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New Bohemia Festival set for this weekend

By Cole Cheney

Less than .006 percent of Americans are partially or fully Czech, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. But signs of the Bohemian influence abound in art, music and culture—from Greenwich Village to the Burning Man festival to this weekend’s New Bohemia Music Festival.

The second annual festival will take place tonight, Saturday and Sunday at several alternative locations after the New Bohemia Cultural District, on Third Street SE between Eighth and 14th avenues in Cedar Rapids, was devastated by the June flooding.

“The last thing New Bohemia needs is to give up,” says festival co-chairman Jim Jacobmeyer. “This festival will help jumpstart the rebuilding process.”

Jacobmeyer says organizers decided to spread the event to six smaller venues in Cedar Rapids, Iowa City and Waterloo after they were unable to secure a larger venue for the weekend.

Organizers hope to attract bigger crowds this year by teaming up with fellow community organizations and relocating to multiple “satellite stages” with performances ranging from the thrash-rocking Birth Rites to the electric folk singing of Dave Zollo. The Poison Control Center, William Elliott Whitmore and Public Property are among the other bands schedule to perform.

Admission is $12 in advance or $15 at the gate.

The festival will take place tonight at Iowa City’s Industry Bar, 211 Iowa Ave.; Waterloo’s Pepsi Pavilion, 257 Ansborough Ave.; and Cedar Rapids’ Next Door, 1736 16th Ave. SW.

The music continues Saturday at Shores Central Park, 700 16th St. NE and the Third Base Sports Park, 7251 Mount Vernon Rd. SE, and Sunday at the Kirkwood Community College Campus, 6301 Kirkwood Blvd. Check here for a full festival schedule and locations.

New Bohemia Music Festival headliner Life of Riley, a Houston-based rock band led by singer, guitarist and Cedar Rapids native Riley Smith, plays at 7:30 p.m. Sunday at Kirkwood.

“Our idea from the beginning was to showcase the local talent while earning money to beautify New Bohemia,” says Sarah Cram, a Cedar Rapids native and co-founder of the festival. Her band, Sarah Cram and the Derelicts, is set to perform on the Mission Creek Stage at the Industry in Iowa City on Saturday.

“Now [that we are] post-flood, exposing local talent and charity is that much more important,” she says.

Cedar Rapids officials estimate the city suffered more than $736 million in flood-related damage; the New Bohemia district, located directly the flood plain, was among the hardest areas hit.

“We suffered a lot throughout the New Bohemia community,” says Jason Wright, vice president for development at the flood-devastated National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library. “But I’ve been amazed at the amount of help that we are receiving, even from inside our own community.”

While some buildings in the district may never be salvaged, Wright says, Czech and Bohemian cultural programs will continue.