With 55 bands playing eight venues over seven days, the festival showcasing Michigan bands covers a lot of ground and a lot of musical styles. The schedule and festival essentials at Local Spins.
Lighting Up Kalamazoo: Sounds of the Zoo boasts seven days of live music. (Photo/Derek Ketchum)
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There’s nothing quite like Kalamazoo’s Sounds of the Zoo festival.
Like the multifarious exhibits at a zoological garden, the week-long exploration of Michigan music takes visitors to eight different venues to soak in 55 bands and solo artists — something chief organizer Jennifer Hudson-Prenkert calls “a very unique music journey unlike any other music experience.”
It all revs up on Monday evening in the cozy confines of The Clover Room at 1501 Fulford St. in Kalamazoo with six tunesmiths and performers — Darcy Wilkin, Sammie Hershock, Kanin Wren, Hannah Rose Graves, Jessica Ivey and Dylan Tolbert — participating in a “singers-in-the-round experience.”
Kandace DC Lavender (Courtesy Photo)
The first session begins at 6 p.m.; the second at 8:30 p.m., with engineer/producer Ian Gorman also hosting a “Preparing to Record” workshop at 7:30 p.m. at his La Luna Recording & Sound Studio right next door.
But that’s just the first volley in the seven-day festival aimed at “generating the pure joy that music gives us,” with multiple performances at Old Dog Tavern, Green Door Distilling, Bronson Park, Wellspring, Crawlspace Comedy Theatre and Bronson Park, not to mention busking stations at several different locations on Saturday.
Get details, the performance schedule and a Top 20 playlist below. Plus, check out Local Spins’ coverage of Sounds of the Zoo 2023.
Hannah Rose Graves (Photo/Anna Sink)
SOUNDS OF THE ZOO ESSENTIALS
WHEN: Monday-Sunday (Sept. 23-29)
WHERE: Various locations in Kalamazoo
WEBSITE: https://www.soundsofthezoo.com/
ADMISSION: Free (with donations accepted online here)
THE DRIVE:
50 miles (49 minutes) from Grand Rapids
139 miles (2 hours, 17 minutes) from Detroit
75 miles (1 hour, 12 minutes) from Lansing
192 miles (3 hours) from Traverse City
SOUNDS OF THE ZOO: A TOP 20 LOCAL SPINS PLAYLIST
SOUNDS OF THE ZOO 2024: THE SCHEDULE
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