Back after a two-year pandemic-induced hiatus, Greater Des Moines Music Coalition’s annual 80/35 Festival (named for interstates I-80 and I-35) returned to Western Gateway Park in “downtown-ish” (as one festival tee-shirt put it) Des Moines for two days on Friday, July 8th and Saturday July 9th. The festival, which includes numerous free stages for local and smaller acts sponsored as well as a larger ticketed headliner stage sponsored by Hy-Vee, is a non-profit festival which is 100% volunteer run committed to strengthening the live music scene in greater Des Moines.

The diverse line-up began on Friday afternoon with Guided by Voices taking the Hy-Vee stage first and getting the sun-drenched crowd roaring to life which powered through the hour set. The stage, with a viewing area split down the middle between general and VIP admission sections, filled up as GBV presented “21 of their over 1,600” songs, as Robert Pollard pointed out between numbers. Next up was Japanese Breakfast, who thundered onto the stage with a gong which prominently features on their Jubilee track “Paprika.” The tempo continued with the energetic “Be Sweet” and the summer dreamy and breezy “Kokomo, IN” rounding out the first three tracks on the LP before bringing in earlier favorites from the discography all performed while bathed in the hues of a gorgeous Iowa golden hour.

As evening turned to night, Father John Misty took the stage with his band for one of their first North American tour dates in support of the new album, Chloe and the Next 20th Century. Several songs from the new “obsolete Jazz” album (Tillman’s own words) were played along with favorites across the catalogue by Tillman’s 12-member band which sprawled out comfortably across the stage. Tillman and company seemed confident with the new material and in wonderful spirits with a buoyant energy that never eased up across the 19 tracks presented, closing out the night with a spectacular rendition of “I Love You, Honeybear,” which saw Josh Tillman maneuvering his way into and throughout the crowd.

Saturday, which started earlier (and hotter) than Friday, featured a full schedule of local and touring bands stretched across several city blocks that surrounded the main grounds. Among the street vendors, beer tents and food trucks that scattered the avenues, the sounds from the un-ticketed acts served as breadcrumbs to festival gems with not only the sounds of their music but also that of audience reactions. These tempting echoes, cascading down streets, between buildings and around blocks, worked to pull in and reward those that decided to venture away from the main stage and ticketed grounds. There, discoveries abounded, such as the post-punk Brooklyn-based quintet Geese and the Sydney and Melbourne-based dance pop group, Haiku Hands, which both commanded the attention of those present at the Kum & Go stage. Several blocks away, at the Local 5 Emerging Artist stage, Kelsie James (singer songwriter from Des Moines) pulled in an amble crowd of admirers with her tender and sturdy songwriting under the late-afternoon sun.

Back on the Hy-Vee Main Stage, 80/35 favorites Envy Corps fired up the afternoon crowd for the Chicago-based Jamila Woods who laid down several tracks from 2017’s HEAVN and 2019’s LEGACY! LEGACY!—including some unreleased music that set perfectly against the sunny, crisp summer afternoon. Following Woods came the bombastic and unstoppable Future Islands which saw Samuel Herring thundering across and on top of the stage in his usual exuberant, characteristic way, as they performed songs from latest LP As Long As You Are which is accepted gladly by a firecracker audience whose feet were often grass as often as their hands were in the air. Topping off the night and entire festival was headliner Charli XCX, bringing 21 songs from across the discography to an excited and buzzing main stage with every demographic of festival goer represented, including plenty of wide-eyed children starstruck watching from their parents’ shoulders, concluding a weekend that they will likely long remember and the greater Des Moines area’s return to live summer festivals.