Midwest Friends Fest is back this week, May 28-30, at Southgate House Revival and it's bigger than ever. With the addition of an outdoor stage, there will be a total of 4 stages hosting bands and musicians creating a very diverse mix of genres. Festival organizer Jared Bowers says he wants attendees to get a taste of everything the midwest music scene has to offer.
"We're really trying hard to bring together some of the disparate scenes happening in Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky. You've got your singer-songwriter scene, electronic music scene, your punk basement show, or DIY scene. We love all of them equally, and we wanted to kind of bring them together to celebrate Cincinnati music, but also welcome a bunch of bands to town for the first time that maybe have never been here."
Within the first 56 hours of releasing the musician applications for the festival, they were flooded with over 900 submissions. Bowers says that while he and his team were swamped going through it all it was a lot of fun.
"It was terrifying, but really what a dream come true to have that many people interested in what we're doing and how we're trying to do it. Choosing the bands that we ended up with at this year's festival was one of the most fun experiences I've ever had, but probably one of most difficult as well."
With only a two minute walk between stages, the discovery of new, unique musicians is inevitable. The goal for the festival this year was to give attendees a new found appreciation for DIY and local music says Bowers.
"We want you to walk away with a new favorite band. Like we just want you leave smiling and excited about local music and about all of the amazing DIY things happening around us."
Take a look at this year's lineup:
For more info and to buy tickets for this year's Midwest Friends Fest head on over to their website: https://www.midwestfriendsfest.com/
