Are you looking for something unusual and artistic to do on Thursday, Friday or Saturday this week? The Baltimore Music Conference, which runs from now through Saturday, Sept. 20, is a celebration of new music and art in the format of a combination festival and conference.
This massive festival, being staged at various locations throughout the city, features over 150 bands and DJs, as well as dance performances, independent film screenings, seminars and panels, artists, vendors and sponsors. The festival's organizers expect upward of 4,000 attendees at the festival. Musicians, performers and audience members alike come from up and down the east coast and around the country to be a part of the Conference.
Featured music genres include electro-acoustic ambient, hard rock, hip hop, psychedelic rock, rap, indie/emo rock, acoustic folk, American roots and blues. The festival hosts performers at various locations throughout Baltimore, so you can stay in one place or hop around Baltimore to enjoy the Conference. The venues are all very different: you can enjoy new music at a chic lounge or a dive bar, and ticket prices for the venues range from $7 to $20. The concert locations include the 8X10 Club, The 13th Floor (at the Belvedere Hotel), Bedrock, Eden's Lounge, Hour Haus, Joe Squared, Leadbetters, Lemongrass, Mosaic, Shorty's Martini Bar & Lounge, the Ottobar, the Black Hole, Tyson's Tavern, Babalu and Fletcher's.
On Friday and Saturday, at the Hilton Garden Inn in Inner Harbor, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., several free seminars are being offered with advice on how to succeed in the entertainment business (or any business) today. The topics include, but are not limited to, Green Machine: Music's Ecological Interests, Indie Labels, Digital Production 101, Songwriting and Publishing-Copyrights, Promo 101: Getting Your Name/Show/Party/Business Out There, Networking for Success, Social Media: Blogging Your Way to Fame and Recording on a Shoestring Budget.
The festival is the best way to see what's new in the music and art scene and, if you're feeling creative and ambitious, learn how to get involved yourself. Visit http://bmcon.org for more details.
