(An Iowa News Service report) – Organizers in Iowa are using music and community events to try to shift attitudes in rural America. The Backroads Tour music festival is coming to the state this weekend. People who live and work in rural areas say they don’t have many chances to connect outside of work and school, which researchers say has created “civic deserts” in rural communities. Rural Organizing Community Engagement Director Dom Holmes says people feel isolated, leading to ongoing division among neighbors.
“Folks are just simply not gathering with their neighbors. They’re in isolated bubbles, and they don’t really know the neighbors that they feel animosity towards.” The Backroads Tour will wind its way across 12 states. The first Iowa date is in Dubuque this Saturday, nestled along the Mississippi River on the state’s eastern border.
The tour will then head to Joel Zook’s 40-acre farm in Decorah on Sunday. He says the most important thing for him is that people get to know each other during the bluegrass concert on what he calls his “little slice of heaven” in northeast Iowa. The concert will be in that hour before sunset, and it’s beautiful.”
Each stop on the Backroads Tour features different artists and events, with each designed to bring rural
communities together.
