Case Study: Mindblown Festival 2025
How a first-time team built a large-scale mental health benefit festival in six weeks through trust, coordination, and community power
Project: Mindblown Festival 2025
A community-driven music and arts festival benefiting mental health and suicide prevention
Chuck’s Role: Executive Producer
Strategy, coordination, partnerships, production oversight, communications
Overview
Mindblown Festival 2025 was a first-of-its-kind mental health benefit festival held in Glens Falls, New York. Built from scratch in just six weeks, the event brought together underground music, local artists, vendors, nonprofits, and volunteers to create something bigger than any one person or organization.
The result was a packed venue, meaningful funds raised for mental health, real economic impact for creatives, and proof that ambitious community projects can succeed when they are organized with care, trust, and clear leadership.
This case study is about what happens when people take a chance on each other and what becomes possible when someone is willing to hold the whole thing together.
The challenge
Mindblown did not start as an established brand, organization, or festival.
It started as an idea.
There was:
No existing audience
No prior festival track record
No long planning runway
No guarantee anyone would show up
The goal was ambitious: create a festival that celebrated underground music while directly supporting mental health and suicide prevention, without losing integrity or burning out the people involved.
To work, it needed:
Fast coordination
Trust between collaborators
Clear roles
Responsible handling of funds
A venue willing to take a chance
A community willing to show up
The approach
Mindblown was built through collective effort with centralized coordination.
Executive production and coordination
As Executive Producer, my role was to:
Hold the full vision
Coordinate people with very different strengths
Keep momentum moving under tight timelines
Make sure nothing important fell through the cracks
This included aligning artists, vendors, sponsors, nonprofits, volunteers, and venue partners around a shared purpose while keeping the event logistically and ethically sound.
Community leadership and collaboration
Mindblown worked because of the people who stepped up.
Key collaborators included:
Bryan Cirillo, who originated the idea and curated an incredible lineup of bands
Shane Johnson and Heather Johnson, who led merch production and graphic design
Jeremy Laquinto, who gifted the Mindblown logo
Kevin Stephenson, who made sure the entire event sounded excellent
The Shirt Factory, who took a chance on a first-year festival
Rock Hill Bake House, who made sure bands were fed
Dozens of bands, vendors, volunteers, and attendees who showed up with trust and enthusiasm
This was not top-down production. It was shared ownership, with clear coordination.
Fiscal sponsorship and fund handling
To ensure funds were handled responsibly and transparently, Mindblown Festival 2025 partnered with HeartSupport as both fiscal sponsor and beneficiary.
This partnership allowed the team to raise and distribute funds ethically while keeping the focus on artists, vendors, and community care.
Special thanks to Andy French for helping facilitate the fiscal sponsorship, and to Access Group for their support and collaboration.
HeartSupport was also present on-site, engaging directly with attendees and offering space for connection and shared stories.
The results
Attendance and participation
Mindblown Festival 2025 brought together:
600+ attendees
12 bands
20 vendors
3 nonprofit partners
The venue was full, energized, and deeply engaged throughout the event.
Financial and economic impact
$7,500+ raised in support of mental health and suicide prevention
$10,000+ circulated back into the local creative economy
Artists, vendors, and production partners were paid
Funds were handled transparently through fiscal sponsorship
Mental health impact
200+ people engaged directly with HeartSupport
Attendees shared survival stories and messages on the support wall
Mental health resources were present, visible, and normalized throughout the event
Media and cultural response
Mindblown Festival 2025 received independent coverage from outlets including RadioRadioX, documenting the event’s impact, music, and community significance through long-form writing and photography.
Online, the festival generated strong engagement despite launching social media accounts from scratch. Engagement and growth data will continue to be added as Mindblown evolves.
Why this worked
Mindblown succeeded because it was built on trust, clarity, and shared ownership, not polish or hype.
The vision was clear and values-forward
Roles were defined without hierarchy for its own sake
Funds were handled responsibly
Credit was shared generously
The community was invited to participate, not just consume
Most importantly, someone was willing to take responsibility for holding the whole thing together.
What this demonstrates
Mindblown Festival 2025 shows what I bring to complex, high-risk, high-heart projects:
Executive production under pressure
Rapid coordination of many moving parts
Community-centered strategy
Nonprofit and fiscal sponsor collaboration
Clear communication across artists, venues, and institutions
The ability to turn a big, uncertain idea into something real
If you have a bold idea that feels overwhelming, unconventional, or just plain hard to pull off, this is the kind of work I do.
Takeaway
Big, meaningful projects do not happen because everything is perfect.
They happen because people trust each other enough to try.
When care, coordination, and accountability come together, communities can build things that matter.
About this work
This project reflects the kind of work I do when organizations, artists, or communities want to build something ambitious and real, without losing their values in the process.
If you have a big idea and need someone who can help hold the vision, coordinate the chaos, and make it happen responsibly, you can reach out here