Shipyard Music Festival, in their second year, has announced the 2019 lineup of bands who will be pulling into the harbor of downtown Cape Girardeau this September.
Jeff Rawson, creative director for local business Rustmedia, is once again serving as the event’s organizer. He says this year, they’re expanding it from one to two days, allowing for more playing time for each band.
Many of the bands in the lineup will be coming in from all across the country, including indie bands Jukebox the Ghost and Colony House, soul-rock group The New Respects, country bands American Aquarium and Animal Years, psychedelic folk band Liz Cooper & The Stampede, and rock bands Blackfoot Gypsies and Walden.
Missouri-based artists will include Dawson Hollow from the Ozarks, Tidal Volume from St. Louis, and Retro City from Cape Girardeau.
Retro City’s top song “Holiday” has over 135,000 listens on Spotify.
He said they have a goal to include more local and national bands to play at the event in the future.
“The genesis of [Shipyard Music Festival] is really from a product we operate called the Scout, which is a daily email that kind of talks about the good things in our area,” he said. “As we’ve traveled at Rust Media to different conferences, looking at the media landscape, event marketing was something that was always interesting to us.”
“A lot of sounds will be represented this year,” he said. “We’re kind of Spotify junkies now. We’re constantly listening to new stuff and trying to determine what would connect with both our local market and what exists here and new things that come.”
Rawson said they have received positive public response from the event. He said in April, they held a launch party where people bought tickets before the line-up was even announced.
Rawson says he “didn’t have access to the music festival environment” in his younger years, which motivated him to bring the experience closer to home in Cape Girardeau.
Rawson says we should expect a few more surprises pertaining to the event in the coming months.
“The music’s incredible, the stage is great, but there’s even more to discover at the Shipyard this year,” he said.
Tickets will be $30 for general admission and $100 for VIP. Tickets are available at www.shipyardfest.com.
The outdoor event will run from Sept. 27-28 in Ivers Square in Cape Girardeau.