We recently connected with Dustin Kron and have shared our conversation below.

Dustin, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today How did you come up with the idea for your business?

I came up with the idea for Skull House Rock after I had thrown a charity concert at my college, that didn’t go so well. We didn’t raise any money and we didn’t have that big of a crowd. So, naturally I decided to try again without the rules and regulations of the college hindering me.

When I started Skull House I knew it was going to be a hard endeavor, but I wanted to try, and although year one was not a charity supporting event, year two is, as I always intended. During year one I ventured out to scout some amazing and talented artists, landing on First to Eleven, from Erie PA, David Michael Frank, from Nashville TN, Just Joe, from NY, Heartbent, Weekends at Noon, and Armani Broken all from here in Baltimore. After finding these bands, I knew we had the talent and the right musical sound for the event, to bring people together and to have a good time, but it wasn’t just about music, it was about an experience, and I wanted people to be able to see the stage and hear the music while being tattooed, so we did just that, recruiting ample tattoo shops from around the Maryland tattoo scene, and we held our first event at Rams Head Live!, now known as Nevermore Hall.

During this whole planning and implementing phase, I was learning as I was doing, making mistakes and tripping up all along the way, and now going into year two, we have doubled down on everything, and even moved the event into the fall. With a Halloween theme, a haunted house, costume contests, raffles, charities, tattoos, vendors, and an emo nite, and 30+ bands, we have something for everyone. I feel like bigger festivals do get the job done, but not everyone can afford to go to these big festivals, and to make something that is accessible for people and is a unique and fun experience that is also affordable is something I wanted to try and accomplish with Skull House, and I hope we can pull it off this year with how big it is.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I studied Cinema and Writing, so I’m a filmmaker and writer at heart, but I have a deep love for the music industry and I’ve always had a business oriented mind, to some degree. I did a lot of planning for events in college, as a part of my fraternity, I did all philanthropy events, and raised money for the Leukemia Lymphoma Society, which I have also partnered with for my festival, along with Kelly’s Dream.

But doing the benefit concert at my college is what cemented me in the music industry and my relentless attempt to keep creating and trying at my festival. Besides Skull House, I also produce short films, and am working on my first feature film project, which all updates can be found @relentlessresolveproductions on Instagram.

I am also just a production assistant for hire, I love the film industry and working with other creatives and helping them accomplish their dreams. I am able to be reached at [email protected] for any questions regarding events, or cinema related projects. Right now I am working on a commission system, for people to submit story or script ideas that they would like written or event short films they would like produced; this could potentially translate into events as well.

But the thing I am most proud of through my work is my team, I tend to operate by myself, but I am surrounded by friends and family that help me accomplish almost everything that I do, and without them none of this would be possible. Building the worlds of my scripts, and films, to talent scouting for my festival(s) they all provide some of the best input imaginable.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

When I started Skull House, I spent a lot of money on year one, and lost a lot of money. It was a huge blow to me financially. I thought for sure with the talent and the idea that I had it would be a surefire hit.

But I was wrong, many factors could have impacted why the event didn’t go as planned, but, I sat back, and examined the situation and decided I’d give it one more try.

It’s not about spending a ton of money, it’s about spending the money in the right place on the right pieces, and organizing yourself in a better manner. I learned a lot from year one, and how much I spent and how much I lost. Now I know where to spend and where to save, I learned the industry the hard way, but my advice is to start small, and work your way into the bigger pieces.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

We are currently in the process of building our online presence, but the main thing I learned was to post regularly, and utilize the hash tag system.

By using both of these free mechanics, you can piggyback the algorithm and let it do the work for you, we have gained over a ninety day period 50,000 views, for free from these two mechanics alone, just from posting announcements frequently, and using relevant hashtags to our bands and themes.

Another feature which we have used in the past and plan to use, is boosted advertisements; you can pay as little or as much as you want in a targeted area and have your post forced to the top of everyone’s feeds, which will help you get views and potential followers, all for however much your marketing budget is.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @relentlessresolveproductions @skullhouserockfest @dustin_kron
• Facebook: Skull House Rock Music and Tattoo Festival
• Youtube: Relentless Resolve Productions

Image Credits

Photos taken by @devotedoptics