Summer is upon us, and you know what that means: it’s music festival season. The third annual Starbrick Music Festival takes place just down the road from Athens at Hocking College on June 5th, 6th and 7th, 2025. Starbrick is a multi-day music festival in Nelsonville, and it’s the perfect opportunity to get out of your student rental in Athens and explore another area of southeastern Ohio. And you also get to jam out to covers of favorite classic songs. What’s not to love?
A Background on Starbrick Music Festival
Starbrick is a music festival in the area that’s fairly new to the scene. In fact, 2023 was its first year running. It centers around a few different genres of music. Southern rock, classic rock, country, blues, and Appalachian music make up the majority of the acts. There’s a LOT of tribute songs too—think Led Zeppelin, Kiss, Bon Jovi, AC/DC and more. If you’re a fan of these classic acts, you’ll come into the festival already knowing plenty of songs.
Besides the uproarious rock music, the next best thing about Starbrick is that the music festival supports a great cause. Starbrick benefits the Chris Roell TBI Foundation. The organization supports traumatic brain injury awareness, suicide prevention, and mental health awareness. All proceeds from the Starbrick Music Festival go towards funding research projects and supporting the families of individuals affected by traumatic brain injuries.
What to Expect When Attending Starbrick
Starbrick is nothing short of an experience. Thursday, June 5th doesn’t have much going on until the evening when there’s a campground party for a few hours. The real fun starts on Friday and Saturday. From 1-5pm on both days, festival-goers will get to witness a battle of the bands. If you’ve never experienced one, it’s where bands hop on stage to perform and are ranked by a panel of judges. Only the best band in all the land can win the battle. Live music follows well into the nighttime on both nights too. On Saturday night, the arena rock show promises to deliver heavy sonic sounds straight into the audience.
The production doesn’t disappoint either. Stage lighting and effects like smoke play a big role in literally setting the stage for an amazing performance. Not only that, but Starbrick also makes use of firework displays during its bigger performances. A local music festival with plenty of talent and genres that benefits a great cause? And it’s on the beautiful campus of Hocking College? Sign us up. Tickets and more information can be found on Starbrick’s website.