In the midst of the Mile of Music you will find at least several blocks of learning.

A $7,500 grant from the Bright Idea Fund within the Community Foundation will support more than 60 free, interactive music education activities during the music festival in downtown Appleton Aug. 2-5. This is the sixth Mile and sixth consecutive year that the Community Foundation has sponsored the music education activities.

Young festival-goers — and their adults — can learn anything from Brazilian Samba drumming, to dances from Ghana, to how to write hip-hop, to mariachi. You can learn to play guitar, drums, ukulele or tell “Stories that Sing.”

A team from Lawrence University faculty and students designs and schedules the music education sessions. This year, eight local high school students who are aspiring music educators are part of the Music Education Team as young ambassadors.

New this year are Mariachi workshops, lessons in how to do salsa and square dancing, and pop-up jam sessions by Wisconsin natives and Nashville artists Adrian+Meredith throughout the mile-long performance area announced through social media.

The music education activities this year will offer sessions particularly directed at children with disabilities. Collaborators include Creative Downtown Inc., The Building for Kids, Heid Music, the city of Appleton and the Hortonville High School Ukulele Crew.

See the full list of Music Education Events at MileofMusic.com.

You can make the Bright Ideas burn even brighter by adding your support.

Check out our current Bright Idea Fund results from 2018 – 2019!
See how our Bright Idea fund impacted our community last year.