Hundreds of people can again flock to the City of Earlham this summer to see musical acts from across the country free of charge.

For a second consecutive year the Earlham Chicks with Checks has received a $25,000 matching grant from the Levitt Foundation for 10 weeks of outdoor concerts. Earlham is the only town in Iowa to receive this grant, and Chicks with Checks member Kate Williams says what’s even more impressive is that Earlham received the most online votes versus towns 10 times its size.

Williams shares last year’s series garnered attendance of nearly 800 people, including some from outside the state, “I talked to a couple one night that just happened to be driving down Interstate 80, they were driving from the west coast to the east coast and they Googled ‘live music,’ and our concert series popped up and so they stopped. They were from California and they stopped on their way to the east coast and attended our Sunday night concert. So the feedback from people from our community was great and those who attended from outside our community, they were just blown away as well.”

Besides bringing free entertainment to town and helping raise funds for local groups, the series widened the musical preferences of community members and left musicians eager to perform in Earlham again. Now begins the planning for this summer’s Levitt AMP Earlham Music Series and local input is wanted. More information on volunteering can be found here, or by emailing LevittAMPEarlham@gmail.com.