A family-friendly music festival takes place on Sunday. Here's why you should go.

Paris Barraza, Des Moines Register
·4 min read

If you’ve ever wanted to hear live jazz music, see an orchestra perform, or experience some of Des Moines' talented dancers and musicians, you’ll have your chance at an inaugural music festival that aims to build community, be accessible and introduce listeners to sounds they may not be familiar with — all in one day.

Together Through Sound music festival — created by local musicians Ashley Eidbo, Katelyn Stessman and Billy “B.Well” Weathers — will bring together Iowa performers and creatives for a day that's all about connecting with others across diverse communities through the arts. It’ll be held at Riverview Park, 710 Corning Ave. in Des Moines, from 1 to 10 p.m.

Here are six things to know about the new music festival.

With multiple genres of music, there’s something for everyone

The festival will have six main music sections throughout the day: Indian fusion, Afrobeats, jazz, Latin and hip hop. Instead of Together Through Sound organizers picking out the performers for each section, they sought out artists involved in each section’s community to organize it.

Here’s the lineup:

  • Indian fusion: Des Moines dancers Ishara Dance with live vocals 1 to 1:45 p.m.

  • Afrobeats: Dance routines by R.A.W., or the Real Afro Warriors and more from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m.

  • Jazz: Damani Phillips Quartet, led by Phillips, who is the University of Iowa head of the jazz studies program, from 3:45 to 4:45 p.m.

  • Latino: Des Moines Andean and South American fusion band Son Peruchos, 5 to 6:15 p.m.

  • Hip hop: B. Wells and friends from 6:30 to 7:15 p.m.

  • Culmination concert from 8:30 to 9:45 p.m.

It’s a family-friendly music festival

Ashley Eidbo is the Together Through Sound festival director.
Ashley Eidbo is the Together Through Sound festival director.

A goal of the festival is to introduce young people to a diverse lineup of musicians across different genres. Eidbo, festival director, told the Des Moines Register that her parents never took her to a hip-hop show as a child, and there are people who may never take their kids to a classical show. Together Through Sound gives people of all ages a chance to experience something they might not otherwise. It’s also an opportunity to show people of all ages, especially youth, that it’s OK to be informed and interested in all different genres of music, said Weathers, creative director. After all, Weathers recalled a time when he used to be hesitant to show people what he was listening to on his iPod.

A 15-year-old student from Des Moines Public Schools will have her piece be performed

When Roosevelt High School sophomore Adalyn Sidon learned that her eight-minute full-orchestra piece would be performed at the inaugural festival, she was so excited, she jumped around her house for joy, she told the Register. Sidon has composed other pieces, in addition to being a multi-instrumentalist who plays the viola and mellophone, but this one, titled “Soliloquy,” emphasizes percussion and will be performed during the final set of the festival starting at 8:30 p.m. She began “Soliloquy” last year and finished it in March. Sidon, who has never taken composition lessons, hopes to continue with composing as a career.

It’s about building shared experiences

Billy Weathers is the creative director for the Together Through Sound festival.
Billy Weathers is the creative director for the Together Through Sound festival.

The origins of the Together Through Sound festival began as conversations between Weathers and Eidbo, who wanted to explore how to break down the barriers to classical music. Eidbo wondered if certain traditions, such as not being able to wear a hat at a concert, held some people back from experiencing the genre. Eidbo, in her pursuit of getting classical music to the community and make it exciting and accessible with Weather's guidance, realized the key to Together Through Sound was getting people in one space and having them experience something together. “Then they might have a relationship with a different group of people that they may not have encountered in their normal lives,” Eidbo said.

Together Through Sound is free to attend

To ensure the festival is truly accessible, it would need to be free. Otherwise, ticket costs, especially if there are multiple people in your party like your family, on top of food and transportation would make it difficult for some to go, Weathers explained.

The final performance will be grand

At 8:30 p.m., the final concert begins, bringing a full symphony orchestra that includes the Des Moines Vocal Arts Ensemble, local students and musicians from the festival earlier in the day who will perform orchestral music that listeners will find fun, Eidbo said.

You can purchase art and food

More than a dozen of artists — including photographers, clothing designers, caricaturists and jewelers — as well as nonprofit vendors, such as the Des Moines Playhouse and Des Moines Refugee Support, will be at the Together Through Sound festival. Attendees can purchase food from vendors such as Los Compadres Flaming Tacos, sibling-led business Musa’s Lemonade, Jambo African Cuisine and the soul food restaurant Joppa Experience.

Paris Barraza covers entertainment, lifestyle and arts at the Des Moines Register. Reach her at PBarraza@registermedia.com or follow her on Twitter @ParisBarraza.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: New music festival Together Through Sound launches in Des Moines