Bull City Summit Festival Announces Featured Panelists, Live Music, Art, and More

The inaugural Bull City Summit, a new showcase festival and business conference celebrating innovation in music, art, science, and technology, March 23-26 in downtown Durham, today released its Phase Two programming announcement with an expanded slate of panels, live performances, art exhibitions and media partnerships, including a new podcast.

BCS announced strategic alliances with fan-focused music and culture media brand FLOOD magazine, its digital broadcast platform FLOOD FM, the international music industry publication Music Connection, and Earfluence, the Raleigh podcast production group.

The festival also confirmed today that BCS Business PRO industry badges and individual event tickets are now available online at BullCitySummit.com.

Today's announcement expands upon the live music and panel programming previously announced in January, introducing a range of new panels and presentations featuring local, national and global thought leaders.

The Return to Live, exploring the reimagined post-pandemic live music business, will include Tom Windish (agent, Wasserman Media Group); Nina Webb (Head of Marketing, Atlantic Records); Sig Greenebaum (former CMO North American Festivals, Live Nation Entertainment and former Head of Global Live Esports and Events, Overwatch League/Blizzard); Harvey Leeds (former SVP Artist Development, Epic Records Group, Sony Music); and Jamie Curtis (General Manager, Koka Booth Amphitheater).

Living Your Best Life, examining how creatives and businesses are dealing with mental health issues brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic, will be moderated by Rick French (Chairman and CEO, French | West | Vaughan, and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame National Trustee) with panelists Mac Dorris (Philanthropist, Founder and CEO of The Ride For Mental Health), Mona Gupta (Psychiatrist, DO, founder and CEO, Gupta Psychiatry); Kate O'Connell (Co-Clinical Director, LCMHC, LCAS, Gupta Psychiatry); and Alice Lutz (CEO, Triangle Family Services).

Visual Art's Impact On Healthcare and Wellness will bring together North Carolina-based artists, curators, RTP scientists and academics to discuss the impact visual and interactive art has on healthcare, science, and medicine. This panel will include speakers Margarett DeMott (Director, Artist Services, Durham Arts Council); Susan Tierney (Artist Services Manager, Durham Arts Council); and Durham-based facilitative artist and educator Beth Palmer (Owner, Beth Palmer Studios).

The Power of Music and the Arts For Healing in the Age of Mass Incarceration, will feature Give a Beat, a national organization whose mission is to use the power of music as a pathway to healing and opportunity for those impacted by the criminal justice system, and Justice Arts Coalition on a discussion of how the arts are utilized as tools for mental health, self-expression, and restorative justice for communities affected by mass incarceration. Moderated by Give a Beat co-founder Greg Lucas.

Investing in Music Royalties features an intimate conversation with SongVest CEO Sean Peace, whose idea in 2007 to sell music royalty shares as memorabilia has spawned a dynamic new industry. SongVest has become the first SEC-qualified platform for investors to own the music they love. David Hazan, founder of DLH Strategic Marketing, leads the fireside chat.

Open to all BCS Business PRO badgeholders, these panels, and many others, take place in Cinemas 1 and 2 at The Carolina Theatre in downtown Durham, on Thursday, March 24 and Friday, March 25 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The full panel program schedule, including additional executive speakers and presentations from Samsung Electronics America, Flood Magazine, Fanaply, Gigmor, the City of Durham, Creative Allies, The Durham Production Company, American Tobacco Campus,, Heal Tree CBD, Give A Beat, Justice Coalition, and many more, is now listed on the festival website.

In a shared mission to shine a light on these and other stories, BCS has launched the Bull City Summit Podcast with founding festival partner, Earfluence, a full-service podcast production agency with studios at Durham's American Underground and in Raleigh at Raleigh Founded. "Our goal is to amplify the voices of innovators and artists in the BCS community," said Jason Gillikin, Earfluence CEO and Executive Producer. "We'll be recording prior to and during BCS and continuing throughout the year." New episodes will be available every Wednesday on platforms including Apple Podcasts, Amazon, iHeartRadio and Spotify.

BCS officially opens on Wednesday, March 23 at Motorco Music Hall with the official opening showcase featuring performances by Durham-based breakthrough rapper and producer JooseLord and techno impresario Calapse. Critically-acclaimed Triangle-based artist and photographer, Justin Kase Conder, will host an exclusive photo-art installation and meet-and-greet at Motorco to kick off the event.

On Thursday, March 24, American Underground will host a special BCS Business PRO happy hour reception at the Google lounge rooftop patio from 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m., open exclusively to Business PRO badge holders, featuring complementary food and drinks along with a live performance by Carry On Records singer-songwriter Clint Roberts. This event is sponsored by Ally Financial Service, Tito's Vodka, Botanist & Barrel, and Heal Tree CBD.

The music continues on Thursday night as North Carolina's award-winning, multi-platform music and culture brand Carolina Waves curates a performance showcase at The Pinhook, featuring R&B artist Imani Pressley and alternative hip-hop artist 3amsound, along with emerging local MCs and producers including Exhale TOAP, CrownChaZ, Davaun, and more.

Also on March 24, global DJ/producer Tommie Sunshine headlines his Brooklyn Fire Records label takeover at Surf Club, presented by Greensboro-based nightlife promoters Strictly Social. Sunshine, who has collaborated on remixes with Katy Perry, Fall Out Boy, Major Lazer, Billie Eilish, Bob Marley, Santana and many others, will curate a select lineup of North Carolina-based DJs and producers.

The festival's Art Fair, open to BCS Business PRO badgeholders, will feature exhibitions, installations, and meet-and-greets by and with BAN ARTWORK, Beth Palmer Studio, Clark Hipolito, Durham Production Company, Shilpa Kancharla, Sophia Sobers, Sugar Cadavers, Steven Pestana, Tommy Coyote and others. Participating galleries, artists, and photographers will display, perform, and sell visual, sonic, and digital art on Thursday, March 24 and Friday March 25 at American Underground. Additional art installations will be featured in music venues during evening showcases.

BCS has announced its 2022 Arts Grant Program, in partnership with Durham Arts Council and Love, Tito's, an organization that supports community-oriented nonprofits that champion social justice, racial equality, and focus on mentorship, arts and culture, and the food and beverage industry. Love, Tito's has committed funds to the BCS Arts Grant program, to be administered by Durham Arts Council through multiple micro-grants, which seeks to work with independent artists inspired through a viewpoint that supports social justice. Artists can apply online at the BCS website. Applications will be juried by Durham Arts Council with local art organizations nominating category award winners.

Exploring the emerging world of non-fungible tokens, BCS has partnered with Fanaply, the leader in live event-driven NFTs, to deliver the Keys to the Bull City Collection to VIPs and attendees. These special edition Bull City Summit NFTs, crafted by local studio Durham Production Company, will unlock perks and exclusive content this year and for future festivals and are exclusive to BCS Business PRO badge holders, who will each receive an exclusive, one-of-a-kind token.

On Friday, March 25, independent live music booking marketplace Gigmor will present a showcase featuring Raleigh-based Animalweapon (Patrick Cortes), an Electronic DreamPop artist who has been performing for over 10 years and is signed to Polychromatic Records. Animalweapon has been featured by SPIN magazine and is also a Webby-winner who has soundtracked for hit podcasts, including Undisclosed with Rabia Chaudry and Jon Cryer, and The Hidden Djinn on iHeartRadio. Animalweapon's newest album, Set of Constraints, will be released on April 15th and features his newest single "Deserve" which Hollywood Life premiered as a special music video feature.

On Saturday, March 26, the "BCS Fest Barbecue" at The Blue Note Grill will feature guitarist, songwriter, and blues-rock virtuoso JD Simo, along with funk-soul outfit Jives, bluegrass storyteller James Dalton, and local blues-rock acts Jason Damico and the Gabe M. Trio. The event starts at 5pm with a private outdoor BBQ for BCS Business PRO badgeholders, sponsored by Tito's Handmade Vodka and Mike D's BBQ Sauce, and features the Blue Note Grill's signature southern barbecue fare.

Closing out BCS 2022 on March 26, Durham-based electronic imprint Maison Fauna presents a late-night label showcase at Surf Club highlighting tentpoles of the label's new directions, encompassing minimal/deep techno and house, breaks, DnB and electro, plus raw, hypnotic and industrial techno. The stellar lineup includes performances by 2Dwave B2B Christian Summers, Temple of Boom (Kir + Randal Self), Marteka Fair, and Calapse.

For complete festival information and to purchase BCS Business PRO conference badges or showcase tickets please visit www.bullcitysummit.com.

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