Soberfest III is now taking submissions from musicians in recovery for consideration as performers at the festival!  The Annapolis Area Intergroup Activites Committee is hosting the event, to be held at the Anne Arundel County Fairgrounds in Crownsville, MD (just outside of Annapolis) on September 3th, 2011. 

Last year's edition of Soberfest was a huge success, and this year we're expanding the number of slots available. In addition to more than a dozen musical acts on two stages, Soberfest III will also feature recovery workshops, kid's entertainment, speakers, and more!

Absolutely NO alcohol or drug use, or intoxication of any kind at the event will be permitted.  This goes for performers, volunteers and patrons alike.  Sorry, no pets allowed on the fairgrounds!  Although technically, if you had a dog actually in your band, that would be OK.  Drummers are not considered pets and will be allowed on the premises.

What is a sober band?

If your act has any members in 12 step recovery, we wanna hear from ya!

The Selection Process

The selection committee is made up of music industry professionals in recovery, with over a century of combined experience in Venue and Artist Management, Recording, Radio, Journalism and Performance. We will be looking for professional or semi-professional caliber acts.  Don’t let the terminology scare ya, all that means is that your act should be experienced in live performance, with a well rehearsed live show.

The committee is dedicated to selecting artists from a wide range of locales and genres, in an effort to represent the diversity of Alcoholics Anonymous and the creativity of its members.  Rock, rap, metal, bluegrass, country, jazz, punk, jazz-punk, singer/songwriter, world, alternative, psychobilly, kazoo/oboe quintet, mariachi…you name it, we want to hear from you!

But remember…performance slots are limited, and we are hoping for a big response from The Fellowship. For Rock, Rap, and Pop genres, bonus points go to acts that perform primarily original material.

How do I send you my stuff?

The easiest and quickest way to submit will be to submit links to your Electronic Press Kit, MySpace or Facebook page (or similar, such as Purevolume), or personal band website that has samples of your music for the committee to consider.  If there are multiple songs up for review on these pages, please note which ones you think we should focus on (please limit to 1 or 2).   Alternately you can email us mp3’s to the submission address.  Please limit the number of attached mp3’s to two songs that you best feel represent your act. 

Along with your music we would like a short bio and history and vague recovery status of your group; for instance, “We are a rock band with three drunks, a junkie, and an Earth Person.”  Include lineup & instrumentation information as well.

The contact and submissions email for musicians is perform@soberfestannapolis.com

If for any reason you are unable to submit music online, please contact us at the submission email address and we’ll discuss alternate arrangements.

The deadline for submissions is August 9, 2011.  

If you are selected, we will be in contact with you.  Please don’t be discouraged if you are not selected. We could probably book a week-long festival and only scratch the talented surface of AA.  We will also keep your info on file for any future music and recovery related events that we or other groups might like you to perform at. 
      
Other Music-Related Volunteer Oppurtunities

We will also be needing LOTS of volunteers to help in a wide range of roles, security/parking, stage managers and assistants, engineers and techs, coordinators, etc.  If you have any experience on the live music circuit, you more than likely can help us out.  Your help is greatly needed and appreciated!  If you are interested, please email us at volunteer@soberfestannapolis.com with an appropriate title in the email, and we will be in touch.   

Last year's event was a huge success, and once again our goal is get Intergroups involved from around the mid-Atlantic region to work together to make Soberfest an even bigger success in the years to come, so that we can bring together people in recovery in an informative and entertaining atmosphere in the spirit of our 5th Tradition and 12th Step…carrying the message of recovery to alcoholics. 

Sincerely,

Annapolis Area Intergroup Activities Committee