Meet the artists of MellowChella 2024

• Open from 11am-10pm Saturday between the vendor villages and main stages, MellowChella will feature a silent disco, a sober mocktail lounge, interactive games, free counseling services and more.
• "It's going to be a great way for people to kind of get away from the hustle and bustle of the festival, and give people an opportunity to really engage with something," said Fran Smith, founder and president of CILYAG.

Here are the artists contributing to MellowChella's debut outing:

Fran Smith: Along with being CILYAG's leader, Smith is a multidisciplinary artist who came up with the MellowChella name and created the graphic designs for it.

• Smith has won awards for their writing and was recently invited to speak at the Take Back the Night March honoring the lives of women impacted by sexual violence.

Alex Hughes: A visual artist who uses mixed media, recycled and local materials, Hughes got interested in art when her mother made her a costume of Dory from "Finding Nemo."

• "I was in sequins and longer than five feet as a third grader," Hughes said. "I felt the most permission to take up space. Because our joy, for me, is taking up space."

Trung Ngo: Born in Vietnam, Ngo is an Indianapolis-based electronic music artist who will be one of the DJs for MellowChella's silent disco.

• Trung's passion for house, progressive and trance music inspired him to co-found the Progression Indy DJ group.

Mitchell Narkoff aka NARK: An up-and-coming DJ from outside of Philly who will be MellowChella's other silent disco DJ.

• "Obsessed with the weirdest and wildest sounds in music," he got involved in this year's event by finding CILYAG on social media.

Do you know a maker we should meet? Tell us all about them at [email protected].