This free one-day workshop and networking event is for music presenters, arts administrators, artists, emergency professionals, and event organizers. It utilizes the infrastructure and grounds of the Kansas City Folk Festival and Folk Alliance International Conference as a hands-on classroom for elevating the safety, safety, accessibility, sustainability, and community responsiveness of events, and to build resilience in our communities.

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Program highlights include:

Event and emergency electrics mini-masterclass by author and certified entertainment electrician Richard Cadena
A talk by Lumbee/Tuscarora singer-songwriter and entrepreneur Charly Lowry on building community from the ground up through arts and events
Workshop in solar-powered stage design
Roundtable on music as a vehicle for community engagement, featuring Jacob Wagner (UMKC Professor of Urban Planning & Design), Anita Dixon-Brown (Executive Director of UNESCO Creative City of Music: Kansas City), Kathryn Persley (Make Music Day), Dina Newman (Director, UMKC Center for Neighborhoods) and Danny Powell (Heartland Song Network).
Jensen Adams (Energy Sustainability Officer of Kansas City Public Library) shows how physical and social infrastructure can play a role in community-driven disaster preparedness and response
... and more!

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Performing arts and live entertainment events are catalysts for culture and community-building. How can they also drive meaningful social transformation, equitable emergency response, and increased economic resilience for arts and events workers? What do our events look like when safety, accessibility, sustainability, and community are conscientiously placed at their center?

The program includes sessions led by specialists and advocates in these four areas, inviting participants to share their own experience and expertise throughout and encouraging speakers and participants to all take turns as both teachers and learners. The training also includes demonstrations of sustainable power and waste infrastructure and equipment, focusing on cross-fluencies between event production and emergency response. Participants will leave with concrete practices and resources to increase the safety, sustainability, accessibility, and community centeredness of their work. The program schedule will be posted shortly.

This pre-conference event is brought to you by the Kansas City Folk Festival, Folk Alliance International, Majestic Collaborations, Performing Arts Readiness, and local partners. It is part of the 2022 Folk Alliance International Conference, Living Traditions, taking place May 18-22 in Kansas City, MO. However this event requires separate registration here on Humanitix in order to participate.

You do not need to be registered for the conference to attend this event, although a certain number of spaces have been reserved for conference registrants.

COVID-19 Requirements and Restrictions

All attendees of the Art of Mass Gatherings event must adhere to the COVID-19 related safety requirements of the Folk Alliance International Conference, of which this event is a part. As of April 9th, 2022 but subject to change, these include:

Verification of a COVID-19 vaccination is required in order to attend.
Wear a face mask fully covering mouth and nose at all times while indoors attending event programming
Agree to temperature checks on site and agree to not attend events if showing symptoms and/or running a temperature above 100.4 F (38 C). Registrants must be fever-free without the help of medication in order to participate.
Adhere to all other health and safety protocols of the venues and hosting locations.

Guidelines may change with updates posted here and sent to registered attendees via email.