2024 in review

What a year it has been! We're very proud of everything we've accomplished this year and are looking forward to 2025. Let's take a moment to celebrate our 2024 achievements.

• We hosted 6 shows at 6 different venues (Sociable Cider, Zhora Darling, Green Room, Icehouse, 331 Club, and White Squirrel Bar).

• We booked 19 different artists and bands, 11 of which are led by women or non-binary folks.

• We supported our first Album Release Show - congrats D.C. Leonhardt!

• We introduced new events such as Sunday Scaries, Ghostchella, and Samhain.

• We partnered with Coffee Break Entertainment and The Mess Records to bring you more collaborative and exciting events.

• We applied for a St. Louis Park Arts & Culture Grant.

• We organized a raffle and raised over $200 for the What Happened to Dave Velk fund.

• We hosted our first community happy hour at Arbeiter Brewing.

• We provided two free musician photo shoots through our summer giveaways.

• We supported our community by attending (and sometimes photographing) innumerable other shows.

Curious about what we're planning in 2025? Sign up for our newsletter here!

Photos by Sarah Steffen, David King, and Sammie Jean Cohen

We have many people to thank for such a successful year. Thank you to all of the artists and venues we've worked with this year for trusting us to be your event partner. Thank you JT Viele at Open Mic MPLS for providing a consistent space for our community to grow organically.

Thank you Alek Glauvitz at Coffee Break Entertainment and Caroline Litteken at The Mess Records for being excellent collaborators and event partners this year. Thank you David King and Sammie Jean Cohen for capturing our events so beautifully. Thank you Shaela Rabbitt and Thomas Sticha at S'pose Marketing for designing such emblematic show art.

Thank you to our many sponsors and local businesses who made our events possible. Thank you Alexis Schramel and Michael Beatrez for your friendship and for brainstorming new creative ideas with me. And, of course, THANK YOU to each and every person who came out to our shows or engaged with us on Instagram; you're the reason we do what we do!

Stay tuned for 2025 projects and announcements coming soon. If you have ideas about the kinds of shows or other events you want to see next year, please let us know! Thank you for being on this journey with us.

Love,

Sarah

DancingFish Happy Hour at Arbeiter Brewing

Thank you so much for joining us for our first DancingFish Happy Hour! We had a great time connecting with new and old friends. Here are our reflections on the event.

Favorite beer: Arbeiter's Acid Factory: "A fun little beer that was in part inspired by orange sherbert push-pops, but with peach puree and apricot flavoring." Delish and dangerously drinkable.

Favorite snack: Trader Joe's Chevre goat cheese with fine herbs. Very fine indeed.

Favorite project we learned about: We are so excited about Cassandra Johnson's upcoming release, Where Will The Wind Take You. The first track is expected Oct 11!

Favorite compliment: We heard from you that you love DancingFish Events and are grateful for the events that we put on. Thank you so much for telling us - we really appreciate it!

We are hoping to make this a semi-annual tradition, so stay tuned for an announcement about spring 2025!

In the meantime, we are kicking off a busy fall show season with D.C. Leonhardt's album release show on Tuesday, Oct 8 at Zhora Darling. D.C. Leonhardt's original songs bring ordinary moments to life with both heartbreaking and comedic results. Blending the humors and tragedies of labor, love, and religion, D.C.'s talent for storytelling shines through in his debut album, (roughly). We hope you'll join us to hear it in its entirety and celebrate new music with us.

We're also very excited for Sunday Scaries on Oct 27 at Green Room, and GHOSTchella on Halloween at Icehouse. Tickets are on sale now, and we would love to see you there. Costumes are encouraged at both events, and you can even win prizes for your costume at GHOSTchella!

All my love,

Sarah

Spooky Season is HOT TO GO

October 2024 is crawling with excellent music events. You won't want to miss D.C. Leonhardt's Album Release Show, SUNDAY SCARIES at Green Room with Poison Ivy And The People and more, or GHOSTchella at Icehouse with Clayton Ryan, Bark Point, Bryn Battani and The Weeping Covenant. We're excited. Tickets are on sale, so don't delay, act now!

And keep an eye out for shows on Nov 2 and 6 as well!

P.S. We are doing a ticket giveaway! Enter before Sept. 7 at midnight for your chance to win two tickets to The Weeping Covenant's Long Haul release show on 9/15 at Green Room.

Enter on Instagram

Stay scary out there!

Sarah

Photo by @no_aesthetic_stills