NELSONVILLE, Ohio — The Starbrick and BlackDiamond Music Festivals drew big crowds to Hocking College’s campus earlier this month and raised funds to spread awareness around mental health, suicide prevention andtraumatic brain injury.
The partnership between the two festivals allowed Hocking College to save on Black Diamond’s expenses, after it spent big on the event in 2022 and 2023. This year’s festival cost the college nothing because Starbrick organizers took on expenses for both events.
The second annual Black Diamond and inaugural Starbrick festivals took place on separate weekends and at separate locations last year, with the Chris Roell TBI Foundation Fund organizing Starbrick and Hocking College organizing Black Diamond.
In 2024, however, both festivals took place on the same weekend, June 7-8, and were organized by the foundation fund. Both were held on Hocking College’s campus.
Friday, June 7, featured rock and country acts including McGuffey Lane and Late Night Drivers, while Saturday’s Starbrick lineup featured country rock singer Julia Neville, and rock and country tribute bands.
“The event went really well,” said festival organizer Bernie Roell. “We had a good turnout for Black Diamond — but we had an awesome turnout for Starbrick. We had close to 1,500 people come to our event.”
Hocking College President Betty Young called the new iteration of Black Diamond a success.
“Hocking College students continue to be involved in helping with the festival such as our culinary students with the Hocking College food truck and summer interns working on the set-up and tear down as well,” Young said in an email.
A partnership is born
It was after the 2023 festivals that Roell said Hocking College approached him about a partnership with Starbrick for 2024.
“They saw how well of a production we put on last year,” Roell said. “I think Black Diamond was thinking about scaling down, so they asked if we would want to partner with them, and use their weekend.”
Roell was already thinking of moving the Starbrick festival to an earlier date to avoid conflict with the Nelsonville Music Festival, which benefits Stuart’s Opera House, a nonprofit arts organization. It also came with the benefit of a new venue.
“We took all the expenses off of Hocking College’s plate, and they agreed for a small monetary value to let us use their facility, because they built such a wonderful facility,” Roell said. “It didn’t cost them anything to work with us.”
For Young, continuing to host a music festival on the college’s campus was important.
“There has been a music festival on the Hocking College campus for more than 15 years and we continue to believe the festival is important to Nelsonville as we host many visitors to the region.” Young said. “This is why we have continued to support this important weekend. Finding a great partner such as the Foundation helps make the festival sustainable for our community while benefiting a great cause and providing opportunities for student engagement.”
The college’s inaugural Black Diamond drew heated criticism, after Hocking scheduled for the same weekend on which the college historically hosted the Nelsonville Music Festival. That year, NMF relocated amid changes to Hocking’s campus and held its festival later in the summer at a different venue.
Roell said Starbrick and Black Diamond will “jointly keep this date in June together” in the years ahead.
A “grand slam” fundraiser
The two festivals were fundraisers for the Chris Roell TBI Foundation Fund. The foundation was established in 2023 and, according to its Guidestar profile, received tax exempt status this year.
“We raised more money this year than we did last year,” Roell said, although he declared to share the totals. “We hit a homerun last year, but we hit a grand slam this year.”
The fund is named for Roell’s son, who died in 2018.
“He went to UC Santa Barbara in California on a Division One scholarship and then ended up with a head injury from a fall off a cliff. And he made — for most intents and purposes — a full recovery from the fall,” Roell said.
“Nobody knows how the brain is actually going to rewire itself,” he added. “And I think there was a small percentage of Christopher that wasn’t completely there. So over time, I think the mental mental health issues creeped in, which eventually led to his death.”
Roell said the fundraisers support mental health awareness, and the festival itself offers a way to get the word out through signage and speakers.
As the organization grows, Roell said he hopes the foundation can direct more funding to mental health services. The foundation will hold three more events this summer to work toward that goal.
Black Diamond scale-down came after big spending by Hocking
The four musical acts hosted on a single evening at the 2024 Black Diamond Music Festival represented a significant scaling down of the event. In 2023, the festival lineup included 16 acts.
In both the inaugural year and in 2023, Hocking spent big on the festival: just over $365,000 last year, according to records obtained by the Independent. The biggest expense was for entertainment and agents, at nearly $185,000.
Read the Independent’s coverage of Black Diamond’s 2022 expenses
Young did not answer the Independent’s questions about which part of the college’s budget was used to support the festival. The college’s 2023 operating expenses were $37.9 million, according to its financial audit. College support for the festival represented about 0.6% of those expenditures.
The college also initially refused to provide public records related to its 2023 festival expenses, saying the Independent’s request, initially submitted in February 2024, was not specific enough. However, the request was the same as the one sent for 2022 expenses, which the college fulfilled.
The Independent pointed out the college’s apparent discrepancies in handling records requests and noted the specific line items detailed in the college’s 2022 festival revenue and expenses document. The college provided records earlier this month, four months after the Independent’s initial request.
The college never responded to a request the Independent submitted last year for more detailed documentation related to its 2022 expenses.
The Independent has submitted a public records request for revenue from this year’s Black Diamond festival; the college has acknowledged the request but not yet fulfilled it.
