Walter from p 18 cancellation, saying they still gained expe- rience from working on the festival. “We certainly got to experience the festival development and execution, naming the festival, working with the city, and the massive undertaking of putting on the festival, especially one as complex as Lost Lake,” he says. “We would’ve loved to have had it go on, but Superfly decided they weren’t going to do it. So we had no choice.” Another bright spot: Floatus has become one of Walter’s most popular art pieces and has appeared Canal Convergence in Scottsdale and events in California, Texas, and Florida. New Venues, New Direction In 2018, the company debuted two new ventures: Walter Station Brewery, which was created inside a former fire station at 40th and Washington streets, and an art and event space, Walter Where?House, on 21st Avenue north of McDowell Road. Tucknott says brewing beer has been a thing with the Walter crew since the days of creating their first art car. showcase the art cars. “They’re not behind velvet ropes; they’re there for everyone to climb on and into and explore and interact with,” he says. Like other local music and cultural spots, Walter Where?House shut down over the pandemic. When it reopened in October 2021, the company hosted perfor- mances by EDM artists every weekend. Peter Blick, a longtime promoter and talent buyer who’s now working for Walter Productions, says the company wanted to make better use of its venues. “The Where?House was originally doing more big, themed events quarterly. And those all did really well, but after opening back up, we decided to program pretty much every Friday and Saturday,” he says. “We have the spaces, and that’s going to make it more of a sustainable busi- ness model.” Booking artists has been “challenging” while competing with larger EDM promoters, including LiveNation and local concert company Relentless Beats in the Phoenix market, Blick says. Walter is attempting to carve out its own niche with more independent and underground artists. Walter Productions Floatus at Scottsdale’s Canal Convergence. “The first facility we had, the Walterdome in Scottsdale, was where all of our vehicles were built. Kalliope was built there. And a part of that space in the back has a brewery co-op with a small brew system. So a bunch of people would get together and they basically would brew beer on Wednesdays and then drink it on Fridays. So, out of that brew co-op, that really is largely a social kind of club, if you will, grew our brewing company.” Walter Where?House is located in a onetime paper factory and is the compa- ny’s biggest venue. The 24,000-square- foot space functions as an art gallery, performance venue, and storage space for Walter’s art cars. “We really wanted to have a home for [the art cars], not only for storage, but to showcase them and be able to use them, just as we have in the outdoor environ- ment, but use them under our own roof and in our own control,” Tucknott says. Jeremy Watson calls it a way to “It’s a lot of work, especially trying to do things on the cool and underground side,” he says. “There’s a pretty wide variety of artists out there who like to play indepen- dent venues for independent promoters, and I think that’s where we fit in with our role in the community.” Tucknott says Walter Productions has also scaled back taking its “touring road- show” of art cars outside of the Valley or to events they’re not promoting. They want to better support their own venues, he adds. “We were touring for five years or so after Kalliope was built. We realized it wasn’t really what we were going to be doing for the rest of our lives. We’d rather put our roofs down in Phoenix,” he says. “We have so many balls in the air. We’re running a nonprofit, a brewery, hosting the Frida Kahlo [immersive experience], and just opened our new restaurant and event space. We had our time of having 15 semi- loads of everything going to Burning Man and there was a time we could spend three months getting everyone and everything there. We’re a completely different animal now.” 21 phoenixnewtimes.com | CONTENTS | FEEDBACK | OPINION | NEWS | FEATURE | NIGHT+DAY | CULTURE | FILM | CAFE | MUSIC | PHOENIX NEW TIMES SEPT 1ST–SEPT 7TH, 2022
