WonderBus Music and Arts Festival is Back to Change the Conversation on Mental Health

With nearly one in five adults in the US (46.6 million), experiencing a mental illness each year, The Shipyard is proud to be the marketing partner, helping to bring back WonderBus, a music and arts festival aiming to change the conversation around mental illness in America. The Festival will be held in Columbus, August 28-29th on the beautiful 55 acre Lawn at CAS a division of the American Chemical Society and produced by the Elevation Group.

After a successful launch in 2019, CAS committed to a seven-year agreement to host the festival that was interrupted last year due to the pandemic. 

“It’s a vital move in the right direction,” says Dr. Phan, who heads up the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Health at the OSU Wexner Medical Center, the beneficiary of WonderBus. He adds: “Things like gatherings and music and art festivals and vacations have been put off. And so, what we’ve done is we’ve put off buffers against stress that we usually use to lift our mood.”

“The music touches us individually because we feel less alone – music lifts us up, music resonates with the way that we feel stressed in lyrics and in melody. The concerts, festivals, bring people together so that when we ever have a shared experience we can ban together as a community.”

Designed as a unique music, food and entertainment experience, WonderBus will have a diverse number of hit makers including Kesha, AJR, Mobley, Wilco, Grouplove and Valley. The complete line up can be found here.

“We’re honoured to partner with CAS and Elevation to bring this awesome music festival back. It promises to be a great weekend with great talent. All on a beautiful venue and designed to shine light on mental health awareness,” says Rick Milenthal, CEO at The Shipyard.”

A portion of the proceeds from the first WonderBus brought in more than $50,000 for programs at Ohio State, and this year, all things considered, the organisers are hoping to exceed that.

Rick comments: “The festival raises money for these programs but it’s also motivating contributions and attention to the issue.”

The Shipyard’s partnership with CAS on WonderBus is a part of its multi-faceted commitment by the agency focusing attention on mental health issues for young people. In April 2020, The Shipyard launched Voices of Resilience, a new podcast series created to share important conversations regarding mental health, anxiety, depression and thoughts of suicide. Hosted by Rick, each Voices of Resilience episode features insights from important practitioners, researchers and advocates in mental health.

“Wonderful progress is being made by the medical teams at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center and around the country. What we do at The Shipyard can also help. When more people talk openly about depression and trauma…..more lives are saved,” notes Rick.