Austin Relyea Raps on Ohio Grown Hip Hop and Building Fiend City

One of the things I love most about traveling from festival to festival is discovering the people who help make these
communities what they are.

Sometimes that's a headlining musician, sometimes it's a festival founder, and sometimes it's somebody working the merch tent all weekend who ends up having one of the most interesting stories on the property.

That's where this week's conversation begins.

In this episode of Music Festivals Podcast, I sat down with Austin Relyea — better known as Young Fiend — to talk about music, community, Hookahville, and the journey that led him to create Fiend City, a growing platform dedicated to showcasing artists and stories from Ohio's unique music culture.

From Fan to Family

If you've spent any time around the jam-band world, you've probably heard people say that festivals feel like family reunions. Most of us nod our heads and move on, but for Austin, that idea became reality.

His connection to the Ekoostik Hookah community started the same way it starts for many of us: showing up, meeting people, and returning year after year. Over time, familiar faces became friendships, friendships became opportunities, and before long he found himself working behind the scenes, helping with merchandise operations and becoming part of the larger Hookahville family.

That's one of the beautiful things about this scene. The line between attendee and contributor is often thinner than people realize. Show up enough, lend a hand, care about the community, and eventually you become part of the story.

Hip-Hop in a Jam-Band World

What makes Austin's story especially interesting is that he's not a jam-band musician—he's a hip-hop artist.

At first glance, those worlds might seem completely different, but spend enough time in campground circles and you'll realize they share more DNA than people think. Both communities value authenticity, celebrate independent artists, and are built around live experiences that create genuine connections between performers and audiences.

Young Fiend has found a way to bridge those worlds, bringing hip-hop into spaces traditionally dominated by improvisational rock, bluegrass, and psychedelic jams. Rather than forcing himself to fit a mold, he's embraced what makes him different and used it as a way to contribute something unique to the culture.

Building Fiend City

One of the most exciting parts of our conversation centered around Fiend City. What started as a personal creative outlet has evolved into something much larger—a platform designed to amplify artists, creators, and stories emerging from Ohio's music community.

If you've followed Music Festivals Podcast for any length of time, you know this mission resonates with me. The biggest stories in live music aren't always happening on the largest stages. More often, they're found in local venues, campground jams, vendor villages, and late-night conversations around a fire. They're happening in communities that mainstream music media often overlooks.

Fiend City is helping shine a light on those stories, and frankly, we need more of that.

Looking Ahead

As Fiend City continues to grow and Young Fiend continues developing as an artist, it feels like we're watching the early chapters of a much larger story unfold.

The Ohio festival scene has always had a way of producing passionate people who care deeply about music and community, and Austin is carrying that tradition forward in his own way.

That's what makes conversations like this worth having. Because at the end of the day, music festivals aren't just about the music—they're about the people, the friendships, the communities, and the stories that connect us all.

And every once in a while, you meet somebody whose journey captures all of those things at once.

Festival Performance of the Week: Dandy Lush Live Performance -  Sunshine Hootennany Tiny Fest Concert