A popular summer concert series in central Iowa is changing its venue. Andy TeBockhorst, the interim executive director of the Des Moines Music Coalition, says the 80/35 Music Festival has been held the past 14 years in the Western Gateway area of the capitol city’s downtown, but it will move to Water Works Park this July 12th and 13th.
“We’ve already seen Water Works Park be established as a premier concert venue for central Iowa, and moving the festival there does a number of things for us,” TeBockhorst says. “It opens up opportunities for additional activities, additional stages. We’re going to have stuff going on all over the park.”
The 1,500-acre Water Works Park is enormous, almost twice the size of New York’s Central Park. Another change in 80/35 this summer will be the addition of overnight camping, mirroring the Hinterland Music Festival, which is scheduled for August in Saint Charles.
“We’re learning from them and we’re partnered with them and we think it’ll be a big thing,” TeBockhorst says. “It’s just an opportunity for people to get really, fully immersed in the experience.”
The festival will feature a main stage in the paid area, and free stages for anyone to attend. In past years, 80/35 has drawn crowds of 25- to 30,000 for the music, art and culture, and he’s hoping the new venue will allow it to grow even larger.
“We’re just hoping that this is an all-new experience. This is a premier event for central Iowa and it’s one of the largest nonprofit festivals in the country,” TeBockhorst says. “It’s the only nonprofit one in Iowa and we just think it’s a really important thing for central Iowa and we can’t wait to have people come back.”
The lineup will be announced on April 12th and TeBockhorst says it will include local, regional and national bands and artists across several genres, including multi-Grammy-winning headliners each night. The theme for this year’s 80/35 is, “Some Call It Sorcery, We Call It Music.”