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Meet Lauren Garcia of Fortress Presents, Fortress Festival in Fort Worth

Today we’d like to introduce you to Lauren Garcia.

Lauren, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I have always been a lover of music, events and life experiences. Since high school, I was involved in music and knew my passion was just that, however, I put music on hold to attend Business School at Texas Tech (wreck Em’). After graduating from college, I entered the corporate world and took on many roles in the sales and business development arena because I loved connecting and building relationships with people, but in the back of my mind I still always knew if there was an opportunity that presented itself in some form of music and live events that I would jump to it in a heartbeat. To emphasize my love for music, even my Instagram handle I created while still in college is named DJhautemess because I always told people I was going to be a DJ one day (more on that to come, haha).

I still remember to this day stepping foot on the festival grounds at Fortress Festival in its inaugural year and being so in awe of the look, feel and vibe of having our very own multi-genre festival right in our backyard in the great city of Fort Worth. I was truly inspired and with it being so close to me, I felt that this was something that I could potentially be a part of helping grow. I even said out loud within the first ten minutes of being there that I wanted to work and be involved in something like this, I just knew that’s where I wanted to be in my life.

Fast forward a few months, I was miserable in my corporate job and saw a job posting on Facebook from Fortress Presents that they were looking for a Business Development Lead and knew I had to apply (I’m pretty sure I applied on the spot within the hour). I remember being very nervous about applying because I didn’t have any prior experience in live events or within the sponsorship world, but I knew that if I could just get in front of the founders that my passion would immediately shine through. I was determined to prove to them that I would do whatever it took to be a part of the team and become their first employee at their upstart and pioneering company, which turned out to be true. I recently celebrated my first year with the company and it’s wonderful to see the traction that Fortress Festival is receiving with us going into our third year. We just announced the first half of the 2019 Fortress Fest lineup and we were extremely excited to announce Fort Worth’s own Leon Bridges as one of our headliners and have the rest of our lineup coming in January, so stay tuned!

On a personal note, I wanted to add that I recently performed my very first DJ set at Taco Heads last month after receiving some lessons from fellow friends and iconic local DJ’s, DJ Roboogie and Ronnie Heart. I told myself that 2018 was the year that I would finally try to learn the craft and I can now proudly say that I have accomplished something that has always been a dream of mine!

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
It certainly has not been a smooth road, but the support of friends, family, and locals has always been a constant in my life! It’s can be very challenging working within this industry, as we can sometimes endure a lot of criticism, but I’m extremely passionate about this company and our mission and know that it’s benefiting my hometown. I always keep that in the back of my mind because I love this city so much and it really knows how to support what we do as a city collective and in our own individual endeavors. I really try to focus a lot of my efforts into supporting as many local businesses, entrepreneurs, local events and whatever else is helping push forward the new narrative of this city as we try to blend the old with the new while staying true to our roots. I know how hard it is being a part of something that is growing organically from the ground up like Fortress Fest, so I really try to be a cheerleader to others in the city trying to do the same thing in their own way.

Please tell us about Fortress Presents, Fortress Festival.
Fortress Presents is an event services company specializing in one of a kind events and experiences in the music, film, art and creative realm including our flagship event, Fortress Festival. We also have a wonderful partner in The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth that we collaborate with for many of our events, including the festival and our most recent venture into the film world with the Modern Cinema Film Series that took place within the museum over a three-day span. My main role within the company is Business Development Lead and I handle sponsorships for all our events, as well as help in growing our event services portfolio. With us being a smaller company, I do wear many hats within my role in terms of outreach and even help to organize multiple events to promote Fortress Festival throughout the year. It’s been such a great honor to work with such visionaries in Fort Worth, and to be the first full-time local employee to join their team is something I take tremendous pride in.

I am proud to work for a company that is helping to grow the local music scene and can give Fort Worth a music festival to call their own. Fortress Festival has received a ton of praise locally, regionally and nationally in the media and was recently just named “Best Festival of 2018” by the Dallas Observer. It truly has been so amazing to see the growth that has happened with the festival in such a short time-frame. I can’t wait to see some new local DFW-ers that can finally experience the festival for their first time, especially now that hometown hero Leon Bridges is taking the stage for his first major Fort Worth performance since getting his record deal! Tickets are on sale now so be sure to grab yours as you don’t want to miss Fortress Festivals the third year! See you all in April!!!

If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
I know it sounds cliche but I don’t think I would have done anything differently at all! Everything I’ve experienced in my life up until now has given me the confidence and drive to do what I love! Ok, well maybe in hindsight, I would’ve bought my French Bulldog Eddy a lot earlier in life. He’s the light of my life, haha!!

Contact Info:

Image Credit:
The stage photo is by @jasonkindigphoto

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