” he said. This year’s performers include Feyth M, K-Cap Da Don, Montana & Tyrant, Joe Eid, Nightbeast, Blanch Robinson, and Trey Posey; a full list of artists is available at 4dbdayton.com. 4DBD will also feature local food trucks and, for the first time, a “mobile escape room,” courtesy of the festival’s presenting sponsor, On Par Entertainment.
Half a decade in, K Carter said it still brings him joy to see his vision for a public, multi-genre music festival brought to life in the heart of Dayton. “It’s humbling — sometimes I sit back and I can’t believe that so many people see the vision and are riding with me.”
Text by Peter Day, adapted from a studio interview hosted by Juliet Fromholt on June 5, 2024.
