After selling clothes on Depop and through a private Snapchat story named “Baxter’s Clothes,” Baxter Wright eventually created Frothing, a brand focused on selling vintage apparel. However, Wright said he knew he wanted to incorporate music into his brand. 

“All throughout high school, my parents would take me to concerts,” said Wright, an advertising junior. “That was my thing — going to concerts, music festivals and doing stuff like that. There came a point where I realized that I could turn it into my own. The light clicked, and I was like, ‘Oh dang, I could do this myself.’”

By April 2021, Baxter held his first vintage pop-up and booked his first concert the following month. In August of that year, Baxter held his first Frothing Fest, which now consists of headliners and around 25 different vendors, including nonprofit organizations and other student-owned brands. 

“Eventually it turned into me booking artists and combining it with the vintage pop-ups, and then it grew from there,” Wright said.

With Hotel Ugly and Big Red Shooter as some of Frothing Fest’s first performers, Baxter’s festival has since featured various bands and musicians — including Merlyn Wood, The Irons and Mind Shrine — from Austin and its surrounding areas.

“I used to just be going to concerts and hooking up artists with different clothes,” Wright said. “All the artists had already kind of known me. I started out just being a fan of these people and going to their concerts. … I would just DM them on Instagram.”

Performing in Austin and Houston, Tobias Traylor (TTBY) has performed three times for Frothing. Traylor said the festival provided him with the opportunity to connect with a wider audience. 

“(Wright) brought together people that I didn’t know knew me,” Traylor said. “Frothing is cool, and I Iike what he’s got going on. As long as he keeps going, he’ll win.”

As a part of its program, Frothing Fest raises money for nonprofit organizations. During the last festival, Frothing raised $1,200 at the West Campus food trucks on W 26th Street and donated it to Rainbow Coalition. Frothing also organizes Frothing Markets, which host different vendors and promote small businesses and nonprofits.

“There’s just so many students who are also looking for opportunities and creating their own brands, and they’re willing to collaborate with you,” Wright said. “It makes it a lot easier to network with people and find people with similar interests who are willing to help you grow.”

After receiving a grant from Launchpad and pushing to participate in South by Southwest, Wright said Frothing hopes to not only expand across the Austin area, but also tour in the next couple of months. 

Presenting rock band Die Spitz this weekend, Wright will do a DJ set as his brother Knox Write, a high school sophomore, performs his own songs at the show.

“The way Frothing has grown so much shows how much love Baxter (gets) and how much support he gets from everybody and how much work they put into Frothing, and it’s different,” Knox Write said. “It’s different than anything else I’ve seen because everybody just worked so hard on the shows, the clothes and it’s really magical.”