June 20, 2025 Benchmark Abrasives

ScrapFest Art Festival

Welcome to this month's #benchmarkspotlight Beyond the Bench series - we had the opportunity to sit down with Mike from @scrapfestartfestival and talk a little about the festival.

If you would like to be featured in our weekly spotlight (100% FREE) and have a chance at winning one of our Grinder Hoods please send us an email to leo.benchmarkabrasives@gmail.com to get you scheduled in an upcoming week. And for those of you that take the time to share your story with us, we'd be happy to provide a free BA banner. These spotlights are intended to highlight your skill, your business, and your tips and tricks. Most of all it's to have a little fun!

Name: Mike Bass

Business Name: ScrapFest

Location: Old Town Lansing, MI

Socials: IG: @scrapfestartfestival FB: ScrapFestArtFestival

Website: scrapfest.com

YouTube: ScrapFest

Specialties: Repurposed-focused art

Tell us about yourself - what inspired you to get into your trade? And how long?

ScrapFest is a scrap metal sculpture competition and repurpose-focused art festival located in Old Town Lansing, Michigan. Along with the competition, we have booth artists, live music, family activities, an 8k run/walk called Great Scrap Run, and the Refashion Show, which focuses on using scrap textiles to make garments. We're in our 15th year, and now have artists from all over come to participate, and around 10,000-12,000 attendees throughout the weekend of the festival. This year's Scrap Fest is coming up on July 11 + 12.

Can you tell us a little more on how it all works?

A little on how the competition works: We first have Collection Day, where the teams get one hour to pick up to 500 lbs of scrap metal (or 250 lbs for the Small Category) from Friedland Industries in early May. They then get one month to make a sculpture using the scrap metal they collected. We then have Drop-off Day, where the teams bring their final sculptures to Struk Studio, which has become a great bonding moment for the artists. We then take professional photos and video of the sculptures so we can add them to our website and the auction site. The festival then happens in mid-July (this year is July 11th & 12th), where we close down the main road in Old Town Lansing and line the street with all of the sculptures. The sculptures are juried (1st, 2nd, 3rd, and People's Choice for both Large and Small categories), and they are sold via silent auction. For each sculpture sale, 70% goes to the artists, 20% to ScrapFest to help us put the festival on, and 10% goes to a different local charity we partner with each year.

We have also recently created a documentary series that focuses on the artists' personal journeys -- their ups and downs, obstacles they've overcome — while following along as they build their ScrapFest sculptures.

Here's a link to Season 1: https://youtu.be/bP2rORD-v40?si=FVrsbjHiqPB6clbH

Here's a link to Season 2: https://youtu.be/0MdSatAWTRg?si=kStfytlgumGL2mYj

How did you come up with the idea of ScrapFest and how did it evolve over the years?

David Such, an incredible videographer (now retired and owns an art/sculpture gallery called Struk Studio), had the original idea for ScrapFest. He came to my dad, Larry Bass (owner of Friedland Industries, where the artists pick the scrap metal they then use to make their sculptures), pitched his idea for a scrap metal sculpture competition, and my dad immediately accepted. My sister, Lisa, put the two of them in touch.

I was living in Japan during the first year of ScrapFest. When I moved back to Michigan, I quickly got on the committee tasked with putting ScrapFest on, starting from the second year. It was originally meant to be a fundraiser for the Old Town Commercial Association, which is an organization that has been vital to helping Old Town Lansing look and feel the way it does. Over the years, ScrapFest grew to the point where it needed to become its own entity. I took over as director in 2018 and the first person I called was Heather Muylle-Mossing, since we had already worked on the festival together while she worked at the Old Town Commercial Association. She and I have been co-directing ScrapFest ever since.

What keeps you motivated throughout the day?
Seeing the artists genuinely lift each other up every year. We have people who at one point were newer to creating art from scrap metal, ending up winning the festival 10 years later.

Do you think ScrapFest will ever branch out to another city?
We get asked this question a lot. We're not opposed to considering it in the future, but there are a lot of moving parts that make ScrapFest possible that would be difficult to replicate in another city. More than that, though, one of our goals is to help put Lansing, Michigan on the map as a scrap metal art hub. When people think of scrap metal art, we want them to think of Lansing, and vice versa. So right now, we're focused on encouraging people from all over to come hang out with us where we are. :)

Do you have any advice for the next generation that you wish you had when you first started?

The artists who participate in ScrapFest have found a real community that transcends whether or not their sculpture places in the competition or sells at the festival. If you're hesitant to apply for the competition, come to the festival anyway, even just to meet people. It's likely that you'll meet like-minded people, and you'll be able to chat with artists who were once as hesitant as you are. That will probably help give you the confidence to apply. One of the beautiful things about ScrapFest is that while it's a competition, it never feels that way. The artists who participate have a, your success is my success, my success is your success mindset, and it's one of the components that pushes all of them to grow as artists (and friends) every year. If that sounds like the mindset you have, you should apply. Even if you don't get in the first time around, you'll be putting one foot forward, and will have a better understanding on what/how to improve when applying the following year. That's already growth!

Thanks for sitting with us and sharing your story with the community - is there anything you'd like to add?

If you're looking for a positive competition that will push you to grow while making great friends, check out ScrapFest.

A Note From Leo

Thanks for sharing with us, Mike! This definitely sounds like a fun festival to attend and explore as a creator. Hopefully one day it'll expand out to the West Coast! :)