Tim’s Picks: Wabash Riverfest, Sixth & South, Mosey and more
What you’ll be doing this week.
Support for this edition comes from MatchBOX Studios. Sixth & South, MatchBOX Studios’ annual fundraising event, returns 7-11 p.m. Friday, July 11, inside MatchBOX and on Sixth Street from South to Alabama streets. The event benefits entrepreneurship by supporting small and local businesses, first-generation founders, pre-revenue startups, and underfunded and underserved innovators. Tickets cover your event admission, music sets by DJ Karabella and Ebony & the Ruckus, local food, NA beverages, access to an auction full of local and experiential items, and two tokens that can be exchanged for curated event experiences such as candle pouring, axe throwing, a petting zoo and more, or drinks from the bar (additional tokens will be available for purchase). Get your tickets and all of the event details: https://mbx.studio/sixthsouth
And now, the one, the only …
By Tim Brouk / For Based in Lafayette
Spot Patio Friday with DJs Circle T, Bob Easter and Industria Collective, 7 p.m. Friday, July 11, The Spot Tavern, 409 S. Fourth St., Lafayette — The fireworks might be over but an explosion of hot beats from fiery vinyl grooves will commence when DJs Circle T and Bob Easter team up for the July edition of Spot Patio Friday. The monthly outdoor event featuring mostly Indiana DJs will also feature tastemakers from Indianapolis, Industria Collective, to close out the night. $5 in advance, $10 day of show. Tickets.
Sixth & South Annual Fundraiser — 7 p.m. Friday, July 11, MatchBOX – Celebrate and support downtown Lafayette’s favorite coworking studio, MatchBOX, by attending its annual Sixth & South event. The name stems from its location at Sixth and South streets. The place must be celebrated as it has helped foster dozens of local startups and currently has more than 300 members and partners all with an eye for growing their businesses. MatchBOX is also home to workshops, acceleration courses, a makerspace and active programming. It must be supported to keep its standing as a hub for Greater Lafayette entrepreneurs to grow their ideas into something substantial. This weekend, some of those creative and hardworking individuals will be on hand at the Sixth & South event. Along with the live music and spirituous beverages, attendees will be able to pour their own candle with Flora Candle Company, axe throw with The Spinning Axe, solve a mini escape room with Mission: Breakout Lafayette and create some paintings with Flourish Art Studio. Eats will be served up by local (of course) favorites The Black Sparrow, Ripple & Company, Mamá Ines Mexican Bakery, and more. $50. Tickets.
Wabash Riverfest, 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday, July 12, Tapawingo Park, West Lafayette — The annual celebration of our majestic Wabash River returns for another summer when the Wabash Riverfest will host family fun in the form of art classes, live music and rock climbing on the shore and float trips on the water. Throughout this free event, competitive and spirited canoe race tournament will be held with the winning team earning the coveted engraved oar trophy for their powerful paddling. The teams are made up of local businesses and nonprofits as well as members of Lafayette and West Lafayette city governments. And remember what my father always said, “Tippecanoe and get wet.” Here’s a full schedule.
One Size Fits All Family Friendly Improv Comedy Show, 7 p.m. Saturday, July 12, Civic Theatre of Greater Lafayette, 313 N. Fifth St., Lafayette — Super congratulations to Lafayette’s top improv comedy group, One Size Fits All, on its 25th anniversary. These funny folks will celebrate the only way they know how — by formulating jokes, bits and stories with suggestions given by audience members. This edition is an all-ages, PG show, but often the clean jokes are the ones that land best. Regardless, it is a huge feat to reach 25 years, but One Size Fits All’s quick-thinking, timing and spontaneous hilarity got them here — and their talents will keep drawing laughs for another quarter-century. Pay what you can.
Joe Peters, Scott Greeson, Michael Kelsey and Amanda Fletcher, 7 p.m. Sunday, July 13, Lafayette Brewing Company, 622 Main St., Lafayette — Still one of the pleasant surprises of 2025, the reopening and reestablishment of the Lafayette Brewing Company as a regular live music venue has been a much-needed boost to the local music scene. There have been industry DJ nights, improv comedy and live music so far. One of the LBC’s bigger shows this summer should be this weekend when three veteran singer-songwriters and one of their many protégés will showcase their original, acoustic tunes. There will be the guitar wizardry of Michael Kelsey, the world-influenced tunes of Joe Peters and the downhome Indiana Americana style of Scott Greeson along with Amanda Fletcher, a product of the Songwriters Association of Mid-north Indiana’s Shirley Martin Scholarship for Young Songwriters competition that Greeson and other veteran musicians cultivated for decades. $10.
BONUS PICK: IT’S A MOSEY SATURDAY: And don’t forget to Mosey Down Main Street from 6-11 p.m. Saturday, July 12, in downtown Lafayette. The long-standing/long-moseying free street festival will feature live music, area vendors and community on Main Street, between Sixth and 11th streets. Click the map below for the band lineup, along with vendors, food trucks and the rest.
Tim Brouk is a longtime arts and entertainment reporter. He writes here (almost) weekly, tracking things to do for Based in Lafayette.
OTHER READS …
SYDNEY POLLACK FILM FESTIVAL FRIDAY AND SATURDAY: The Long Center will host Parts 2 through 4 of a Sydney Pollack Film Festival this weekend, with showings of “The Way We Were” (2 p.m. Friday); “Amazing Grace,” a documentary centered on an Aretha Franklin performance (2 p.m. Saturday); and “Tootsie” (5:30 p.m. Saturday). Tucked in between will be a panel discussion with journalists Bob Bloom, Stacey Mickelbart and Nick Rogers, along with Lafayette filmmaker Jason Zink. Rogers pulls together the details and the context for a festival that’s part of Lafayette’s Bicentennial Celebration (Pollack was born in Lafayette) in this piece for Midwest Film Journal: “The Sydney Pollack Film Festival.”
For ticket information, check longpac.org.
Thanks, again, for support for this edition from MatchBOX Studios. Sixth & South, MatchBOX Studios’ annual fundraising event, returns 7-11 p.m. Friday, July 11, inside MatchBOX and on Sixth Street from South to Alabama streets. Get your tickets and all of the event details at mbx.studio/sixthsouth
Thank you for supporting Based in Lafayette, an independent, local reporting project. Free and full-ride subscription options are ready for you here.
Tips, story ideas? I’m at davebangert1@gmail.com.