Hamilton County RISE Fest

Hamilton County RISE Fest began as an idea during the pandemic. With everything coming to a halt, bands and musicians were not playing live shows. It worked.

All day free music festival with 100% of proceeds and donations to benefit selected Hamilton County non-profits

Saturday October 10th
Noon-930p
Spencer Farm Winery
Noblesville

Silent Auction
50/50 Raffle
Food Trucks
Beer & Wine

9 bands We asked ourselves what if we put an event together as an excuse to play live without a crowd or a limited crowd and stream it......and make it benefit local non

-profits through donations. The idea was born. Most local bands liked and supported the idea. Like any event, it takes plannning. The soonest we could get it scheduled was September 2021. But something changed....things were opening up and bands are now playing live again. Many of the bands involved in the original idea were not available on September 18th due to paid bookings. We had to pivot and find bands that were not booked that date or booked later in the evening and could play during the day. What does RISE mean? We wanted to name the event since it was to be an all day music fest. Since all bands playing for free with proceeds and donatoins going to local non-profits, we wanted the name to tie into this theme. RISE was born...Rockers Impacting and Serving Everyone. Finally, what non-profits should benefit? How many? We decided we would choose one non-profit form each of the major Hamilton County cities: Carmel, Fishers, Noblesville, and Westfield. Which ones? Well, the committee picked non-profits that they had personal experineces with that had impacted their lives. We had the who, what, when, why but where? After brainstorming, we decided this event should be outdoors. We needed a partner. It came down to two possible locations. We found out one of the locations was experiencing complaints from local residents when having bands play due to the noise. The other location was more remote – Spencer Farm Winery. We reached out to Mark Spencer who embraced the idea and the plan was in place. The vision for RISE Fest is to become an annual showcase. The non-profits that will benefit will change each year but they will always be Hamilton County based. Thanks for taking time to read our story. We hope to see you at Spencer Farm Winery on September 17th!

01/25/2026

Congratulations to our RISE Fest performers Naptown Hepcats. Well deserved!

We were honored to recieve this freaking AMAZING award last night at our show at the Melody Inn for Punk Rock Night Indianapolis 2025 rockabilly band of the year!

12/05/2025

RISE Fest board members Andy Binford and Jim Vitou present The Children's TherAplay Foundation with a Rise Fest donation check. Children's Theraplay is our 2025 Carmel non-profit beneficiary.

11/24/2025

RISE Fest board member and Army veteran Jim Vitou presents Lynn of Hamilton County Veterans Corp with a donation check.

Hamilton County Veterans Corp is our 2025 Fishers non-profit beneficiary.

11/18/2025

RISE Fest board members Andy Binford and Matt MacBeth present Brooke Howe of The Cooper House with the 2025 RISE Fest donation.

The Cooper House is our 2025 Noblesville non-profit beneficiary.

10/19/2025

A huge thank you to all who attended RISE Fest yesterday. Despite being a shortened event due to rain, it was a very successful day. The weather up until the rain arrived was a perfect fall day. So many came out early in the day this year!

We considered doing a Part 2 on November 8th with the bands who weren't able to perform but the logistics of a 2nd date are too difficult. If you bought a 50/50 raffle ticket, reach out. We can refund the money or honor it at next year's event with a new ticket.

Big shout out to Spencer Farm Winery for being an awesome partner in helping to raise money for our Hamilton County non-profits... The Children's TherAplay Foundation, Chairs of Honor, The Cooper House, and Hamilton County Veterans Corp.

We will be back next October for our 6th RISE Fest.

Send a message to learn more