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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowSmiles representing rock ’n’ roll victory beamed from the faces of music festival organizers and members of headlining band Vampire Weekend in a backstage photo from the premiere edition of WonderRoad, in 2022, at Garfield Park.
At the center of the image, partners Denny Young, Cliff Chenfeld and Steven Lindecke draped their arms around one another’s shoulders. The trio—three of the four owners of Cleveland-based Elevation Festivals LLC—were celebrating the addition of Indianapolis to a series of annual Elevation productions in other cities.
But harmony among the ownership interests of Elevation Festivals ended shortly after WonderRoad debuted. The principals are now split into two camps that are suing each other because of financial friction related to four events in four cities.
Indianapolis-based MOKB Presents, an independent concert company that helped produce the Garfield Park festival, is not a party in either of two lawsuits now pending in Cleveland’s Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court.
The suits explain why the Indianapolis festival didn’t continue after a second edition in 2023. Meanwhile, a handful of Indianapolis-based companies are caught in the middle, still waiting for payments related to the local festival.
The dissension within the Elevation Festival ownership reached court when concert promoters Young and Lindecke filed litigation last year in Cleveland, claiming that financial backers Chenfeld and Michelle Wesley Licata failed to follow through on funding obligations for festivals WonderStruck in Cleveland, WonderBus in Columbus, WonderWorks in Pittsburgh and WonderRoad in Indianapolis.
The roots of the problems stretch to 2019, when Thundercrack Productions LLC, an investment vehicle established by Chenfeld, and Lucky Lyrical Investments LLC, an investment vehicle established by Licata, each contributed $400,000 to Elevation Festivals LLC, then a new venture.
Young and Lindecke allege that Thundercrack and Lucky Lyrical later agreed to contribute $2.25 million for efforts to grow the business through multiday concerts in cities beyond Cleveland and Columbus.
But Thundercrack announced in July 2022—less than a month after WonderRoad debuted—its intention to exit Elevation Festivals, according to the lawsuit filed by Young and Lindecke.
Chenfeld, who is also co-founder of youth audio brand Kidz Bop, responded with his own lawsuit in January, claiming that Young and Lindecke misrepresented the kind of return on investment the music festivals would produce. His lawsuit alleges that Young and Lindecke mismanaged the festivals. And Chenfeld asserts that Thundercrack and Lucky Lyrical never agreed to contribute $2.25 million to Elevation Festivals.
The lawsuits don’t pinpoint the Indianapolis festival as a factor in Elevation’s owners canceling all four events after 2023. At the time, they described that decision as a “pause.”
“Cliff Chenfeld praised WonderRoad as a promising debut with significant potential for success,” Young told IBJ.
But the disputes have left six Indianapolis-based companies awaiting payment from Elevation Festivals for services provided at WonderRoad.
“That is six too many,” Young said. “To each of them, I want to say that we deeply regret that the situation has reached this stage and sincerely apologize to each of them for the inconvenience caused.”
One vendor, On-Target Security Inc., won a $19,800 default judgment in Marion Superior Court but has yet to be paid by Elevation Festivals. Attorneys representing On-Target did not respond to IBJ’s attempts to contact them for comment.
Reaching Elevation
Young, a former executive for Cleveland-based concert company Belkin Productions, and Lindecke, a live-event producer who specialized in figure skating events, originally did business as Elevation Music LLC.
The “Wonder” festivals date to 2016 with WonderStruck’s predecessor, LaureLive. Cleveland-based philanthropist Licata is the founder of nonprofit Music Elevates, which had been a stage sponsor for the LaureLive festival.
Young and Lindecke also manage bands, and they became acquainted with Chenfeld, an Ohio native who lives in New York City, through Chenfeld’s work as co-founder of independent music label Razor & Tie. Rock band Red Sun Rising was managed by Young’s and Lindecke’s Elevation Group and was signed to Razor & Tie. Red Sun Rising performed at the 2019 edition of LaureLive.
According to Chenfeld’s lawsuit, Young and Lindecke approached Chenfeld and Licata in 2018 about an opportunity to organize smaller music festivals in mid-tier markets. The suit said that “Young and Lindecke represented that they were well-positioned to successfully replicate and manage similar profitable events in other Midwest markets—they simply needed some seed money to do it.”
Young told IBJ that Chenfeld and Licata should have been more patient as the Wonder events progressed. It’s common, Young said, for music festivals to lose money in early years of operation.
“Launching and growing events takes time and sustained commitment,” he said. “Over the past 35 years, I have learned the value of patience and persistence in achieving long-term success. Steve and I worked hard to resolve this matter before turning to the courts, but when those efforts failed, we felt we had no other option but to proceed with legal action.”
Jon Pinney, a Cleveland-based attorney representing Chenfeld and Licata, said the lawsuit filed against Young and Lindecke speaks for itself.
Each side accuses the other of fraud and breach of fiduciary duties.
Indianapolis blues
Despite artist lineups featuring Grammy Award winners Jason Isbell, Vampire Weekend and Weezer and a modest attendance goal of 10,000 people per day, WonderRoad appears to be part of a string of festivals in Indianapolis music history that fizzled after presenting multiple stages of performers across multiple days.
Since 2002, local festivals Indy Summer Stages, Jammin’ on Jersey, WARMfest, Evermore and the Fountain Square Music Festival have debuted and eventually disappeared.
WonderRoad arrived the same year as another event, the All IN Music & Arts Festival, launched at the Indiana State Fairgrounds. All IN featured performers such as Cage the Elephant, Trey Anastasio, Death Cab for Cutie and Daryl Hall & John Oates but also exited the scene after two summers of operation.
It’s possible, however, to stick around. Indy Jazz Fest has survived multiple changes in management and formats since its debut in 1999. The single-day Chreece hip-hop festival is going strong after six editions.
In July, Post Festival—an event dedicated to artists classified as post-rock, post-punk and post-hardcore—will be presented for the sixth time.
Co-founders Nason Frizzell and Derek Vorndran established Post Festival as a one-day event in 2018 at bygone Indiana City Brewing Co. The first-year budget was $5,000.
Following a pandemic break in 2020 and 2021, Post has grown to become a three-day event presented on stages at Fountain Square’s Hi-Fi and Hi-Fi Annex venues. The budget for this year’s event, scheduled for July 24-26, is $130,000, Frizzell said.
“I think we’re the opposite of probably most music festivals,” Vorndran said. “Their strategy is to book the biggest bands as possible to make a lot of money. Not to say we don’t like to make money. We’re hoping to break even each year. But we’ve had a strategy of starting small and slowly trying to grow this each year.”
Post Festival’s 2025 lineup includes bands such as Converge, Cave In, A Place to Bury Strangers and Pelican. Frizzell said 80% of Post attendees are not central Indiana residents, and more than 1,000 people are expected to catch performances each day.
Frizzell said it’s a challenge to hire bands for an affordable price.
“Big festivals have ruined the niche festivals when it comes to bands expecting guarantees,” he said. “It’s sometimes hard to tell that story to a booking agent. Yes, band ‘X’ could go play one of the larger festivals and get paid $25,000. But you’re not going to have 1,000 people there to see them. … It’s more about community and actually showcasing music.”
Contrasting views
The Elevation Festivals lawsuit filed by Young and Lindecke claims $5 million in out-of-pocket expenses related to attempts to keep the four festivals afloat. And it maintains that Thundercrack and Lucky Lyrical pushed to raise the profile of the festivals.
In September 2021, Chenfeld submitted a wish list of artists to pursue for the events. According to Young’s and Lindecke’s complaint, 21 acts on Chenfeld’s list were priced between $250,000 and $2 million each. Previously, the largest performance fee paid to a Wonder artist was $200,000.
The lawsuit filed by Chenfeld characterizes Thundercrack and Lucky Lyrical as “passive investors.”
Meanwhile, both lawsuits make accusations related to Elevation Festivals owners placing family members above business.
The lawsuit filed by Young and Lindecke accuses Chenfeld of lobbying for Rebounder, a band that includes his sons Dylan and Noah Chenfeld. Rebounder performed as part of WonderStruck, WonderBus and WonderRoad lineups.
Chenfeld also is accused of lobbying for bands directly represented by another son, Len Chenfeld, at Wasserman Music, the high-profile booking agency where Len works.
The lawsuit filed by Young and Lindecke accuses Licata of lobbying for Wavrunner, a band that includes two of her brothers, Jack and JJ Wesley. Wavrunner performed as part of WonderStruck, WonderBus and WonderRoad lineups.
The lawsuit filed by Chenfeld raises an objection to Jennifer Young, wife of Denny Young, serving as sponsorship manager for Elevation Festivals. The lawsuit alleges that Jennifer Young has “no qualifications” for “the second most important revenue source for a festival business.”
If ticket sales are the most important revenue source for a festival business, the July 2022 edition of WonderStruck was a financial disaster, in the words of the lawsuit filed by Chenfeld. The festival featured the Lumineers and Vampire Weekend as headliners.
Thundercrack contributed a loan of $200,000 to Elevation Festivals that year, which was repaid, according to the lawsuit filed by Chenfeld. Thundercrack has contributed no funds since then.
According to the lawsuit filed by Young and Lindecke, Licata agreed to contribute more than $700,000 to Elevation Festivals in 2023, but that funding didn’t materialize.
“We believe our partners had obligations they failed to honor, which is why we are pursuing legal action,” Young said.
Thundercrack and Lucky Lyrical continue to be partners in Elevation Festivals with Young and Lindecke.
“They actively participated in decision-making, from venue selection and ticket pricing to merchandise and programming,” Young said of Chenfeld and Licata. “Both provided direction on promotional materials, social media marketing, VIP hospitality and sponsorship solicitation. They also had well-documented approval rights over the company’s most significant decisions, including launching new festivals, selecting top musical artists, selling the company, bringing in new investors, merging with another entity and handling legal matters.”
According to online court records, as of early February, the cases are set to go to trial in summer 2026.•
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I’m not surprised at all by this… they reached out to one of my companies before the 1st show here in Indy. They wanted us to be the food vendor for the entire event. I could tell Immediately that this company was a cluster. When we told them we had concerns about what they were trying to do and that we would need payment upfront we never heard from them again. They were so unprepared they thought they could just go to Sam’s club and buy the alcohol for the entire event and just serve it themselves.