Snoop Dogg, Steve Earle & The Dukes, Beach Bunny among this year's Independent Venue Week lineup

There’s no doubt that local musicians and smaller, independently owned venues suffered over the last year; festivals were cancelled and businesses were ordered to shut down. To help venues get back in the swing of things, Independent Venue Week returns with a bang, providing an abundance of programming to support the local music scene from July 12-18.

This year’s IVW features more than 450 shows at over 350 independent venues across the U.S. This is an explosive growth compared to last year’s 100 held shows during the pandemic. IVW’s programming started in 2018, with just twenty participating venues. This year, shows for Independent Venue Week will be held in all 50 states, including Puerto Rico and D.C.

Live music lovers can attend shows like: Snoop Dogg at Phoenix’s Celebrity Theatre, Steve Earle & The Dukes at Ram’s Head On Stage in Annapolis, Beach Bunny at Milwaukee’s The Cooperage, Afro-Cuban percussionist Pedrito Martinez at NYC’s DROM, and New Jersey DIY favorites Long Neck.

“Independent Venue Week exists to highlight the importance of independent stages all over the country, from the busiest of cities to the smallest of towns,” says Cecilie Nielsen, Director of Special Projects at Marauder, the firm that runs the American iteration of Independent Venue Week. “We’re thrilled that our full program reflects our mission and we are happy to see such a high level of participation following 16 months of hardship for independent live music.”

This year’s selected IVW artist ambassador is genre traversing musician and producer Bartees Strange. Previous artist ambassadors include Alison Mosshart of The Kills, Fantastic Negrito, and Chuck D.

“It was at small independent venues that I found my first idols, eventually grabbed drinks with them, and learned that we were the exact same” Strange says in a press release. “That was powerful for me—and I think that the more we make music accessible to everyone, the more people and experiences we’ll see reflected across it.”

You can find participating venues in your area on their website.