Omaha Invades, Lincoln’s newest music festival

Art by Sophia Goessling

Omaha musicians will be taking over Lincoln’s iconic Zoo Bar next week. Spanning three nights from Feb. 6-8, and featuring 12 bands, the Omaha Invades festival is the first of its kind. 

Omaha Invades is the brainchild of Josh Hoyer, who books performers at the Zoo Bar. For 20 years, Lincoln Exposed, a festival featuring over 100 local bands, has been the pinnacle February event for the Lincoln music scene. Because of that, it can be tough to book bands the weeks before and after Lincoln Exposed, so the past few years Hoyer has booked Omaha bands instead. 

This year these bookings have evolved into the first ever Omaha Invades festival. The Lincoln and Omaha music scenes have been separate entities for a while. Omaha Invades seeks to bridge that gap by bringing out Lincoln music lovers to hear the best of what Omaha has to offer, Hoyer said.   

“We've got two major metropolitan areas really close together, where the Omaha bands should have access to healthy crowds here in Lincoln and vice versa,” Hoyer said. 

Hoyer invited the best-of-the-best to the new festival, bands that have Omaha Entertainment and Arts Awards and other critical acclaim. 

“It's always good anytime you play in another city. Even if it's this close, it’s always a good thing because you're building up a fan base or a following in a different city,” Jales Hupke, lead singer for Virgin Mary Pistol Grip, said. “Lincoln's a good college town where there's a… younger crowd blended in.” 

Virgin Mary Pistol Grip is an Omaha rock band that released their first album in 2013. They will be performing on Saturday at the Omaha Invades festival. 

“It's always good to have places and support where you could expose your music and play with a bunch of cool bands,” Ed “Yayo” Trujillo, singer for Las Cruxes, said. “I think it's really cool, it's really fun. Hopefully people come out to the shows.” 

Las Cruxes is a Spanish post punk band that has fluid members across the country and in Mexico. The band has had a presence in Omaha since 2018 and has performed at Lincoln Calling before. They will perform at Omaha Invades on Friday night. 

 “There's a lot of room at the table (in the Omaha music scene), so let's all sit at it. It's not a competition,” Hupke said. “It's more of, ‘our success is everyone's success.’ We all know what it's like to get up on stage at a bar, and there's 10 people there, but then we also know what it feels like to have a couple hundred. So we all know what we're battling. It's a really good community right now.” 

The music scene in Omaha is very supportive of its musicians. This support doesn’t only come from fellow musicians, but also radio stations like 89.7 The River and Sweet 98.5, indie record labels like Good Life Records and music video creators like Inspired Films, Hupke said.  

“There's a camaraderie that's going to be in the air. It's always something that permeates these kinds of events, which is really cool, that sense of community,” Hoyer said. “I think that creatives need that bonding through creativity.” 

Omaha Invades will feature bands across many genres. Four bands will take the Zoo Bar’s stage each night. 

“You're getting to have a whole lot of fun for a very reasonable amount of money, and you're going to support Omaha artists in their creativity,” Hoyer said. “Basically, we're trying to foster a weekend to try to gain awareness for these artists that have been working their tails off, some for decades, and some that are newer.” 

Omaha Invades is a 19+ and 18 and under minors with a parent event. $12 single day and $30 three-day passes can be purchased here.

Omaha Invades 2025 Schedule:

Thursday, Feb. 6

6 p.m. Matt Cox &The Marauders

7 p.m. Ebba Rose 

8 p.m. Paper Canaries 

9 p.m. Secret Formula

Friday, Feb. 7

9 p.m. Big Wade & Black Swan Theory 

10 p.m. Las Cruxes 

11 p.m. Funk Trek 

12 a.m. Doom Lagoon

Saturday, Feb. 8

9 p.m. Ex Lover 

10 p.m. P.A.R.F.A.I.T. 

11 p.m. Virgin Mary Pistol Grip 

12 a.m. Blake Deforest Collective 

Published in the Daily Nebraskan, read here.