Lindsey Hayes

Bitter Jester Music Festival Judge & Member of the Education Team

2017 Bitter Jester Grand Champion

“Bitter Jester was one of those rare experiences that not too many people knew about, but those involved were aware of how special it was. Kinda hipster, in a sense. We knew it was cool before everyone else did!”

-Lindsey Hayes

Although you may not have guessed, tween pop singers like Hannah Montana and Justin Bieber are what drove Lindsey Hayes' passion to begin singing.

Born in Northbrook, IL, Lindsey's family relocated to Lake Geneva, WI, during her childhood years. This is where she found a love of performance while taking vocal lessons at the local School of Rock. From there, her and a few other students in her group decided to form a band outside of their current instruction.

And ever since, Lindsey has held music close to her life throughout various projects - including forming the metal band, Audiophilia. The young teen group participated in the Bitter Jester Music Festival two years in a row - taking the title of Runner Up in 2016 and becoming the Grand Champions in 2017!

Although the ensemble has since disbanded, Lindsey still performs with her acoustic duo, Chinsey, throughout the Lake Geneva area (in an admittedly much mellower setting).

Lindsey first judged for Bitter Jester virtually in the 2020 Original Song Competition. In 2021 she became a real-time verbal commentary provider, working with BJMF’s Director of Education, Michael Tseitlin, to give festival performers and competitors a night of conversational feedback and observations recorded live while they perform. Audio of the conversations is provided to musicians along with the scoring judges’ written feedback.

In 2022 Lindsey officially joined the Bitter Jester Education Team where she helps shape the direction of the festival and its ever-evolving ambitions to educate, impact, and unite the country’s future musicians. She can’t wait to see who graces the Bitter Jester stages this summer!