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New Bohemia Music Festival set for Labor Day weekend

More than 60 local and regional bands have been booked to perform on nine different stages over Labor Day weekend for the second annual New Bohemia Music Festival, organizers announced today.

The festival will take place in Iowa City, Cedar Rapids and Waterloo on Aug, 29, 30 and 31. Profits from the festival will help support future programs and events designed to aid flood recovery efforts in the New Bohemia Cultural District, a Czech neighborhood in Cedar Rapids.

“This neighborhood has been through a lot this past year,” says Jim Jacobmeyer, president of the New Bohemia Group and organizer of the festival. “This festival marks the end of an extremely difficult summer and the promise of a better year ahead.”

Musical styles ranging from traditional bluegrass to industrial metal will be featured; also included will be children’s events, street performers, interactive art demonstrations and food vendors.

Tickets, good for all three days of music, are $12 in advance or $15 at the gate.

Through Aug. 29, tickets will be available online or at Stars Guitars, Jackbox/Nexus Shows, CDs Plus, Brewed Awakenings, Music Loft, Music Go Round, Tic Toc, Wittes End, West Music and 3rd Street Live! (in Cedar Rapids); and West Music and Record Collector (in Iowa City); Bob's Guitars, Mohair Pear (in Cedar Falls); and CD’s Plus (in Waterloo).

Scheduled to perform are dozens of individuals and groups including Baby Teeth, Black the Sun, Mike Belmont and Friends, Birth Rites, John Boller, Jason Ray Brown, Castle Ridge, Concrete Blanket, Casados, Mike Cox, Sarah Cram and the Derelicts, The Diplomats of Solid Sound, Feature Presentation, Gayla Drake Paul, the Dynaflows, East Eighteen, Happy Go Lovely, HEALTH, Inch 75, I:Scintila, Kalimbaman, Johnny Kilowatt Band, Josh Lamore, LWA, Minimalistic Orchestra, Matthew Grimm and the Red Smear, Terry McCauley, The Moment, Carol Montag, Murder by Death, Newickedream, Nothing’s Real, Poison Control Center, Post Mortem, the Pumpers, Puritanicals, the Slats, Pat Smith, Riley Smith, Southerly, Leo Speedragon, Shawn Ster, Shame Train, Teddy Boys, Unknown Component, Veritas, William Elliot Whitmore, Matt Woods and the Thunderbolts, Zbornik, Dave Zollo and many more.

The festival’s Mission Creek Stage will host several bands at The Industry, 211 Iowa Ave., Iowa City, from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m on Friday, Aug. 29; the Nexus Stage will host bands at the Pepsi Pavilion (on the grounds of the National Cattle Congress), 257 Ansborough Ave., Waterloo, from 3:30 to 1:30 a.m.; and the Tornado’s Stage will host bands at Next Door, 1736 16th Ave. SW, Cedar Rapids, from 3:30 to 9:30 p.m.

On Saturday, Aug. 30, the Linn County Blues Society Stage and the Stars Guitar Stage will host bands at Shores Central Park, 700 16th St. NE, Cedar Rapids, from noon to 9:30 p.m. Also on Aug. 30, the Mission Creek and Nexus Stages will host bands at the Third Base Sports Park, 7251 Mount Vernon Rd SE, Cedar Rapids, from noon to 9:30 p.m.

On Sunday, Aug. 31, the Third Street Live Stage, Arts Farm Stage and the Harvester Street Art Festival will take place on the Kirkwood Main Campus, 6301 Kirkwood Blvd., Cedar Rapids, from 12:30 to 9:30 p.m. Cedar Rapids native Riley Smith will perform on the Third Street Live stage from 7 to 9 p.m.

The New Bohemia Music Festival is a Freedom Festival-affiliated event. Freedom Festival button-wearers will receive $3 off gate admission.