The WonderBus Music & Arts Festival returns to The Lawn at CAS in Columbus this summer with three days of music.
WonderBus 2022 headliners include Duran Duran (Friday 8/26), Lorde (Saturday 8/27) and The Lumineers (Sunday 8/28).
Duran Duran, recently nominated for induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, last played Columbus in 2008. This will be the band's first Ohio appearance in about a decade. Ohio-based journalist Annie Zaleski chronicled the act’s breakthrough 1982 LP, Rio in a recent book.
Lorde's last performance in Columbus came about four years ago, and WonderBus marks her only scheduled Ohio appearance in 2022.
The Lumineers, heading out this summer on their most ambitious tour yet, last appeared in Columbus just prior to the pandemic.
Additional performances over the three-day event will include Young The Giant, James Bay, Coin, Max, Cautious Clay, Beach Bunny, Meg Myers, Daisy The Great, The Knocks, Cannons, Neal Francis and more. Ohio artists will be well represented by 90's Kids, Cousin Simple, .wavrunner, The Orphan The Poet and Detention.
A share of the proceeds will benefit The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center's Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Health and Nationwide Children's Hospital and On Our Sleeves®, The Movement for Children's Mental Health.
“CAS is proud to welcome back WonderBus this summer to The Lawn at CAS," CAS Vice President Dr. Michael Dennis said in a press release. "We are also excited to support a Friday evening experience with Rock & Roll Hall of Fame nominee, Duran Duran and more. WonderBus is not only an amazing music festival, it is a platform to talk about mental health and provide all of us with hope and resilience."
WonderBus began in Columbus in 2019 with a deeper purpose beyond music. Organizers wanted to advance the conversation around mental health and suicide. Like many things in 2020, the pandemic prompted the festival's pause. WonderBus returned last year with even greater focus on mental health.
Dr. K. Luan Phan serves as professor and chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health at Ohio State University's Wexner Medical Center.
"Adversities and stressors have broadened, so we have to think about all aspects of a person or patient's life when we meet them," Dr. Phan told me last year. "It isn't just the typical things. It's compounded by the fact that people don't know how to reconnect, people don't know how to perform well at school or at work. It brings on this challenge that we have as providers to be as broad as possible and to ask as many questions about how the pandemic has affected different kinds of people. There's so many individual differences about how we're responding to the pandemic."
While COVID-19 cases have declined recently and safety protocols are beginning to subside, mental health must be a priority according to Phan.
“Now more than ever, as we prepare to live through the third year of this global pandemic, we must continue to build resilience in our communities," Phan said in a press release for WonderBus 2022. "People are hurting. We’re thankful that the WonderBus festival, with its wonderful lineup of world-class musicians, continues to support our efforts to help people struggling with addiction, anxiety, depression and suicidal thoughts.”
Mental health conversations are happening more frequently according to Rick Milenthal, founder and CEO of Columbus-based marketing company The Shipyard, one of the festival's partners.
"I haven't had one conversation where someone didn't tell me this affects them," Milenthal said of mental health ahead of the 2021 event. "I think we're talking about it more now. The reason the Shipyard got involved in this is because we're in the business of words, and words matter in mental health. How we communicate matters. You can inspire, or you can divide. You can build morale, or you can demoralize. My biggest message is that virtually everyone you see is dealing with a challenge in mental health whether personally or with a loved one or with a friend. So I'm telling you, don't feel alone."
Elevation Festivals owns, produces, and presents WonderBus and its sister festival WonderStruck in Cleveland.
"During one of the most challenging times in all of our lives, 2021 proved to be a very successful year for WonderBus," Elevation Festivals President Denny Young reflected. "In recognition of the tremendous energy surrounding the festival, we committed ourselves to building on this momentum and are now extremely proud to present The Lumineers, Lorde and Duran Duran in what will be a very big and epic weekend for all of Ohio."
Tickets for WonderBus 2022 go on sale this Saturday, February 26 at WonderBusfest.com and SeeTickets.us.
