By JULES SHINKLE
BG Independent News
If running a musical festival by yourself sounds like a herculean effort, it’s because it is. Rat Fest 3 came to fruition thanks to a tightly knit group of friends and the greater Bowling Green music community.
Rat Fest is the brainchild of Jacob W. Fowler, operator of the D.I.Y. record label Beautiful Rat Records (BRR). The annual festival is a culmination of the local underground music scene he’s helped curate through his label. Rat Fest 3 took place at Howard’s Club H from May 22-23 and saw over 20 bands perform.
“It’s always nerve-wracking, putting together a whole festival and not knowing what’s going to happen,” said Fowler.
With nearly double the presales from the year prior, the pressure was on. Most of the enterprise is led by Fowler, but the secret to Rat Fest’s continued success is in the scores of folks who step up to help.
BRR recently brought on an intern who corralled roughly 30 volunteers over the two days. Because nobody is turned away for lack of funds, Fowler strikes deals with attendees to volunteer for a few tasks. These range from selling tickets at the door to running the soundboard while the engineer takes breaks.
“Music should be something people are allowed to enjoy. I don’t think there should be a financial barrier to that […] A good amount of volunteers are just people who’ve been coming to shows I’ve put on in the past. It’s nice to see them want to give back.”
With about a fourth of the total attendees offering to volunteer, the atmosphere of Rat Fest 3 was very communal. The crowd and bands treated each other with familiarity, warmth, and friendly banter.
The bonds of this music community run deeper than Fowler and BRR. The Summit Shack had their own house shows and ran a music festival (formerly known as Fauxchella) in Bowling Green for eight years. Summit Shack has grown into a multimedia and booking company in recent years – at Rat Fest 3, members of the collective worked as videographers.
Rat Fest 3 was dripping in personality from the contributions of Fowler’s circle. What other music festival can claim hot dogs, trading cards, and biblical imagery as major themes?
The first is explainable by a contest between Fowler’s friends to see who can eat the most hot dogs in the 2026 calendar year. One attendee donated 300 franks to have a hot dog bar setup in Howard’s parking lot. As soon as sets finished, people rushed to line up for complimentary glizzies.
The hot dogs also served a practical purpose: “Having food on-spot is a big thing, it keeps people there,” said Fowler. In the Rat Fest prior, many people missed the evening headliners to find food.
“It makes a difference; I don’t think there was a set this year where the room seemed empty.”
In a particularly illustrative moment, the members of Mango Tree were ambushed with hot dogs during their set, hand-fed by their adoring fans.
Another contribution from The Summit Shack were bespoke trading cards featuring the performers and other BRR fixtures. Concert-goers bargained for their favorites and garnered signatures from band members. The ultra-rare Sweetpea (a Lhasa Apso belonging to Fowler’s roommate) card was raffled off as one of Rat Fest 3’s most coveted keepsakes.
Raffled alongside it was the original oil painting of the festival’s official poster – a wrathful rat deity destroying the Tower of Babel.
The biblical subtheme is thanks to Quinn Taylor and Emily Steward, artists for Rat Fest 3’s merchandise. Taylor painted the poster as a tongue-in-cheek reference to a story loved by Fowler and ran with it. A rat-like Moses parts the Red Sea on the festival tee shirt. Baby rat-Moses floats in a basket down the Nile on artist pass lanyards.
These splashes of flavor are what make Rat Fest a beloved event. Of course, the emo, punk, and folk bands are the main attraction, but the festival’s heart comes from a love for the scene.
Whenever Fowler gets the bands together, there’s a swarm of rats behind him to help pull it off. His one-man operation is heightened by a community trying to hold each other up and enjoy music together.
“I’m planning on doing a fourth Rat Fest. I always say: ‘If the people like the last one, we’ll keep doing it. It keeps getting bigger and bigger.'”
