New Music Festival In Philadelphia To Put Spotlight On Songwriters

PHILADELPHIA — The Fallser Club in Philadelphia will host the inaugural 21 Songwriters Festival on Saturday in a daylong, donation-based event presented in partnership with Bigger Beast Records.

The festival will run from noon to 10 p.m. at 3721 Midvale Ave. and will include performances from 21 artists, along with workshops, networking opportunities and an on-site open mic.

The lineup is split between Philadelphia-based songwriters and nationally touring artists. Philadelphia performers include Ben Arnold, Meghan Carey, Sug Daniels, John Faye, Antar Goodwin, Bright Kelly, Kikashima, Lia Menaker, Liz Miller, Ash Phillips and Damian Stone.

Listed touring artists include Me Like Many, Liz Reed, Stephen Peter Rodgers, Arielle Silver, Jessica Smucker, Jesse Terry, Bryan Titus, Lee Totten and Frank Viele.

Workshops will cover booking, label and radio outreach, marketing and publicity for independent artists, songwriting, looping, performance, collective organizing and sync licensing.

Music-industry professionals on panels will include Jim McGuinn of WXPN, Jesse Lundy of Rising Sun Presents, Ramon Jones of The Recording Academy, Brianna DeMayo of Taste Creators, Monika Julien of Drexel University and Women in Music, Bo Raines of Calliope Coalition, and several participating artists and media professionals.

The event will also include time for artists to work on entries, in a limited capacity, for WXPN's 24 Hour Songwriting Challenge. The festival is set to end with an open mic hosted by Bo Raines and Christina Meadows.

“21 Songwriters has become one of the flagship events of Bigger Beast Records and our community outreach arm, All Boats Rise Entertainment,” recording artist and label founder Frank Viele said in a statement. “At its core, the festival is a celebration of the past, present and future of the songwriting community — built around the belief that music is at its most powerful when it brings people together.”

Organizers are also partnering with The Fallser Club to support its mission to build an incubator kitchen within the arts space, Viele says.

Click here for tickets.