MANSFIELD — Around 75,000 rock music fans, musicians, tattoo artists, and tattoo enthusiasts will descend on the Ohio State Reformatory for the Inkcarceration Music Festival this weekend.
Half of the legions of attendees are coming from outside Ohio, said event publicist Kristine Ashton-Magnuson of Ashton-Magnuson Media.
The festival will feature performances from popular nu-metal and rock bands like Korn, Papa Roach, Lamb of God, Disturbed, and more. In addition to the concerts, attendees can tour the reformatory, get a tattoo, or buy food and drink from a number of vendors.
In total, the festival is estimated to bring in over $10 million to the area, Destination Mansfield President Lee Tasseff said.
“And that’s everything from food, lodging, gas, hiring local workers, contracting with local services for things that they need. I mean they’ve got close to 500 people working there total,” Tasseff said.
Hotels in Mansfield are fully booked, which Tasseff believes will motivate attendees to spread out across north central Ohio in search of a hotel room. Last year, Destination Mansfield spoke with a couple who stayed in Akron and drove to Mansfield for the festival.
“There’s people that are staying half an hour, 60 miles away,” Tasseff said.
Road signs and traffic markers have already sprung up around the Reformatory, guiding attendees to event parking lots and warning travelers of festival traffic.
The Mansfield Police Department, along with officers from other agencies like the Ohio State Highway Patrol, will work to direct and manage the flow of traffic around the event, MPD Captain Chad Brubaker said.
Mansfield police are also working with the event’s private security and the Reformatory to provide an additional layer of security at the festival, Brubaker said.
Beyond the weekend of the event itself, Inkcarceration is a major marketing tool for Destination Mansfield year-round, Tasseff said.
“When you have one of the top live concert draws in the country in your backyard, there’s people who take notice of that. And it’s incredible to think of something that large literally two minutes up the road,” Tasseff said.
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