A collection of artists and artisans are launching the new “Instar” event series

MQBS and Dad Bods will be among the artists playing at The Rigby on November 11.

Sigra DeWeese—member of Madison band MQBS, ethical artist, and solo act who goes by the mononym Sigra—has teamed up with Jessi Neumann (who makes jewelry under the name Spilt Milk) to spearhead Instar, an ambitious new local series with an explicit focus on inclusion, local talent, and accessibility. For their inaugural splash, the duo has assembled an impressive roster of musicians and artisans. On the music side, there are no less than seven acts slated to perform: Luke McGovern, Candace Griffin, Muscle Memory, Bear In The Forest, LINE, MQBS, and Dad Bods (listed in order of scheduled appearance).
Instar‘s inaugural edition will be held on Saturday, November 11 at The Rigby. Admission will be broken up for the event. From 1 to 6 p.m. admission will be $5, after 6, admission will be $10. (The final three bands playing will likely be the day’s loudest.) Tickets will be available at the door. It will be an all-ages affair from opening up to 8 p.m. and 21+ after that mark.

Pharmastrology, Rat Bastard Jewelry, Gremlin Goods, Slower Drawings, PB and Junk, Loop D Loopz, and Cauterized Designs will all have vendor booths set up for the event. Both Sigra and Neumann will have their own respective booths (27 Bones Studio and Spilt Milk) set up alongside the other vendors. All of the vendors will be active from 1 to 6 p.m. and Sigra and Neumann will be running an “after hours” booth past that point, where a small selection of wares from Instar’s vendors’ booths will be available. There will also be a vendor raffle system, in which attendees have the option to gather a signature from each vendor after an item purchase. Each signature will be the equivalent of a raffle ticket and there will be a 6:45 p.m. drawing where the prizes on offer will range from band merch to vendor wares, providing an excellent incentive to interact with all of the art and artists that will be appearing at Instar.

With seven artists playing, there will be plenty of room to engage with their music. All seven are likely worth seeing, but the relative newness of Muscle Memory provides an additional layer of intrigue and a reason to show up early. Discovering new artists is something that always feels magical and presently, there is incredibly minimal information about the band, with the most detailed coming from a three-sentence band bio on the Make Music Madison event page. But with the organizers’ combined experience and taste, their implicit vote of confidence should be cause for some excitement.

Luke McGovern, LINE, and various MQBS members (past and present) have been steady presences in Madison’s live booking landscape over the past several years and have continuously put out impressive work. Bear In The Forest represented the only new-to-me name in the lineup outside of Muscle Memory, who don’t presently have any music uploaded. Bear In The Forest—the solo project of Alberto Kanost—has spent around a decade crafting a weary strain of indie-folk that occasionally betrays some chamber-pop influences. It’s gorgeous (and I should have picked up on it earlier). Dad Bods have been making some noise (both literally and figuratively) within Madison’s punk scene and have been aggressively carving out a strong reputation as live performers. And Candace Griffin’s 2023 album, A Decade Of Keeping Quiet, reaffirmed the singer-songwriter’s penchant for emotional potency.

That’s a lot to pack in, but the breaks in the event’s schedule serve the explicit purposes of making Instar more accessible. Splitting Instar up in sections allows the organizers to make life easier for attendees, vendors, and performers. No one wants to be in a position where they’re shouting for more information from a vendor while a band cranks up the volume. Sigra and Neumann also wanted to provide a friendlier environment for those who have difficulty contending with sensory overstimulation.

When Instar—being billed as Instar 1 through the event’s various postings—opens its doors, the first hour will be “sensory friendly.” Complimentary ear plugs will be available for that initial hour, the lights will be lowered, a limited number of shoppers will be allowed, and there will be no live music. In an email sent to Tone Madison, Sigra noted that the need to include a sensory friendly hour became evident “after some people close to us expressed their desire to attend makers markets but difficulty doing so due to the constant stimulation of the environment.” It’s a welcome inclusion to an event that looks to pack in quite a bit of interactivity in its planned nine and a half hour run-time (the organizers have indicated there will be a 10:30 p.m. closing time).

In a separate message sent to Tone Madison, Sigra noted that Instar was “built on a DIY ethos and with the philosophy that local art should be celebrated and accessible to all.” A sensory friendly hour points to Sigra and Neumann’s commitment to ensuring that level of accessibility while speaking to their attentive focus and level of care in curation. Whether attendees are interested in having a quiet browsing session, a laid-back atmosphere to browse wares and take in some quieter musical acts, or to get swept up in cascading full-band volume, they’ll have an opportunity to do so.

Few events in Madison have this level of dedication to local artists and artisans, and fewer still present the opportunity to chart a musical path from Luke McGovern’s melancholic indie-folk to Dad Bods’ frenzied strain of bug-eyed post-punk. Instar 1 seems to have a small slice of something for a wide range of folks, and for that, it deserves to be celebrated.