Farris Brothers Bankrolled Big Fort Fest With a $500,000 Bet

Tattoo festival brothers Jake and Jes Farris personally bankrolled Big Fort Fest at $500,000 to $600,000 after Three Rivers Festival filed for bankruptcy. The three-night bill at Headwaters Park ran July 10-12, 2025, with Bone Thugs-n-Harmony on Thursday and Theory of a Deadman on Saturday.

They hoped year two would pay for itself. Three days before the first gates, they were still asking the city to show up and work.

Studio 13’s Owners Personally Bankrolled the First Big Fort Fest

Jake and Jes Farris run Studio 13 Tattoo and put on Tattoo Fest in 22 cities, including Fort Wayne. When the Three Rivers Festival board voted in February 2025 to file for bankruptcy, they moved on the open July weekend at Headwaters Park with promoter Jake Slater of Electric Promotions. Jes Farris’s wife, Addie Farris, and their younger brother, John Farris, joined the build.

Jes Farris said they had watched the old festival’s money troubles for almost two years. “The writing was on the wall,” he said. A few Three Rivers insiders called with a hard warning, and the brothers almost walked. Their tattoo-fest logisitics work won out. They wrote the check themselves.

We are just doing our best to supply a little bit of joy.

Jes Farris, co-organizer, Big Fort Fest

Jake Farris called the weekend a love letter to Fort Wayne and said the first year was a for-profit test that likely would not turn a profit. Food trucks were told to keep everyday prices. Local partners underwrote free kids’ programming. He told sponsors who wanted to wait that the city still had to take a risk and come downtown.

THE OPENING LEDGER

• The check: The brothers planned to personally cover $500,000 to $600,000 in year one.
• The aim: Jake Farris said the team wanted 4,000 people a night at the pavilion.
• The hole: Three Rivers Festival had drawn about 200,000 visitors a year across a nine-day run.
• The old books: IRS Form 990 filings show a $387,193 net loss for the decade ending with the 2020 report.

That 4,000-a-night aim was never published as a counted crowd. It sat next to a predecessor that needed a city-sized audience to break even and still did not.

Bone Thugs-n-Harmony Opened the Park on Thursday

On April 24, 2025, organizers named Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, Breland, and Theory of a Deadman as the three-night headliners. By early July, Jake Farris’s own rundown listed Thursday as Bone Thugs-n-Harmony with Saxsquatch, Friday as Bubba Sparxxx and Fort Wayne rapper Sankofa with no cover, and Saturday as Theory of a Deadman with Downstait. Opening-day local television still listed Breland on Friday. The April release kept him on the poster. The table below follows the July organizer rundown for who was billed to close each night.

THE THREE PAID AND FREE NIGHTS

Saxsquatch plays cover songs on a saxophone in a Bigfoot suit. Minneapolis rapper P.O.S. shared the Thursday bill. Saturday also listed Voice of Sylas and Painted Red. Fort Wayne names on the wider poster included T-Zank, Nyzzy Nyce, and TMBRWOLF TONE with Rick Moore. The Grammy-winning Bone Thugs-n-Harmony set was the name the April announcement was built to carry. All of those acts were booked for the Headwaters Park pavilion, later referred to on site as the Lincoln Financial Pavilion.

Riverfront Fort Wayne said the weekend had performances from over 20 artists, plus vendors, food trucks, and artisans. The Fort Wayne Air Show sat on the same Saturday, a split any first-year downtown bill has to live with. School booths and a student photographer’s class assignment treated the grounds like a civic fair with a national hip-hop headliner on top, which matches how the brothers already run tattoo weekends: local makers on the infield, a paid stage at the edge.

What Three Rivers Left on the Books

Three Rivers Festival began in 1969 and would have marked its 56th anniversary in 2025. It was the city’s long summer machine: Junk Food Alley, a parade, a midway, and a concert budget that paid touring bands even when weather wiped the gate. A lightning storm in 2015 canceled the headline show and forced refunds, while the scheduled performers were still paid tens of thousands of dollars.

Tax filings for the decade that began Jan. 1, 2011, show the festival outspent its revenue in seven of ten years. Those seven deficit years added up to more than $500,000 in losses. Surpluses in 2011, 2012, and 2015 cut the decade’s net loss to $387,193 through the 2020 filing. Even with long-running sponsors and about 200,000 visitors a year, the board voted in February 2025 to file for bankruptcy and cancel the season.

FROM THE BANKRUPTCY VOTE TO THE FIRST SET

1. 1969: Three Rivers Festival holds its first week in Fort Wayne.
2. February 2025: The board votes to file for bankruptcy; the Farris brothers announce Big Fort Fest for July 10-12 at Headwaters Park.
3. April 24, 2025: Organizers share the musical headliners and keep asking for volunteers.
4. July 7, 2025: Addie Farris says inquiries came in early but the sign-ups did not.
5. July 10-12, 2025: The first Big Fort Fest runs at Headwaters Park.
6. July 14, 2025: Theory of a Deadman thanks the Saturday crowd.
7. December 30, 2025: Local 2026 festival listings put the event back at Headwaters Park on July 9-11.

Jake Farris said the point of the new weekend was to keep dollars in Fort Wayne. Traveling carnival food and ride operators, he said, had taken Three Rivers profits on to the next city. Big Fort Fest would use local trucks and local makers instead.

Friday Night Cost Nothing at the Gate

May ticket copy listed general admission at $34.99 for Thursday and Saturday. By late June, Jake Farris was telling the city Friday had no cover, with Bubba Sparxxx and Sankofa on the free bill. That is a different product from the two paid pavilion nights, not a second price for the same seat.

He also wanted the kids’ day free. Big Fun Fest ran Saturday as a children’s field of inflatables, wiffle ball, dance parties, a dunk tank, face painting, mini golf, and hot dogs. Jake Farris named World Baseball Academy and Science Central as partners on that grid. He pitched it against the old midway habit of spending $10 on darts for a cheap prize.

On food, he named Bravas, Mercado, and Trubble Brewing among the local trucks and said many of them planned limited-time fair plates. The food strip was branded Big Fork Fest. The maker market, Big Fort Forum, ran Friday and Saturday with jewelry designers, comic publishers, and other local stalls. Jake Farris said the first year was for testing what the city would actually use, and that he wanted the weekend to grow into a week-long tradition if the model held.

The Festival Still Needed Hands in July

The April headliner release already asked for volunteers. The plea was still live on July 7, 2025, three days before Bone Thugs-n-Harmony. Addie Farris said the three-day event had been put together in record time. Inquiries had arrived early. The shifts had not filled.

We had a lot of volunteer inquiries come in pretty early on in the process. As we were reaching out, we just weren’t getting the sign ups that we needed.

Addie Farris, event organizer, July 7, 2025

The open jobs were Forum and Fork Fest from Thursday through Saturday, concert setup and teardown on Saturday, and Big Fun Fest on Saturday. People who signed up could get free concert tickets. The signup path was the Big Fort Fest website and hello@bigfortfest.com, with Facebook and a mobile app added as the week got close.

Jake Farris told downtown readers to download the Big Fort Fest mobile app for the schedule, vendors, and stage list, with a matching Android listing for the festival app. That is a lot of software for a weekend that still could not staff teardown. Addie Farris said she was already thinking about a full year to plan, add more, and get more people involved, and that year two should be better.

Satellite Events Held the Old July Footprint

The Farris bet never tried to rebuild a nine-day civic corporation. Other groups kept the pieces of July that already had owners. Kissel Entertainment moved its carnival to Aug. 1-9 in the Memorial Coliseum parking lot under the name Summit City Carnival. Mike Loomis and City Councilman Marty Bender, a Republican at-large and a retired police officer, set a Gen. “Mad” Anthony Wayne Parade for July 19, a week after Big Fort Fest, and priced the parade at least $50,000, most of that police overtime.

WHAT ELSE RAN ON THE OLD WEEKEND

• Street painting: The Fort Wayne Museum of Art Chalk Walk stayed on Main Street on July 12-13, a fixture since 2000.
• Local art market: heART of the City kept Art in the Park alive as heART in the Park at Freimann Square on July 10-12.
• Flea market: The Lawton Park Flea Market ran July 12-13 with antiques, tools, and vintage goods.
• Parade: The new mid-July parade used a “Change and Tradition” theme and a civilian marshal corps of about 25 people.

Jes Farris said signing sponsors for 15 tattoo festivals is a year-round job, and waiting on the bankruptcy cost them half that calendar. He also said the thing they were replacing had made a lot of people gun shy. The satellite events did not need the Farris check. The pavilion nights did.

Calendars Already Penciled in July 2026

Addie Farris said before the first gate that 2025 was the start of a longer plan and that she wanted a whole year to build it. Jake Farris said the goal was more days, more events, and more free programming if sponsors showed up. Local festival listings published on December 30, 2025, put Big Fort Fest back at Headwaters Park on July 9-11, 2026, and listed Tattoo Fest Fort Wayne at the Grand Wayne Convention Center on Aug. 14-16, 2026.

WHAT WE KNOW

• The 2026 dates: December 2025 calendars listed July 9-11 at Headwaters Park.
• The planning ask: Addie Farris wanted a full year after a compressed 2025 build.
• The other Farris show: Tattoo Fest Fort Wayne was listed for Aug. 14-16, 2026.

WHAT IS UNCONFIRMED

• Year-two headliners: No public national-act announcement of the April 2025 kind turned up for 2026.
• The 2025 count: Organizers never released a counted attendance against the 4,000-a-night aim.
• The self-pay test: There was no public statement that year two covered the personal check.

Two days after the last set, Theory of a Deadman posted from the Headwaters weekend.

Thank you to everyone who came out to see us at @bigfortfest, we had such an amazing time 🤘

📸: @blake_schultz25 pic.twitter.com/k0d28ha6kk

— THEORY OF A DEADMAN (@TheoryMusic) July 14, 2025

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Big Fort Fest an All-Ages Event?

Yes. Organizers billed the Headwaters Park weekend as all-ages, and Saturday’s Big Fun Fest was built as a free children’s field with inflatables, wiffle ball, and dance parties, backed by World Baseball Academy and Science Central rather than a paid midway.

What Did Volunteers Get for Working Big Fort Fest?

People who took shifts on Forum and Fork Fest, Saturday concert setup and teardown, or Big Fun Fest could receive free tickets to the festival concerts, according to the July 2025 volunteer notice, with signup through the website or hello@bigfortfest.com.

Who Is Jake Slater in the Big Fort Fest Team?

Jake Slater, head of Electric Promotions, partnered with Jake and Jes Farris on the first festival and was described by the organizers as a promoter who had already brought large concerts to Headwaters Park before the 2025 weekend.

When Did Studio 13 Tattoo Mark 25 Years?

Studio 13 Tattoo, the Farris brothers’ Fort Wayne shop, marked its 25th anniversary in 2024, the year before they put Big Fort Fest on the July calendar, and they also created the Fort Wayne Tattoo Festival and the Explorer Tattoo Conference.

Did Three Rivers Festival Start the Same Week as Apollo 11?

Downtown Fort Wayne’s account of the old festival says the first Three Rivers week in 1969 was wrapping up during the same week as the Apollo 11 mission, which is why 2025 would have been its 56th anniversary if the board had not filed for bankruptcy.

Theory of a Deadman told the people who came that they had an amazing time. The counted gate, and whether the personal check ever came off the table, did not land next to that clip.