Greetings, friends!

Another fantastic year of our annual Iowa music festival, Gross Domestic Product, has come and gone, and on behalf of the volunteers and staff of the Greater Des Moines Music Coalition, I have to say “Thank you, Iowa!”

Over 600 of you came out to support over 120 musicians, hailing from 7 different cities around our great state. These folks represent just a small portion of the incredible original songwriters, composers, performers, and recording artists who are contributing to our community’s music culture by taking a chance. They are creating something new and doing everything they can to get on the road, make albums and music videos, and share their creations with the world. In doing so, they are sharing Iowa’s musical voice with the world and inspiring other communities to try what we’re trying. We’re proud of them, and on April 13th, 2013, you showed that you are, too.

Thanks to the venues’ owners and employees and sound engineers who worked overtime to make the event come together beautifully. They are all true professionals and great assets to our music scene.

Thanks to the local music lovers who DJ’d at The Lift or showed up to participate in the Des Moines Social Club’s Open Circus. Your willingness to put yourself out there and create is inspiring.

Oh, and let’s not forget the volunteers! The DMMC is driven entirely by the passion of volunteers, by people who stand up and show up to help plan and execute our programs. Over 50 volunteers were involved in making this year a success, and I’m going to name as many as possible right here (sincere apologies in advance if I somehow left you off the list!):

Bertha Bush, Ann and Perry Klein, P. Phillips, Nickelle Stevens, Adrienne Greenwald, Sydney Pickett, Zoey Miller, Devin Wren, Becky Migas, Michael and Erica Jaramillo, Amy Yost, Margi Weiss, Hillary Kruse, Dan Wren, Erica Leath, Jeremy Stegall, Lisa Smith, Bob Ketch, Clay Jackson, Thomas Kutz, Kevan Murphy, Corbett Reeves, G. Miller, Erin Wickering, Kuuku Saah, Chris Williams, Kevin Brownell, Kathryn Guess, Ben Croghan, Tony Schrader, Sandra Thompson, Rob Ferguson, Angela Lee, Adam Montufar, Dave Murphy, Nate Logsdon, Cody Osen, David Derong, Lucas Moser, Mickey Davis, Max Farrell, Andrew David, Maxwell Johnson, Jill Dykstra, Chad Mickleson, Katie Lint, Joe Lawler, Erika Owen, Patrick Tape Fleming, Liz McDonough, William Tarbox, Lindsay Fullington, Palina Smithee, Dani Reed, Steve Fry, and Barbie Bishop.

I’m so proud that our community can support art at this scale and am extremely excited to see how much more it will grow and, as it does, facilitate more and more musicians, fans, recording engineers, promoters, producers, songwriters, venue owners, educators, and every other type of music-related person I can’t think of right now in creating a passionate, positive, collaborative, and open-minded music community in their own vision.

Here’s a video of House of Large Sizes playing that night, in case you want to relive it with me (thanks to Fester Rage for the video!):

 

May you stay forever young,

Chris Ford

Administrator of the DMMC and, more importantly, an Iowan and a musician.

 

P.S. We couldn’t have pulled this off without our fantastic sponsors, Boulevard Brewing Co. and The Gramercy Tap, and our supportive partners, Locusic, Iowa Music Store, Iowa Concert Photographers (responsible for the image at the beginning of this post), Saturday Mfg., On Pitch, The Lift, ALT Magazine, New Rock 105.1 FM, KFMG 99.1 FM, KURE 88.5 FM, Little Village Mag, and the Des Moines Social Club.

P.P.S. Check out photos from GDP here and here, as well as a video playlist right here.

P.P.P.S.  You can do postpostpostscripts, right? Let’s have fun at 80/35! July 5th & 6th! It’s coming!