Middle of the Map Fest

Ink's Middle of the Map Fest – held annually in various venues and locations around Kansas City, Missouri – curates and cultivates the unique arts and creative culture of the Midwest, bringing together a sense of community in local and national talent in an annual festival featuring music, ideas and film. The Music Fest is curated by Nathan Reusch (The Record Machine) and Chris Haghirian (Ink magazine).
The #MOTMKC app is your personal guide to everything the fest has to offer.

– Keep up with breaking news and festival announcements.– Purchase tickets directly through the app.– Get information on every film, speaker and musical artist that will be appearing.– Build your personal itinerary for the Film, Ideas and Music portions of the fest.– Help us plan for future fests by rating every film, speaker or artist you catch.– Create custom #MOTMKC photos to share with friends via Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and more.

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* FILM **The festival again includes its Film Fest held April 28-May 1 at the Alamo Drafthouse Mainstreet in downtown Kansas City. The film fest will be screening a diverse cross-section of curated films. Special guests and fanfare parties will also be hosted throughout the event.

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* IDEAS **Formerly known as the Forum, this portion of the fest is now called Ideas and will feature a series of speakers, including former "SNL" cast member Armisen, who is co-creator and star of the TV comedy “Portlandia.” He will speak at the Uptown Theater on April 30. Other Ideas speakers: Aaron Draplin, designer and founder of Field Notes; Tom Vanderbilt, author of "You May Also Like" and "Traffic"; and Nolan Gasser, chief musicologist at Pandora radio. They will speak at the Plaza branch of the Kansas City Public Library on May 2 and 3.

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* MUSIC **More than nine dozen bands and music performers will descend upon Kansas City for the four-day music festival, which runs May 4-7, a Wednesday through Saturday. Among the headliners: Cold War Kids, Aimee Mann, Manchester Orchestra, Zhu, Vince Staples, and Charles Bradley. The list of bands includes 75 local acts. Venues include Californos (indoor venue and the patio), the Westport Saloon, Ernie Biggs Dueling Piano Bar, Mills Record Co., Crossroads KC, the Arvest Bank Theatre at the Midland, the Brick, the Tank Room and the RecordBar.

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* ABOUT INK MAGAZINE **Ink magazine and inkkc.com are Kansas City's premier lifestyle and entertainment publication and website for young professionals. Owned by The Kansas City Star, Ink is one of KC’s largest weekly publications. It is Kansas City's most comprehensive source for music information and coverage. Focusing on what’s new in the area's musical landscape, Ink tells the stories behind the music with cover stories on emerging artists, regular band features and the area's most expansive weekly guide to concerts and shows. Ink's music mission goes beyond the magazine with a signature concert series and event partnerships.

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* ABOUT THE RECORD MACHINE **The Record Machine is a homegrown, pioneering independent record label based in Kansas City, MO. We originally established the label to promote and release music from our hometown, but, as time went on, we began releasing records from all across the country. We aim to work with a diverse group of musicians who are hardworking, dedicated, and stand-out on their own accord. Our catalogue is an eclectic mix; we are proud that we don’t fit into any single genre and that there is a unifying, uplifting quality to our releases. We hope to nurture those musicians and connect them with a wider audience. Tim Finn of The Kansas City Star remarked about The Record Machine’s output "[They] have assembled a stable of diverse artists who are making music that deserves national attention."