ONCO Fermentations Continued Support of Community Through Live Music Inspires

We recently sat down with Erin Bullard, founder of ONCO Fermentations to discuss the role of music. They recently turned five and survived COVID-19 and many changes that have affected businesses in the last few years, all while promoting local and “traveling” talent. This writer certainly appreciated their time, incredible leadership, and music support in Central NY. Cheers to many more years to celebrate your successes.

315 MUSIC: What do you believe is the importance of supporting live music at your establishment?

Erin Bullard: Our brewery in Tully is centrally located, right off Route 81, Exit 66, at the edge of Onondaga and Cortland counties, drawing customers from Binghamton up to the North Country in New York and from the Finger Lakes. We often help acts that usually play in a concentrated area (for example, Syracuse – which is just 20 minutes away) build more of a following for folks who maybe don’t want to travel to the city, or for music fans who want to take that short scenic drive away from traffic and parking hassles.  I am a huge promoter of all my acts – each one is special to me!

We like to say “We put an urban warehouse brewery in rural America” (though Tully isn’t that rural), and we’re excited that we can bring music to the area, free of charge.

315 MUSIC: How do you think live music can affect your patrons and bring in new folks to support your amazing vision?

EB: We are not quite a listening room and definitely not a bar, but the atmosphere is festive as well as appreciative when the music plays.  Musicians with a following bring new patrons for us once the audience has enjoyed our relaxed vibe. Three threads bring people back to our place time and time again – beer, food, and music. Musicians without much of a following often start to build one after coming to our venue, at least locally, and when I pull in a traveling musician people are curious!

315 MUSIC: Can you speak about your history working in the industry? What inspires you?

EB: I come from a musical family, but I got thrown out of three bands because I wasn’t very good! (I could never remember the lyrics).

I used to be able to go out and see performances all the time but with the demands of running a weekend brewery, I bring the music to me. I am inspired by the camaraderie of the area’s musicians who come and enjoy the shows when they are not playing (and maybe sit in) and simply, how talented everyone is! I know how hard it is to perform.

315 MUSIC: After COVID-19, a large percentage of music venues closed and some stopped booking concerts. I’m sure all the artists appreciate your continued support. Can you speak to how the times have shifted in the last decade and how that has affected your outlook on art/business?

EB: Pre-Covid, we were starting to build excitement around our venue for offering top-notch local talent for free.  

We are excited that people are starting to trust us again and checking out new acts that they may not have heard of.  We see a lot of competition for people’s time after the dust settled from Covid. Places that aren’t set up for performances as a draw, such as typical restaurants, see live music as an extra avenue to bring new customers in, but they also rely on turning over tables so that is a catch-22 that we don’t have at our place. People come to our place as a destination, where they can spend a few hours with family and friends and not feel rushed.

We can separate paid acts (if we choose to go that route) to our back space event area, but frankly, selling tickets is a pain in the butt and I like the element of surprise for those patrons that happen to stumble upon the acts we bring in when they venture out to ONCO and perhaps didn’t catch beforehand any announcement of the day’s performance.  But if music isn’t in their plan for the evening, they can move to a separate area or outside/inside, (depending on where the music is).

I am a bit concerned that there are maybe too many overplayed acts and too many venues in my local area – to compete we have to remain “special” at ONCO, which we try to do through the quality of the musicians and the overall vibe. The phrase “live music” maybe doesn’t have the appeal it used to as everyone is now doing it (which is both a good and a bad thing)!

315 MUSIC: What future plans excite you for your establishment? 

EB: We continue to push the envelope on our “Fests,” which showcase creativity coming from our beer and food, with a special music act as the centerpiece.  We are continuously being discovered, usually because of the music, and once people experience our customer service (along with our beer and food, of course), they come back with family and friends time and time again.  

315 MUSIC: Any ideas, collaboration messages, and/or experiences you want to promote to your customers?

EB: In general, we are very cognizant of how hard it is to build a following locally, especially for new acts. We try to pair an event with newer acts to give them a built-in audience.  While we mainly stick to blues and adult classic rock/pop (that’s a loose term of course), we have folded in jazz recently and are always open to exploring different styles. Any musician can reach out to me at music@oncoferment.com with a sample of something I can listen to, their schedule, and their rate.

315 MUSIC: A fun one to end: If you could time travel to any musical moment in the history of humankind…where would you go?

EB: I wish I could have seen Led Zeppelin live!

Thank you again for your time Erin, we appreciate your vision so much. To follow along with their live music schedule please click here.