There is a plan in Cedar Rapids to revive the downtown area and one of the initiatives is the “New Bohemia” artists area down in the area commonly known as Czech Village. To gain some support and awareness of this artists area the New Bohemia group is holding the 1st Annual New Bohemia Music Festival in this area on 3rd Street SE. The plan is to block 3rd Street SE off between 9th Avenue and 14th Avenue and have outdoor and indoor music performances all day from 3PM to 10PM – around 50 bands, musicians and performers. The admission is $10 in advance and $15 at the gates and includes shows at the bars in this area including 3rd Street Live and Tornados. The lineup includes some area mainstays like Dave Zollo and The Diplomats of Solid Sound, BF Burt, Nick Stika, Super Size Seven and Dennis McPartland and Craig Erickson. I’m thinking of heading down there if only to catch Zollo and the Diplomats. The outdoor shows finish at 10PM, but the bar shows will continue until close. The Diplomats are the headliners at 3rd Street Live and Zollo is the headliner at New Bo Park.

This seems like a really great event and I hope that they make this a yearly event– however, the publicity for this event was virtually nonexistant! I found out about this only because I was looking to see where the Diplomats were going to be next. I spread the word to the people I know who like live music but there has been very little press. The Shopper Stopper from this week has an article on it.