Lakewood Ranch music producer knows all the chords

Thinking of heading out to the first Lakewood Ranch Blues Festival, but you're worried about parking? Don't fret, because Morgan Bettes Angell has you covered.

You see, this isn't her first rodeo — er, music festival. Bettes Angell understands that as devoted as blues music fans are, they don't want to walk miles to their car or wait too long for a shuttle.

Bettes Angell is the co-founder, president and CEO of the events and entertainment company Independent Jones, and she got her producing street cred the old-fashioned way: She earned it. 

Bettes Angell's relationship with Schroeder-Manatee Ranch, developer of Lakewood Ranch, dates back to 2017. That's when she met Monaca Onstad, then director of community relations for Lakewood Ranch, and gained her support.

Together with her Independent Jones partner Wade Hamilton, Bettes Angell launched the Lakewood Ranch Farmers Market and Ranch Nite Wednesdays as well as farmers markets in downtown Sarasota and Venice and a downtown street party in Bradenton.

Not bad for a woman who left Oshkosh, Wisconsin, in 2011 armed with nothing more than a business degree, a Honda Civic and a golden doodle named Mister. She was fortunate to have a place to live when she arrived in Florida because her parents had built a house in Heritage Harbour in Bradenton.

Bettes Angell initially took a job serving in a restaurant to "get money flowing in." Then she heard about an opening for a creative fellow at downtown advocacy group Realize Bradenton through a friend of her aunt's.

Bettes Angell spent four years working with Realize Bradenton founder Johnette Isham, the driving force behind Bradenton's Riverwalk, the Public Market, the Village of the Arts and the Blues Festival, which ran for 12 years. Isham died at age 70 in August 2023, less than a year after retiring from Realize Bradenton.

Isham provided Bettes Angell what every young person starting out in the world could use: a mentor, though she also credits her father with passing along his entrepreneurial spirit to her.

"When I was with Realize Bradenton, I was doing everything with Johnette, the whole nine yards," Bettes Angell says. "She showed me how working together works and how to bring together cultural partners, merchants and farmers."

After she and Hamilton started Independent Jones, they learned their licks in the local music scene by booking acts at the now-defunct Ace's Live in northwest Bradenton, Darwin Brewing Company (now Sun Lab Brewing), the Manatee Performing Arts Center and other venues.

"Our original goal was to start our own club, but we saw that it wasn't sustainable," she says. "It takes a lot to bring artists down here."

But their big breakthrough was a pop-up event called Barn Burner, which "literally took place in a field," recalls Bettes Angell. "We had plenty of room for parking. We brought in portalets, food trucks, security and electric. We had lots of merch."

Back in those early days, Independent Jones relied on what Bettes Angell calls "guerrilla marketing" tactics to publicize their events. That meant handing out flyers, hanging posters and relying on word of mouth. 

These days, the marketing strategy employed by Bettes Angell and Independent Jones Chief Events Officer Antonio Hernandez is more high tech. A recent afternoon found them shooting video clips at Kore Steakhouse in Waterside Place to promote the Lakewood Ranch Blues Festival on social media outlets.

Photo by Monica Roman Gagnier

Bettes Angell gives kudos to Onstad, who now runs a marketing and lifestyle consulting firm, with understanding the need to pay musicians a living wage when they perform at community events in Lakewood Ranch.

Some potential attendees may scoff at the $75 ticket price ($150 for reserved VIP seating) to attend the first Lakewood Ranch Blues Festival, but Bettes Angell isn't worried about price resistance. The way she sees it, $75 is a small price to pay for an event that runs from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. and features seven different acts. 

Among the bands performing at the Lakewood Ranch Blues Festival are Melody Angel, Mitch Woods & His Rocket 88s, Monster Mike Welch and the Danielle Nicole Band.

Now, about parking: There will be three lots to accommodate the event at Waterside Place, located on the 8-acre Kingfisher Island, and trolleys will run every 20 minutes from 7:30 a.m. to 10 p.m.

What gives Bettes Angell confidence that the first Lakewood Ranch Blues Festival will be a success is the date. She and fest co-founder Paul Benjamin were adamant that the fest take place at the same time as its Bradenton predecessor — the first Saturday in December. 

"Blues fans are older and they like to travel," Bettes Angell says. "At the Bradenton Blues Festival, we had Zip codes from almost every state in the country. But blues fans like to plan ahead and they need a date to plan around."