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| Around Town |
 Mission Creek Music Festival
Still relatively nascent (2008 marked its third birthday), Iowa City’s obsessive live music scene finds a flashpoint in each spring’s Mission Creek Music Festival. Falling typically during the final week of March, Mission Creek lasts four days and spans a number of local venues (from coffee houses to dive bars to satellite shows played in Davenport) and musical genres. Past headliners include The Walkmen, Spoon, Cursive, Dan Deacon, Bon Iver, Tilly and The Wall, and Tapes ‘n’ Tapes, along with an abundance of local talent from the Midwestern states.
Mission Creek has continued to grow steadily each year, teaming with other local music-providers like the University’s SCOPE productions and Davenport’s Daytrotter music studio to produce shows. Not only that, but this year the Creekers began to expand from only the spring months to create a more prominent cultural presence, hosting panel discussions on topics like music blogging.
Along with tickets to individual shows, Mission Creek offers four-day passes good for the entire festival at $40 a pop and two-day weekend passes for all shows on Friday and Saturday for $30.
All in all, the festival is a good representation of not only the surprisingly diverse music scene of Iowa City, but also the passion the people living here have for keeping it thriving.
The 10,000 Hours Show
The 10,000 Hours Show is the ultimate combination of altruism and music (other than those cheesy charity singles like “We Are the World”). The organization’s goal is to encourage young people, particularly students, to volunteer and improve local communities. The name comes from the amount of volunteer hours it hopes to get each member to serve during the year. Participants who serve at least 10 hours are rewarded with a free concert ticket. Now in its fifth year, the 10,000 Hours Show has spread from the University of Iowa to various other Iowa campuses as well as moving up to Wisconsin. Artists partnered with the 10,000 Hours Show in previous years include Ben Folds, Guster and Cake. This year, the concert will feature Ok Go!, and the 10,000 Hours Show Web site states that the organization “is gearing up for a record-breaking year.”
 Riverfest
As of April 25, spring in Iowa City will officially begin with the arrival of the 30th annual Riverfest. This two-day celebration includes everything that should be included in a spring festival: food, carnival-like attractions, and, of course, music.
This year, the student organizers of Riverfest have decided to refocus the activities around the various close-to-home bands they’ve booked. Music will range from the pop/rock sounds of locals Minus Six to the Jumbles, a Caribbean band from Trinidad. Headlining is Quietdrive, a rock band from Minneapolis that is currently touring the country.
In addition to the featured bands, there will be an art fair across the river bank by Hancher. The annual fair features local artisans selling artwork and jewelry. Riverfest-ers can also choose to participate in a raffle or, more excitingly, the dating game, where festival-goers can sign up to hopefully spark a romantic connection with other singles in Iowa City.
 SCOPE
SCOPE is the University of Iowa's student-run concert promotion and production company. A fierce competitor for other local concert venues, the 40 students of SCOPE brought Wilco, Ryan Adams, Three Dog Night, Kings of Leon, Elvis Costello and Bob Dylan in to perform on campus in fall 2007. SCOPE has been a campus presence for almost four decades, brining in past acts like Metallica, U2, Elton John, Neil Diamond and Guns 'N' Roses.
"At most colleges, adults do this job," SCOPE director of operations Shannon Boshart said in a Daily Iowan article last fall. "When you're talking with a tour manager, they don't care that you're 20 years old with three midterms in one week. Every show, we continually have to prove ourselves. I have a feeling managers usually have a negative idea coming into it, but they usually say they had a good experience." -- Daily Iowan Arts Staff
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This section's contents are produced entirely by student journalists, brought to Billboard.com by UWIRE, the leading provider of student-generated content. UWIRE aims to identify and promote the brightest young content creators and deliver their work to a larger audience via professional media partners such as Billboard.com. Visit UWIRE.com to learn more. |
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This town profile was produced entirely by student journalists from The Daily Iowan, the leading news source for the University of Iowa community. You can learn more about the individual student contributors by visiting their profiles on UWIRE.com:
Text: The Daily Iowan Arts Staff
Photo: The Daily Iowan Staff
Video: John Rigby
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