When the organizers of 80/35 announced the beloved music festival was moving from the heart of downtown Des Moines to the more remote Water Works Park for 2024, I was apprehensive. After all, 80/35’s remarkable charm was entwined with its urban setting. Western Gateway Park is surrounded by restaurants, bars, and accommodation, making accessing the festival a breeze. A Saturday morning hangover was quickly dispersed by a visit to the vibrant Downtown Farmers’ Market, and hot weather was eased by browsing books in the air conditioned Central Library. The ten foot tall Miffy Fountain outside the Central Library encapsulated 80/35’s ethos: unorthodox, eccentric, and, above all else, memorable. Water Works Park, unfortunately, is none of these things.
While the 1,500 acres of open woodland has obvious natural beauty, that doesn’t make it an inherently suitable location for a music festival, especially one renowned for its comfort and convenience. The setting instead was incredibly uncomfortable and inconvenient. While there were elements that did work, such as the Hammock Village and Biergarten, these were overshadowed by an ill-conceived layout and a severe lack of cooler spaces. I appreciate that organizers can’t predict a heatwave, but hosting an Iowa music festival in July in a giant field with minimal shade isn’t ideal. Between the heat, humidity, and ravenous mosquitos, attending the festival became a sweaty, itchy, chore. This was a crushing disappointment considering how smoothly previous years have functioned.
This challenging spectator experience was reflected in the modest attendance. While casual crowds are expected at the smaller free stages, I was shocked by how few people had bought tickets to the main stage. Friday’s headliner OK Go looked desolate, and I was able to walk up to the second row ten minutes before triple Grammy winning rapper Killer Mike started his headlining set on Saturday. Killer Mike even commented on the sparse numbers, saying his manager had called to let him know this might be a “lighter crowd than usual,” before the show. “Consider this a big tiny desk concert,” he quipped with a smile.
The low turnout was symptomatic of an unpopular location and deeply underwhelming line-up. While Killer Mike’s headline credentials were well justified with an exceptional performance, OK Go simply don’t have the contemporary relevance to carry a festival in 2024. The rest of the bill was also lacking in bigger names, and felt like the weakest 80/35 lineup in the festival’s history. The 2018 main stage, for example, featured BJ The Chicago Kid, Car Seat Headrest, Courtney Barnett, and Kesha in succession on Saturday. This isn’t purely a post-pandemic issue either. Saturday night in 2022 saw Future Islands followed by electropop icon Charlie XCX on the mainstage.
The real shame is that a weak top bill impacts how many people come and experience the immensely talented local artists. Halfloves provided an assured show to close the Alchemy Stage on Friday night, running through a quality selection of songs, like the track “Bass Drum“, as the golden sun set behind them. This set offered a tantalizing vision of what the festival could be at Water Works Park: a Biergarten buzzing with people coupled with fantastic indie rock.
The Silent Stage, which hosted many of the local artists I was most excited to see, was a less gratifying experience. In theory, the stage innovatively combined a silent disco with live music, a hybrid I was certainly curious to try. In practice, however, requiring ungainly headphones to hear the artists simply detracts from the simple joys of live music: the audience participation, the conversations with friends between songs, the sonic richness that only giant speakers can produce. The headphones even sounded crackly at times, meaning it felt like I was listening to a pirated MP3 instead of a dynamic live performance. To compound matters, lines formed straight after sets finished to return the headphones, quickly overwhelming the workers tasked with exchanging the headphones for IDs.
Nonetheless, the artists on this stage still thrived. With his parents proudly watching on, Iowa City’s Jim Swim was joined by a succession of incredibly talented collaborators, Avery Moss, ALYX RUSH, and ADE, underlined the depth and breadth of his musical vision and output. Considering how central Jim Swim is to the fabric of the Iowa City music scene, it was wonderful to see his commitment to creative partnerships celebrated at 80/35.
Ahzia, another Iowa City based artist, delivered a confident and high energy show, sharing cuts from his fantastic new EP Verb. Despite the unconventional modality, the crowd was fully immersed in Ahzia’s set, captivated by his smooth flow and sharp one liners. Ion Alexakis on the decks galvanized Ahzia’s momentum with a series of quick blends, giving the show a vibrant mixtape feel. With the Silent Stage’s limitations, however, I spent much of these shows wishing I was enjoying the artists on the Alchemy Stage instead.
Tom Sachs created the Miffy Fountain, and designed the sculpture to circulate water through Miffy’s tears. When asked why he picked such a sorrowful emotion for the artwork, his response was simple: “She is crying because she is sad.” Like Miffy, I was left deeply sad after this year’s 80/35.
