Earlham and surrounding residents won’t have to travel far for free live entertainment each week this summer.

The Levitt AMP Earlham Music Series will host diverse mix of local and national music acts for 10 Sundays from 6-9 p.m. in the Earlham City Park. This is a free series that was made possible by a $25,000 matching grant from the Mortimer & Mimi Levitt Foundation, which helps fund concert events across the country. This differs from the $1,000 budget Earlham had for their concert series in previous years. Organizer Kate Williams gives emphasis to this award, “Not only are we the first in Iowa, we are the smallest across the United States, the smallest town. So fellow recipients of this grant are places like Chattanooga, Tennessee, Santa Fe, New Mexico. I mean these other towns have populations in the hundreds of thousands and here we are in Earlham with a population of 1,400. And there were several steps to us obtaining this grant that we did not think that we would get across those hurdles.”

Williams adds that Earlham received the most online votes of 48 cities who competed for these grants. The music series will begin on June 2nd, and those from near and far are welcome to bring their lawn chairs, beverages, and food. There will also be vendors and kids activities. Community groups also have the chance to fundraise through volunteering.