Wildflower! Performing Songwriter Contest 2008

For 16 years, the Wildflower! Arts and Music Festival has produced a wide menu of musical treats from nostalgia acts, current popular acts, nationally known singer/songwriters, and local/emerging artists. Last year, over 71,000 people enjoyed the 3-day festival of music and art in Richardson, Texas, located just north of Dallas, Texas.

Contestants are competing for: Judges Choice - $100 and a new OM-2H Collings Guitar valued at $5,000. Three other finalists will be selected to each receive a $500 cash award.

News Flash: Announcing the 2008 Performing Songwriting School with instructors:

• Kathy Mattea – Multiple Grammy-winning artist
  
• Jon Vezner – Grammy-winning songwriter
  
• Pat Pattison – Professor at the Berklee School of Music in Boston and author of 3 books on songwriting.

The festival features two large outdoor stages for national acts, the Acoustic Café for local/emerging acts, and the Singer/Songwriter Stage for nationally known performing songwriters. This year’s festival will be held May 16-18, 2008.

The festival hosts the Wildflower! Performing Songwriter Contest, which is held each year on Saturday morning of the festival at the beautiful 350-seat Countrywide Theatre in the striking Eisemann Center for Performing Arts.

Submissions to the Performing Songwriter Contest are evaluated independently in blind screenings by several experienced songwriting/performance promoters. The screeners select the top entries and eventually, through a consensus building process, select 10 finalists to compete at the festival. The top three contestants, as selected by the judges, will each receive a $500 cash award. Even though only 3 of the 10 contestants will receive the cash awards, the real value of competing in the contest is the opportunity to share songs with the other contestants, as well as get to know and share songs with the nationally known singer/songwriters and performers.

Judges will also teach the 2008 Wildflower! Performing Songwriter School. Details will be posted on www.WildflowerFestival.net shortly. Enrollment is limited to 40 students. Interested persons should contact al.johnson@cor.gov to reserve a place in the school.

The contest is a performing songwriting contest. The entries will be judged based on the quality of their songs and the artist’s presentation of the songs.

The following genres are appropriate for this venue: Acoustic, Folk, Singer/Songwriter, Country, Blues, Americana, Bluegrass, and Celtic.

The Wildflower! Arts and Music Festival provides lodging for all contestants on the Friday of the Festival, as well as supplying the contestants with tickets to the festival, festival tee shirts, site transportation, access to the Green Rooms for food and drink, an opportunity to perform on the Acoustic Café Stage, sell CD’s, invitation to after-festival celebrations, as well as provide a complementary breakfast on the morning of the contest.

The Singer/Songwriter Venue partners with the Dallas Songwriters Association, Kerrville Folk Festival, Uncle Calvin’s Coffeehouse, and 20 non-commercial venues that offer original music in Texas to produce the event. Many of these promoters attend the festival and book artists they see in the contest and on the stages.

Please note: Songs that have been previously recorded and released on a label and not owned by the artist are not eligible for this contest.