Ink-N-Iron Leaves Long Beach

Ink-N-Iron Leaves Long Beach

Ink-N-Iron, the popular Kustom Kulture Festival has been held on the Queen Mary in Long Beach for three days of tattooing, live music, kustom car shows, burlesque and pole dancing competitions and much more since 2003 but it is now leaving Long Beach. It is permanently moving to Nashville, Tenn., after this year’s final INI in in Long Beach.

You might be asking WHY?

Mike Seidl said during a phone interview, “Over time, the music has grown to be more of the forefront of the festival and sonically there’s just not a lot of talent left to keep the show vibrant, new and fresh every year.” He also said there are more than 300 venues now offering nightly entertainment in Long Beach, O.C. and Los Angeles, as well as a number of pop-up festivals, and it’s hard to compete with that. Also stating “When it started, it wasn’t a normal thing to have bands be part of a tattoo convention. Now it’s pretty much common place, and we’re seeing the landscape of availability change and an overabundance of entertainment that’s already out there, we decided that it’s time to create something new that satisfies the customer.”

The brainchild of Orange County-based promoter Trace Edwards and his business partner Riun Van Driessche, Ink-N-Iron, made its debut at the Queen Mary over Memorial Day weekend in 2003. Through the years, it has drawn 60,000 patrons over the three-day weekend and become a Southern California staple.

Ink-N-Iron will now settle into its new home in Nashville and become a four-day event, taking place Aug. 6-9 in three locations: The Municipal Auditorium, Bicentennial Mall Park and Fairgrounds Speedway Nashville. It will include all of the things Ink-N-Iron delivered in Long Beach and boasts a music line-up that features headlining performances by country legend Merle Haggard, rockers Coheed and Cambria and Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings.

Promoters plan on going out with a bang next weekend (June 12-14) by bringing out absolutely everything Ink-N-Iron has become known for during its last hurrah, including more than 45 live music acts with headlining sets by punk rockers Pennywise (Friday), metal outfit Killswitch Engage (Saturday) and Bauhaus frontman Peter Murphy (Sunday).