2022 Mission Creek Festival begins Thursday in Iowa City

Exploration is Mission Creek’s mission. The festival, which starts Thursday, April 7, and runs through Saturday, April 9, in Iowa City, celebrates music and literature, stretching boundaries and minds in the process.

“What we always hope is that people will take a chance on something new that they haven’t heard before, because we think that they’ll really enjoy what we’ve put together,” said Brian Johannesen, one of the festival organizers, and senior programming manager at the Englert Theatre.

He’s especially excited to bring a newly minted Grammy winner to the festival.

Brooklyn, N.Y.-based Arooj Aftab — the first Pakistani woman to win a Grammy — is coming for an extended engagement, featuring a conversation with artists about art, a private performance at the University of Iowa and a mainstage festival performance at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at the Englert.

Nominated in two categories — best new artist and best global music performance — she won Sunday night in the global music award with "Mohabbat.“

“It’s a really cool opportunity to see Arooj play on Saturday at the Englert,” Johannesen said. “She’s a vocalist with just incredible talent and control. She’s super-unique in the style of music she plays.”

The event is stretching its footprint, too, as it returns in full-force from pandemic adaptations. The Englert, 221 E. Washington St., remains the festival’s headquarters, but visitors will find new spaces to explore, as well, including Riverside Theatre’s new home on the Ped Mall.

“That’s a fun space that we’ve never been in before, that should create some really intimate seated shows. That’s an aspect of the festival we’ve never had before, so we’re pretty excited about that,” Johannesen said.

Gabe’s is the third primary venue this year, but plenty of places are opening their doors to the festival, its artists and audiences, too. Most concerts are ticketed events, but the festival also offers plenty of free activities.

“During the day on Saturday, we have our usual huge slew of events,” Johannesen noted, “which includes the big free show at Big Grove Brewery.”

Also in the mix are a showcase at Trumpet Blossom, featuring four bands; the annual independent book fair in the lobby of the Hotel Chauncey; the fifth annual I.C.E. C.R.E.A.M. — Iowa City Expo for Comics and Real Eclectic Alternative Media — in Public Space One’s new Close House; and literary events at FilmScene and the Tuesday Agency offices in the Chauncey, as well as Prairie Lights Books.

Friday’s Lit Walk will light up six venues downtown.

The structure is designed to encourage people to “check out new things,” Johannesen said.

“There are longer breaks between the bands, and we’re treating the venues as stages at a festival, as opposed to individual shows. We want to encourage people to move around and go check out something new, and maybe find your new favorite bands. And if what you go check out isn’t your thing, we think that you’re still going to be able to take something away from it.”

Organizers are all about bringing a wide variety of styles and events to the lineup.

"Mission Creek is a festival that appeals to several different kinds of music listeners,“ Johannesen said, noting that the organizers have ”pretty distinctly different tastes in music, so the festival tends to reflect that, in terms of (the lineup) being not the biggest names that anybody’s ever heard of. That is intentional.

“We want it to be a festival that’s all about discovery, and finding something new that you had never heard of before that is now your favorite thing.

“And trying to catch people on (their) way up, as well,” he added. “There have been several performances that have been incredibly intimate and ended up being artists that blew up. When I was in college, Mission Creek had the Tallest Man on Earth perform at Public Space One in the basement of the Jefferson Building, and there were 80 people there, and it was incredible. Pretty much immediately after that, he blew up, and it was hard to see him in an intimate space again.

“It is a leap of faith. We sort of ask our patrons to trust us, and we just come up with artists that we think are doing something completely unique and engaging and we’ll present something that an audience will be surprised by and inspired by.”

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