Midwest Psych Fest Returns to Central Ohio
Midwest Psych Fest Returns to Central Ohio
Homegrown festival organizers and attendees let their freak flag fly at Troubadour Farm amidst imminent eminent domain
For decades, Ohio has been known as a hotbed for independently-run music festivals which often feature weekend camping and a decidedly psychedelic aura, as is the case with this weekend’s Midwest Psych Fest. From its smaller fests and their host venues around the state to its longest running Columbus Community Festival for over fifty years, to Nelson Ledges Quarry Park, to Legend Valley Concert Venue which by best estimates hosted over 40,000 concert-goers for Lost Lands Festival in mid-September, the Buckeye state’s music festivals often turn Ohio from being a ‘flyover state’ to being a can’t-miss destination for festival-goers.
While some of these festivals often draw thousands or tens of thousands of fans, they all started small. As I fondly recall over the past few decades, it is often the smaller festivals where attendees may have the rarest and visually bizarre experiences and chance encounters in places where time often has no meaning, with some of the area’s most eccentric bands providing the soundtrack.
As a recurring theme, the festival organizers encourage attendees to “explore the depths of your mind and expand your horizons” while radiating positivity to usher in the Age of Aquarius, in the spirit of the Golden Era of psychedelia.
Midwest Psych Fest 2024 by Casey David Ward
Of these independently run festivals in Ohio with a psychedelic bent, the Midwest Psych Fest continues to establish itself as one of the area’s foremost do-it-yourself festivals. Continuing in its third year at Troubadour Farm in Galena, Ohio this coming weekend October 3rd – 4th, the homegrown fest features over forty performers on three stages, two outdoor and a third in the decorated barn. Midwest Psych Fest instills the ‘portal’ experience of traversing into a place where time and space operate differently, like the quantum realm. As a recurring theme, the festival organizers encourage attendees to “explore the depths of your mind and expand your horizons” while radiating positivity to usher in the Age of Aquarius, in the spirit of the Golden Era of psychedelia.
The festival itself originally came to pass circa 2011 as Columbus Psych Fest, most often presented annually at varying venues around Columbus including Woodlands Tavern, Café Bourbon Street and The Summit. After a decade as Columbus Psych Fest, the festival transitioned into Midwest Psych Fest, making its home in 2022 at Troubadour Farm in Galena just north of Columbus as an all-weekend camping event and experience.
Its host venue beautifully resembles a timeless, well-kept hippie commune, with its colorfully decorated barn surrounded by vast vegetable fields. During the fest, the main concert area in the former pony corral is often avidly adorned to resemble a tree-lined alien wonderland, with the pathways between stages decoratively lit like multiversal corridors.
Columbus Psych Fest 2018
This year’s Midwest Psych Fest features forty-four scheduled bands, performers and DJs scheduled for Friday and Saturday. Some of the standout and/or more psychedelic acts scheduled to perform include Electrocult Circus, Brood X, Eternally Psyched, Mas Bagua, Lakehorse, Lethal FX, Trachete, Colour Phase, jawmbey, Gelatinus Cube, and the Fronks, most of which are based in central Ohio.
The festival is a DIY project by a small independent group of organizers led by Andrew Davis and venue co-owner Ben Ahlteen, and is largely volunteer-driven with a single volunteer shift granting weekend admission. To date the festival has primarily relied on local businesses, eateries, music stores and venues for community-driven partnering over corporate sponsors.
For the third year, Midwest Psych Fest finds its home at Troubadour Farm, a two-acre farm in Galena on South Three B’s & K Road – yes, that is the road’s actual name – twenty miles north of Columbus. The property is owned by local singer/songwriter patriarch Eric Ahlteen, who bought it in 1992 and rebuilt much of the farmhouse by hand with help from his family. The farm has long been an artists’ retreat, musicians’ getaway and performance venue, hosting events from songwriting workshops to songwriter-in-the-round performances to outdoor fests, including the Pie in the Sky Fest the weekend prior to this coming weekend’s Midwest Psych Fest. While the elder Ahlteen tends to its two large gardens where he often teaches developmentally disabled adults about gardening, his son Ben oversees the barn which serves as recording studio and rehearsal space for bands, often giving music lessons there.
However, there is an unpleasant rumbling on the horizon, as urban sprawl threatens the harmonic convergence at Troubadour Farm. Once conceived as a getaway from the hustle and bustle, the hustle and bustle now slowly encroaches towards the farm. Southeast of the property, the Ohio Department of Transportation is newly constructing a major throughway between Interstate 71 and State Route 36/37 towards Delaware which will ultimately decimate the farm, property, and the structures which are cherished and invaluable to the residing family that built them.
Reaching Troubadour Farm’s owner Eric Ahlteen for comment, he laments that although the appraisal, offer and negotiations with Ohio Dept. of Transportation and related agencies have not yet taken place, “when it all goes down, they will take the entire property” due to eminent domain. He points out that “(t)he EPA had found bats that are endangered and close to extinction in the trees behind us. They still allowed ODOT to cut those down to make room for a road. Those bats have joined other bats in the very top of my barn. When that gets bulldozed over, that will be the end of that colony of an endangered species of bats.” Camping festival-goers may find them to be a feature not a bug as well, as the bats feast on any nearby insects while avoiding humans.
Troubadour Farm
Ultimately the throughway’s construction and urban sprawl from nearby Columbus – the state’s only major metropolitan area to gain population year after year – will unfortunately likely bring an end to this uniquely creative and definitively homegrown artists’, musicians’ and festival-goers’ haven. However as this weekend’s Midwest Psych Fest approaches, “the show must go on” for the event producers as they prepare to host the weekend’s festivities. The festival will proceed in full force at Troubadour Farm without being disrupted by the construction in the far distance… at least for this year.
More information about this weekend’s Midwest Psych Fest is available at https://midwestpsychfest.com .
– Bill Kurzenberger
Midwest Psych Fest - Mas Bagua
Bill Kurzenberger is a long-time contributor to Psychedelic Scene since its inception, the magazine’s former Assistant Editor, and currently its Editor-in-Chief since August 2025
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