Hey, I’m Tori, one of the directors of Ascend and the event director/lead for Ascend IMF Renegade 2022.

Ascend IMF 2022 was a dream. It still feels like one. What happened last week was beyond belief for those of us lucky enough to work on this project. This was the best week of most of our lives.

To all our friends who came and partied: you are absolutely wild. Every night you’d roll up when we started and not leave until we were done. You were a dream. You were a gift. Thank you so much for coming and throwing down with us. Your smiles and dancing and joy will live with us forever. Your energy is something we feel and cherish.

To all our artists: we have nothing but awe. The absolutely epic sets, surprise guests, working around our first year glitches, and consistently bringing the best music, the most insane experiences, and the happiest music lovers I’ve personally ever seen. Every last one of you added something unique and irreplaceable and our gratitude is unbounded. We’ve been fans of your music for years and are past honored that you played our setup.

< Below is a lot to read but if you want to know how this happened, we’re happy to share. >

There is so much to say about this project. In 2021, Mike Kelly from CampATL had the idea for a lil renegade with a couple of speakers and a mixer. Of course, IMF 2021 didn’t happen. We broke down what we set up but the team stuck together afterwards, primarily through the determination and vision of Jeff. There was something special in the air and we knew we wanted to try again and every step he was there, making sure that we kept our eye on what we had. Flash forward to this year and we started Planning in the most driven and inspired sense of the word. How were we going to pull this off? How will this happen?

Well, now we know. With the additions of talents from across the Atlanta electronic music scene, our team of 20 worked tirelessly for a full week, from Monday to Monday and then some (our last physical stuff ended at 3pm on Thursday). From back-breaking work burying the cabling and infrastructure, to stage managers in the pit controlling the chaos, backline members running to get supplies to keep the party running, and a team of three running the production all weekend long, this group of amazingly talented, dedicated, and absolutely-addicted-to-the-vibe people rocked a renegade like no other. From our dry run pre-show at Believe to a marathon of work making the renegade, this group has been nothing but driven toward the goal of making something truly worthy of being called next-level.

From my perspective, we succeeded in a way that no one could have expected.

Your Ascend IMF 2022 team was:

Victoria Mitchell - Director, Production Designer, Production Manager, Lighting Design, Video Design, V1, L1, A1, Laser Op, Build Manager, Camp Lead, Booking, Lineup

Jeffery Huffington - Director, General Manager, Festival Relations, Lineup

Brandon Gray - Director, Sponsorship Lead, Logistics, Festival Liaison, Artist Relations

Alyson Brown - Director, Assistant Production Manager, FOH Manager, V1, Laser Op

Mike Kelly - Director, Community Relations, Daytime Activities, MC

Geoff Melton - Rigging Lead, Logistics, Booking, Artist Relations

Ian McWhorter - Stage Manager, Security, Build

Alicia Derico - Build, Environmental Design, Art Installation

Brian Woodburn Davis - L1, LD, Build, Laser Op

Kayla Renee - Assistant Stage Manager, Security, Build, General Assistant

Chase Rosenberg - Booking, Lineup, Build

Jenna Alderman - Build, Stage Design

Jonathan Brooks - Build, Stage Design, Security

Jody Awbrey - Build, Stage Design, Security

Cole Davis - Booking, Artist Management, Build

Malakai Albonetti - Build, General Assistant

Hailey Martin - General Assistant

Tim Galfas - V1, Build

Ari Nuit - V1, Build

Courtney Mayy - Live Painter Lead

Additionally, we partnered with the incredible talents and professionalism of Atlanta Sound and Lighting who provided the heavy production that we brought. They were 100% as much a part of this team as anyone above and what they did for us is really far far past reasonable. We’re incredibly grateful and happy to be partnering with them on our productions in the future as our primary production provider. (Yo, that dang line array tho…)

We have nothing but love for A1 Renegade Sound, who provided two of the laser units we used to create our space. They are friends and though their camp got shut down after a full week of hard work due to a misunderstanding with their placement, they lent us their gear when we were in need without a blink. You’re real ones, we know it, and wish you nothing but success in future events.

We want to also thank our sponsors, BeatBox Beverages and LunchBox. They both believed in our vision and saw genuine value in what we brought to y’all. They were patient, accommodating, and worked with us to represent themselves in our site while not taking over the vibe. We couldn’t be happier with our partnerships.

Finally, there aren’t words for how grateful we are to Glenn and Maddie. When we asked to do this (yeah yeah renegade and all but let's be serious, this was a major sound system), they were skeptical but once they knew that we were serious and prepared, the support and encouragement that they offered was generous and enthusiastic. We are humbled and sincere in our thanks and love for both of them and the IRIS family. IMF 2022 was a beautiful festival and we are genuinely thankful to have made memories here.

While we were mostly self-funded, we want to make sure that we’re being transparent with how this happened. Most of the money for this was in house and we got a bit from our sponsors. Iris didn’t pay us but they did help out with some electrical stuff and barricades so we’re recognizing the value of their additions. The numbers break down as Ascend 67%, Sponsors: 20%, IMF support: 13% (value only).

Mistakes: next year we’re going to try to work on sound bleed, which vibes are on at which time, and signage for placement next to our camp. We definitely had people that didn’t want to be next to our setup that had issues sleeping. Not everyone of course, some loved the massage sleep but others didn’t have a good time by Sunday because of us. We acknowledge this and will work with Imagine as much as we can to find a better situation for next year.

What’s next? We’re figuring that out. Every step of this process has been organic. We’ve built this on making every event unique, high quality, and as immersive as possible and as long as we can do that, we’ll be there.

Until next time, we cherish you all, are so so so appreciative of everything you’ve said and how much our little creation was loved, and can’t wait to show you the level we bring next.

On behalf of the entire Ascend team, thank you all so much.

Love and wubs,

Victoria Mitchell