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Provo City News

NPR’s World Cafe Wins Award With Story About Provo

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By Richard Provost

Provo, Utah’s flourishing music scene was featured extensively on NPR’s World Cafe program last January. Part of the show’s “Sense of Place” series, Provo was one of the musical hotspots explored by Stephen Kallao, Miguel Perez, and their team. The series covered local musical trailblazers The Clingers, more current bands like The Aces and James The Mormon, and the publisher of Provo Music Magazine Zach Collier.

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Most notably, the episode about Velour Live Music Gallery owner Corey Fox – arguably downtown Provo’s most successful music venue – was recently awarded the Bronze Award for Human-Interest Feature by the New York Festivals Radio Awards.

The New York Festivals Radio Awards honor “the exceptional and innovative content being created today on all continents and seen across all platforms” and aims to “respect the achievements of the many talented men and women who make up the worldwide creative community.”

Book on Tape Worm performing at Velour Live Music Gallery.

The winning episode in question explores the history of Velour as a local venue, the highs and lows of local live music, and the legendary story of Brandon Robbins, frontman of The Moth & The Flame, donating a kidney to Corey Fox. The music and members of Provo-born bands Sego and The Moth & The Flame also make appearances in the episode.

“Provo music and the people and stories of the scene have proven time and time again to be something special,” writes Provo Music Magazine’s new editor Michael Luce. “A major congratulations from all of us here at Provo Music Magazine to both the World Cafe staff and everyone featured in the episode on receiving such an awesome honor.”

You can listen to the award-winning episode below.

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Provo City News

Provo Halloween Festival Celebrates Its 5th Anniversary

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By Mike Romero

It’s been 5 years since Alex Vaughn, Corey Fox, Paul Nahrwold, and Dean Cheesman unleashed Buzzards & Bees on the world. A spooky music festival Provo had never seen before, their vision featured costumed indie musicians and costumed concertgoers filling venues all across downtown Provo.

Utah’s only Halloween-themed music festival, it consists of two events: Goth Prom and the Buzzards & Bees Music Festival itself. Goth Prom is a kickoff event for the weekend and is held every year at Velour Live Music Gallery on University Avenue. Participants dress as their saddest selves and have the time of their lives. The actual music festival is Saturday and features 80+ Utah bands.

Goth Prom featuring DJ KID MACHINE will take place tonight, October 20. Buzzards & Bees will take place across 11 venues in downtown Provo on October 21, 2023.  Tickets for both events are on sale now.

Additional festivities include street performers, a costume contest, a mask-making station, spooky story-telling, and more. One ticket gets you in to all 11 venues. It’s one of the busiest single nights of the year for Provo music. Check out the schedule below.

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Provo City News

Folk Band Local Kin Wins Prestigious Local Talent Competition

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By Mike Romero

Last week, Velour Live Music Gallery hosted their semi-annual Battle of the Bands. Unlike most competitions of this nature, this week-long event has been consistently praised for its curation, feeling more like a music festival than an amateur level talent competition. Past winners include Neon Trees, Imagine Dragons, The Aces, and The Backseat Lovers.

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The 20-band lineup for the week was chosen from over 60 submissions. Attendance averaged over 200 people per night, with two nights selling out Velour Live Music Gallery completely. By the time the sold-out final show rolled around Saturday night, only five talented acts remained: Chi Chi le Möt, The Mellons, The Plastic Cherries, Local Kin, and Jumpmonk.

Provo Music Magazine praised Local Kin’s performance. In particular, they complimented their “earthy, down-home folk,” their “powerful opener,” and the “jubilant” feelings their set evoked.

In the end Local Kin was chosen as the winner of the competition. They took home a cash prize, free mixing and mastering services, and additional promotional help. You can listen to their song “The Crab” below.

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