| A recap from our Senior Marketing Manager, Cat Dooley:
Our team landed in New Orleans Thursday morning and got straight to work decorating our showcase room and preparing it for a busy night of folk-ing fun! Our night started with Pieta Brown, Iowa City's very own. We wanted one of our local songwriters to kick us off and set the scene for what Iowa City Songwriters Festival is all about. It wasn't hard to pack our small hotel room and feel collective sways and hums from the crowd. If the door opens, you may hear next door's showcase or excited conversation from the hallway, but it only amplifies the experience. We followed Pieta with Rachel Sumner & The Traveling Light, who immediately got us all stomping our feet. You could hardly tell there was no amplification, just acoustic instruments and vocals. Moving into The Milk Carton Kids, our room began spilling out with people eager to catch this duo in an intimate setting. We had folks stick around after their set and chat with them for a while, laughing, swapping industry secrets, and sharing compliments with the two performers. Kyshona was a real treat. Each song not only meant something so personal to her, but she brought us all into her story. We sang along, cried, reminisced, and all left feeling covered in love. To end our night, DUG took us on a hilarious journey from bible study stories to a folk diss track about venue promoters. Luckily, The Englert got a special shoutout that we are not the "evil promoter man" and the room was filled with laughs and boot stomps the rest of the evening. DUG stuck around chatting with our team, our showcase artists, and audience members for quite some time despite the late night. How could you want the night to end after experiencing such talent in such a unique space. We have two more nights of this magic and look forward to sharing more soon. Click the link below for a highlight reel from night one! | 
