The Original Festival
Through collaboration with a diverse selection of local and regional artists and businesses, and with applied creative thinking, we are looking to bring you what we hope will turn into a new annual musical, artistic and cultural performance festival for the Mining City.
We intend to produce an interactive arts and music festival—for all ages—that will surely leave a positive impact for the years to come, and potentially grow in to a national event.
We will be featuring the highest quality sound and lighting provided by local production experts, Montana Pro Audio.
We intend to provide a schedule of workshops that may allow first introductions to musical instruments and fine art materials, encouraging collaboration and creative experimentation among our youth attendees.
A curated selection of art installations will be setup around the area featuring juried works from local and regional artists. We also intend to encourage live art demonstrations that you can witness alongside the festival’s featured musical performances.
Food, drink, arts and crafts vendors will be allowed to submit applications for approval within this event, however the number of vendors will be limited to only available spaces appropriate for the festival site. Most importantly, proceeds of the Original Festival benefit two of Butte’s most deserving organizations, Keep Dancing-Scholarships for the Arts and non-profit culinary arts school, Culina Vitalis.
Keep Dancing seeks to support young artists through mentorship, exhibition events, and creative education awards. Keep Dancing is dedicated to the celebration of the life and work of Sara Mirabdolbaghi. Keep Dancing will have a hands on music workshop setup throughout the two day event to give lessons on instruments from festival performers and local musicians. Culina Vitalis is a non-profit culinary arts school for at risk youth. This group is located at the Park and Main Café where they teach not only outstanding cooking skills, but hands on experience in the food business.