2025 marks the first year since 2019 that a Springfield mural festival has been called the Overlay Festival, marking the transition from a previous fiscal sponsorship. However, the concept behind Overlay remains the same as that behind MIDxMIDWST.
“I've been working on this concept since 2019 and attempted to launch, I should say, in 2020," said Wagler. "But of course COVID had other plans, so we postponed a few years for public safety.”
When MIDxMIDWST was finally able to launch in 2022, the debut event was also downtown. Readers may be familiar with murals from the event on the west side of the efactory as well as on the east side of Robberson Alley.
“We had a great time with that, and also had lots of great learning opportunities to continue to hone the event. And that's what we're excited to bring back to the community," she added.
“The mission of our organization and our event is really centered around bolstering public arts and street art in the community...having these murals painted during the event, having folks be involved in the production...really just makes a different impact," she said.
“Likewise, being an artist myself, founding this organization, it's really important in our mission to ensure that we're advocating for the rights of the artists — standard, respectable pay for our artists, and really looking to move the needle to shift the arts out of a really solely philanthropic mindset that I think it has fallen into here in the area.”
Wagler said that she and the organizers behind the event were excited to work to integrate the community into the event and to make it more accessible to them. For this reason, ticket prices have been brought down to a $10 donation-based entry fee.
For those interested in a VIP experience, a $35 ticket can be purchased, which grants exclusive access to parking and a lounge on the fourth floor of the Discovery Center. Among the amenities inside the lounge will be exclusive entertainment, a bar and food from the Crowded Table.
The event itself will feature a DJ booth with live music, a pop up skate park in partnership with Springfield Skate Park, a self-service dining hall and a number of vendors.
Many of these vendors are local artists, some even doing pop up art installations of their own. This will include Art of Everyone Laser Guided Painting by Brad Noble and Animal X-ing by Sarah Jones.
The featured 2025 festival experience is a six story live mural installation on the U, according to Wagler.
“We've worked with our partners at the Vecino Group to facilitate a really exciting portrait piece that's going to be gifted to the community after the event. So all of our fundraising efforts go toward this mission, and you get to be a part of watching that unfold in real time, and we think that's pretty special.”
“All of the proceeds go to helping us fund and pay our artists and make sure that we are fulfilling our mission to really bolster the arts community here in the Ozarks. So we appreciate everybody coming out and celebrating with us, and we look forward to it."
Overlay festival will take place on October 3 and 4 from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m. at Jubilee Park at the intersection of Saint Louis St. and Jefferson Avenue.
