HUMBOLDT — The fourth annual Middle of Everywhere Festival — a three-day celebration of blues and roots music — returns Friday through Sunday in Humboldt.
Damaris Kunkler of A Bolder Humboldt, the driving force and founder of the music festival, is once again bringing in a group of talented musicians from across the midwest.
“This year is probably the most diverse in terms of music genres,” Kunkler said this week.
That’s been her dream since she started Middle of Everywhere in 2022: to find musicians from across Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma and Arkansas, “and have them meet here, in the middle,” she said. “Which is why we call it that.”
Kunkler also is specific in finding the preferred music styles, from electric blues, to ragtime, perhaps some soul and R&B mixed in. She also strives for a balance between male and female performers.
As Middle of Everywhere has grown in stature, the challenge of finding performers has shifted.
“The first year, I had to find everyone” to perform, Kunkler noted. “The second year, I still had to beat the bushes.”
But word of the festival, and its large, appreciative crowds, soon spread.
By year three, she had to do minimal searching because performers had begun reaching out to Kunkler to be included in the set list.
Even more have reached out since then.
“This year I had to tell some people ‘No,’” Kunkler said, noting the set list was already filled.
“And we already have next year booked, too,” she added.
THE SETTING changes for each night of the music festival.
Friday’s shows are a “music crawl” in downtown Humboldt, with Emree Gabriel, a 15-year-old singer-songwriter from Lawrence opening the fun at Octagon City Coffee Company at 4 p.m.
Tom Pevear of Tulsa takes the stage at nearby Cozy’s Grind Grindhouse at 5:30.
Humboldt’s own Dead End Strings wrap up the evening at Sticks Golf Lounge at 7 o’clock.
