ATHFEST INCORPORATED

- Support the development and advancement of high-quality music and arts education for K - 12 youth in Athens
- Increase access to high-quality music and arts experiences for Athens youth and the larger Athens community
- Provide a platform to allow professional performing artists and visual artists an opportunity to share their work with the larger community
- Promote the rich music and arts culture and history of Athens, GA

The AthFest Music & Arts Festival began under the Athens Chamber of Commerce in 1997, set on increasing revenue for downtown businesses, hotels, and restaurants during the slower months of the University of Georgia (UGA) summer break and showcasing Athens, GA musicians and artists. AthFest, Inc. was incorporated as an independent 501(c)(3) in 2004, giving the festival and its board more autonomy to make decisions that favored economic growth, and emphasizing increased access to music and arts for all residents and visitors, regardless of income level. Since AthFest is free to attend and offers programming directed at youth and families, it has become a popular destination for low-income, minority families to have a fun, music and arts-based educational experience. The lineup of musicians and artists at the festival is diverse and strives to be continually representative of the evolving local and regional demographics.

With a mission focused on providing exposure and attention to the talented musicians and artists in and around Athens, AthFest presents 25 hours of free music across a range of genres on three stages over the course of the three-day event. The festival features 55+ local and regional visual artists in a juried artist market, highlighting the ceramic, glass, fabric, metal, painting, photography, and woodwork arts.

AthFest also includes KidsFest, a block-long area of downtown Athens focused on promoting music and arts appreciation for young people. The KidsFest stage features youth-focused music, dance, and spoken word performers, allowing them the opportunity to develop their craft while simultaneously encouraging young audience members to consider their own participation in the arts. The stage is home to the UpNext Showcase, an evening that presents local bands consisting entirely of middle and high school students. Additionally, KidsFest has a dedicated art tent that urges young people to try their hand at woodwork, painting, and ceramics.

Revenue from the AthFest Music & Arts Festival is used to support the organization's annual grant-making efforts. As of May 2020, AthFest Educates has awarded over $414,000 in grants to local schools, nonprofits, and government programs to support:
- music and arts non-consumable equipment
- music and arts programs and experiences
- art-based and music-based professional development for educators and/or youth development specialist

AthFest selects organizational partners that help advance the quality of the visual and performing arts of the area. We ask these partners to connect us with their networks and make connections to other stakeholders, both locally and regionally. Partners are selected based on their enthusiasm and willingness to sponsor or promote the festival and its mission to celebrate the local music and arts culture. AthFest also selects partners based on their connection to undeserved and minority populations in the area. We ask these organizations to help AthFest recruit talented musicians and artists from these areas and to help AthFest promote the free festival to these communities. The festival requires over 200 volunteers to operate effectively, so we also partner with organizations that help us recruit interested volunteers.

The AthFest Music & Arts Festival Planning Committee is made of 16 individuals, many of whom have served on the committee since the beginning, and all of whom are passionate about Athens, GA and its vibrant music and arts culture. Planning Committee members are selected based on their professional and/or volunteer experience in key areas. The Planning Committee members are experts in: band booking, event planning, sponsorship and vendor sales, merchandising, stage management, food and beverage management, volunteer management, youth art and music education, budget and finance operations, and nonprofit management. Planning committee members are asked to serve a minimum of 3 years to maintain consistency in event planning; thankfully most members decide to serve on the committee for an average of 5-7 years. The AthFest Educates Board of Directors provides fiscal and strategic oversight of the organization and its events, including the AthFest Music & Arts Festival.

The target audience for the AthFest Music & Arts Festival includes all local and regional residents and visitors. Athens, Ga. has a 35% poverty rate, one of the highest in the country, so the festival aims to attract all community members, including those from low-income families who typically do not have the resources to attend live music performances and artist showings in private venues and galleries. Over the past 5 – 7 years, Athens has seen an influx of Latinx residents, which has enabled the festival to add talented Latin musicians to the line-up and include a Latinx Showcase in the Club Crawl. Additionally, local LGBTQIA, black, and LatinX community leaders joined our committees in recent years to assist AthFest in bringing in more diverse talent to the festival to better celebrate the creativity and cultures of Athens.

While AthFest attendees come from all over the country, the vast majority of festival goers live within a 150-mile radius of Athens, Ga. AthFest caters to those who have the capacity to travel to Athens on a fairly regular basis – those who will be inspired by AthFest and return to Athens to listen to live music and support local galleries and other artistic offerings. Peak crowds of approximately 6,000 people attend the Friday and Saturday night headliner performances with a total three-day attendance of nearly 30,000.

AthFest promotes artistic collaboration and appreciation. Musicians and visual artists, and those who value music and the arts, come together and interact with each other over the course of these three days which creates a sense of artistic experimentation, creativity and freethinking.
AthFest is proud to dedicate an area of the festival to KidsFest to encourage the music and artist development of our young residents. We take great pride in the $414,000+ in grants we have awarded to local schools to support music and arts education and we feel the KidsFest area, and all of AthFest, is a continuation of that dedication.