Atlanta, GA’s iconic Music Midtown and Well Dunn, the Atlanta, GA-based non-profit organization providing inclusive and equitable experiences to socioeconomically diverse students, have joined forces for the upcoming #iVoted Festival, a star-studded non-partisan election night webcast featuring the top trending artists in and from key battleground states. Beginning at 4 pm ET on Tuesday, November 8, fans can access the stream by RSVPing with a selfie at home with their blank and unmarked ballot or from outside of their polling place. Complete details can be found now at ivotedfestival.org.
Georgia is once again a key battleground state, where the electoral margin might well be decided by the same number of people attending a concert venue. The virtual Music Midtown & Well Dunn Stage will showcase an array of the top trending artists in and from the Peach State, including appearances by such local heroes as The Revivalists, Brittney Spencer, Lawrence Flowers & Intercession, A$H, Glimmers, The Carolyn, Brother Hawk, Noél Scales, Rebecca Loebe, The Relics, and more. The event was recently featured in Empower Atlanta Magazine HERE.
Presented by Mandolin, #iVoted Festival made its debut in 2020 with an immersive two-day event that proved the largest digital concert in history. This year will feature an all-star roster of diverse artists on stages across the US, with performances and appearances including “A Conversation w/ W. Kamau Bell & Tom Morello,” Billie Eilish, Run the Jewels (in an exclusive rebroadcast of their Holy Calamavote TV concert), Steph Curry, Eugene Mirman, Lake Street Dive, CNCO, Rise Against, Umphrey’s McGee, Los Lobos, Crime and the City Solution, Yonder Mountain String Band, Shakey Graves, Taylor Bennett, Carl Craig, Em Beihold, The Black Angels, Messer, The Range, Bully, VINCINT, Umphrey’s McGee, DeVotchKa, 3OH!3, Black Stone Cherry, El Trono de Mexico, Piper Perabo, La Bouche, Fabiø Guerra, Richard Marx, Jamby El Favo, The Happy Fits, Jaret Reddick (Bowling for Soup), Twiztid, The Suffers, and many more. For the full #iVotedFestival lineup, please visit ivotedfestival.org.
“I thought of #iVoted Festival after realizing various electoral margins were decided by the size of a concert venue and know that young people are historically a low turnout group,” says #iVoted Festival’s Founder & CEO Emily White. “I thought, ‘Why don’t we produce a compelling concert to tie in voting and increase turnout?’”
The 501(c)3 non-profit #iVoted proved a landmark success, with data-driven analysis by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology determining #iVoted increases turnout by over 7% while traditional Get Out The Vote drives generally increase turnout by just 0.5-1%. #iVoted quickly followed up by producing #iVoted Festival Georgia for the state’s special election in January 2021 that determined control of the United States Senate. Similar to the original #iVoted Festival, fans RSVP’d with a selfie at home with their blank and unmarked ballot or from outside of their polling place, while top artists were booked based on what fans in Georgia were listening to and engaging with at the time.
Last month saw the launch of #iVoted Festival’s #iVotedEarly Sweepstakes. U.S. residents can submit a selfie from outside their nearest polling place or at home with a blank and unmarked ballot to win tickets to more than 600 concerts nationwide, including Georgia shows from “Weird Al” Yankovic, Rina Sawayama, Better Than Ezra, Tigers Jaw, Maz Jobrani, Dhruv, and more. All #iVotedEarly Sweepstakes entries are RSVP’d for #iVoted Festival’s election night webcast. Underage fans can enter by letting event organizers know the first election year that they will be eligible to vote and why they’re excited to do so. Non-U.S. residents can also RSVP to #iVoted Festival 2022 by letting them know which artist they’re most excited to check out.
This year has seen White interviewing #iVoted Festival 2022 artists in state-themed episodes of the official #iVoted Festival Podcast, with in-depth discussions covering registration, turnout, and the crucial issues at stake in this election year. E5: The New South focuses on Georgia, featuring interviews with the Chief Legal Officer for the New Georgia Project Aklima Khondoker along with many of the artists set to perform performing on the Music Midtown Well Dunn Georgia Stage. #iVoted Festival Podcast is available at all leading podcast providers HERE.
