At a major event like WNBA All-Star Weekend, a big concert or comedy show typically wraps up the night or the overall festivities.
When the Indiana Fever’s parent company, Pacers Sports & Entertainment (PS&E), teamed with Kevin Hart’s entertainment company, Hartbeat, for All-Star Weekend’s Fever Fest on July 19, it was just the beginning of a far bigger plan.
PS&E and Hartbeat booked a Fever Fest lineup that has 803Fresh putting boots on the ground for a line-dancing opener, before turning it over to comedy writer, stand-up, and Black-ish star Deon Cole and Fever player and Syd + TP Show costar Sydney Colson to host premier comedians, including Cedric the Entertainer, Leslie Jones, and Aida Rodriguez. Meanwhile, live performances are on deck from The Kid LAROI, G-Eazy, and Bia, while Boogie Down Productions and Club Quarantine DJ D-Nice finish the night by spinning for a WNBA All-Star Game watch party.
When Indianapolis hosted NBA All-Star week in 2024, PS&E and Hartbeat entered a five-year agreement for Hartbeat to become the company’s “cultural curator”—mixing basketball, music, and comedy for events at the Fever and NBA’s Indiana Pacers’ Gainbridge Fieldhouse and downtown Indianapolis throughout the year. Though that deal was struck with the potential for stand-up clubs downtown, music bookings, halftime shows, festivals, merchandising, and scripted digital and social media content, it’s tipping off by putting together an event specifically with Fever and WNBA fans in mind.
“Fever fans typically travel more than 200 miles to come to a game, so what they’re looking for is their All-Star, their moment,” said Joey Graziano, evp of strategy and new business ventures at PS&E. “It requires the time, energy, focus, and hunger that you would give to any one of the other events.”
As PS&E is aware, Fever fans and WNBA fans exist as their own entity. With help from reigning Rookie of the Year Caitlin Clark, the team’s first playoff run since 2016, and its first Commissioner’s Cup win ever, the Fever draw fans from all 50 states and more than 47 countries to games. Of Fever fans who typically fill Gainbridge Fieldhouse, fewer than 10% will ever attend a Pacers game.
And Fever fans are just one of the growing contingents that helped Indianapolis attract more than 30 million visitors last year. Graziano points to recent expansions to the city’s Indiana Convention Center and surrounding accommodations as part of the boost, but also noted that Indiana and Purdue universities will be adding thousands of new students to the city in the coming years.
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With Indianapolis just coming off of an NBA Final, regularly hosting the Indianapolis 500, the NFL Combine, the Big 10 men’s and women’s basketball tournaments, and the Big 10 football championship, and preparing to welcome three installments of the NCAA basketball men’s (2026 and 2029) and women’s (2029) Final Four, PS&E sees opportunity to build a better experience around all of it with what Hartbeat and its leaders, including Kevin Hart and Jeff Clanagan, have built.
“I think it’s a timely project and an important partnership for us,” said Janina Lundy, Hartbeat’s evp and head of marketing and brand strategy. “We’ve played a lot in the sports space, and obviously are in comedy and culture every day, so bringing this all together during such an exciting time in women’s sports in particular, I’m excited to be a part of it. This is really just the beginning.”
Filling in the gaps
Hartbeat has done a great deal of work with league and brand partners on content series in recent years, teaming with ESPN on the NBA Unplugged alt-cast featuring Kevin Hart and a number of rotating guests. In addition, Peacock partnered with Hartbeat on highlight commentary for the Paris Olympics in 2024 and, more recently, wrapped the 11th season of its ice-bath athlete interview series, Cold As Balls.
While content for Fever Fest will mostly be limited to digital and social media, Pacers Sports & Entertainment and Hartbeat view it as one of the areas where the Indianapolis market could catch up. PS&E ownership sees even more potential just beyond the doors of Gainbridge Field House, the Fever and Pacers’ home that saw more than 2 million fans attend games and live performances last year, making it the most-visited venue in the state.
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The facility has undergone a three-year renovation costing more than $360 million and is about to accommodate a training center for the Fever. With every Fever game bringing in audiences that feature 30% or more visitors from out of state, PS&E sees the Hartbeat partnership as an opportunity to expand its entertainment calendar—and that of Downtown Indianapolis—to 365 days a year.
“We’re seeing all of these people flooding into the city and state, and there’s a need for us to be able to meet the entertainment needs of these audiences,” Graziano said. “So we’re recognizing the weekends and weekdays that we believe there’s an opportunity for us to fill entertainment gaps and meet the fans where they are…whether it’s comedy or music.”
Just the start
Graziano sees Fever Fest not as an All-Star one-off, but an annual event that Indianapolis can grow into. More importantly, it highlights a section of Indianapolis that “lays out really well for what the next generation of fans are looking for” by clustering Gainbridge Fieldhouse, the NFL’s Indianapolis Colts’ home at Lucas Oil Stadium, the convention center, and myriad hotels, restaurants, parks, and activities together within walking distance.
He also sees it one day opening the door to a potential Hartbeat comedy venue downtown that expands the city’s options, but keeps many of them indoors and unfazed by shifts in the weather. That may be coming at some point down the line, but Lundy noted that much of PS&E’s communication with Hartbeat has focused on building around existing strengths.
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Lundy liked the idea of starting Hartbeat’s time in Indianapolis with a big event like Fever Fest, noting that it provided a practical look at the Fever’s growing, expansive fanbase and that of the WNBA as a whole. It’s an audience that’s there for the game, but doesn’t mind starting with comedians it knows, ramping up to music it loves, then either joining the crowd in the Fieldhouse or in front of D-Nice’s turntables.
“We’ve put together a lineup of artists and athletes with Sydney joining that touches a lot of different audiences and speaks to how broad the audience for the Fever and for the W are in general, and this is just the beginning,” Lundy said.
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