LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A unique music festival that combines music and mental health is back for its seventh year in Louisville.

The Big Stomp festival aims to "stomp" the stigma of discussing mental health, with over 30 artists and educational programming.

What You Need To Know

  • The Big Stomp Festival is back for its seventh year in Louisville  

  • The festival combines music and mental health

  • The cofounder said the event aims to destigmatize the conversation

The co-founder of the festival, Michelle Jones, said the festival is the perfect way to combine music and mental health.

“This festival does a really good job of combining a music festival and all the fun that is with this sort of aura of awareness about mental health,” Jones said.

Seven years ago, she said she co-founded this event and the Pete Foundation for her brother.

“We lost our brother Pete to suicide when he was 23 and he was just such an amazing person and so selfless and wanting to help others that we decided to create the foundation in his honor,” she said. 

The goal of the festival is to get people comfortable discussing their mental health. Jones said talking about it will encourage people to get the help they need.

“There is a stigma that’s historically surrounded the topic and I think the stigma is the number one thing that prevents people from seeking care,” she said. “So, if we are able to break down that stigma, I think it will help people empower people to seek care when they need it.” 

To combine that with music, the two-day festival has three stages.

“Here we have two of the main stages at Big Stomp. We have Pete’s Landing Stage, and the Big Stomp Stage,” she said. “There’s going to be really great musicians on both of these stages.”

The third stage, called the Transmit Stage, is a short walk in the woods.

“It is so calm and peaceful back there,” Big Stomp Ambassador Israel McCullough said. “It’s like being sucked into another world back there. It’s so beautiful.”

Jones couldn’t agree more. She said she has a hard time picking a favorite part of the festival, but if she had to pick one, it would be the site.

“The location of the festival is one of the best things about it because it is a hidden gem like right here in the city and it’s just so beautiful, like rolling hills and trees,” she said. 

She said there are also therapists on-site to get the conversation going about mental health.

All proceeds from the event are going to the Pete Foundation.