Foxtail Fest is an annual music festival held in the scenic Tubmann-Garrett Riverfront Park in Wilmington, Delaware. The outdoor festival features local artists from a wide range of musical genres, including hip hop, electronic, and indie. But amazing music and sound, sustainable event practices are not what truly sets Foxtail Fest apart from other events.

What makes Foxtail Fest so special is how it supports the local community of Wilmington. Like most entertainment events, Foxtail Fest brings in a strong revenue stream to local businesses and the local economy. The hospitality and retail industries in Wilmington especially benefitted from the stimulus provided by Foxtail Fest, as crowds of music lovers gathered to eat, talk, drink coffee, purchase souvenirs, and become impressed with what the city has to offer.

“We planned the event partly around how it would help the city,” said Brandon Potter, promoter of Foxtail Fest and co-founder of What Scene?, an green event planning company. “We knew we wanted good music, and we knew we wanted to make the event as green as we could, but we also knew we wanted to help Wilmington, which has given us the perfect venue for the show. So, we planned an event that supported local businesses. We just hope it’s enough.”

What Potter is too humble to mention is how Foxtail Fest also provided a positive experience for the youth of Wilmington, Delaware. The message of the festival’s motto, “party positively,” is for concert-goers to share in a musical experience that leaves you feeling good about music, expression, and what you’ve done to support local artists and communities. This was lived at Foxtail Fest in many ways, but especially in how it brought together a variety of music lovers under one sky. “Party positively,” then, provided Foxtail Fest’s attendees—who, in large part, were youths from Wilmington itself—with an encouraging and affirmative message about music, culture, and social awareness.

Overall, Foxtail Fest was a success because of what it offered Wilmington, Delaware in terms of positive role modeling, support for local businesses and industries, and for what it revealed about the overall character of the citizens of Wilmington.