Iowa-bound music festival seeks to raise rural awareness

Mark Moran
11 Jun 2026, 07:47 GMT+10

Organizers in Iowa are using music and community events to try to shift attitudes in rural America.

The Backroads Tour music festival is coming to the state this weekend as part of a 12-state tour. Each stop features different artists and events designed to bring rural communities together.

People who live and work in rural areas say they do not have many chances to connect outside of work and school, a dynamic researchers have described as creating “civic deserts” in rural communities.

Dom Holmes, community engagement director for Rural Organizing, said that isolation can deepen divisions among neighbors.

“Folks are just simply not gathering with their neighbors,” Holmes said. “They're in isolated bubbles, and they don't really know the neighbors that they feel animosity towards.”

The first Iowa stop is Saturday in Dubuque, along the Mississippi River on the state’s eastern border.

The tour then heads Sunday to Joel Zook’s 40-acre farm in Decorah. Zook said he hopes people use the bluegrass concert as a chance to get to know each other on what he calls his “little slice of heaven” in northeast Iowa.

“We'll get out there,” Zook said. “The concert will be in that hour before sunset, and it's beautiful.”

Source: Public News Service

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