DALLAS (CelebrityAccess) The JMBLYA music festival, which is expected to take place at the Fair Park in the Dallas-Fort Worth area May 3, has announced a partnership with the House of Blues’ Music Forward Foundation that will provide an “All Access” educational workshop for high school students interested in careers in the music industry.
Through the partnership, JMBLYA will donate 300 tickets to the festival. Additionally, 20 students from Carter High School have been selected to participate in an “All Access” tour of the festival May 2, where they will get a behind-the-scenes glimpse of how JMBLYA operates, from talent buying to venue operations to production, ticketing, and marketing.
There will also be an industry panel discussion with For The Students, an organization that produces speaking tours designed to educate college students interested in pursuing music careers. Sascha Guttfreund, president of the festival producer and recent Live Nation acquisition ScoreMore Shows, is expected to attend, as are Blueprint Group/Maverick co-CEO Cortez Bryant, Above Ground Entertainment founder David Ali and ScoreMore’s social media director, Madisyn Holland.
Music Forward is the nonprofit organization within Live Nation Entertainment dedicated to transforming young lives and inspiring careers. It was built from the International House of Blues Foundation, which was created more than 25 years ago by the HoB founders with the Foundation Rooms a source of income to support the effort.
“This is new territory for us,” Nurit Siegel Smith, executive director of the House of Blues Music Forward Foundation, told CelebrityAccess. “I’ve been interested in unlocking opportunities and pathways into the industry, then assessing how they went, what was the impact, what were the outcomes.
“In the past, we’ve done these engagements at a venue or a Live Nation headquarters or an agency like WME and having staff standing at certain places, talking about what they do and how they got there, so that the young kids start seeing different pathways into the industry. We also are very intentionally finding industry experts that are of color or women so the next generation can feel that if they see it, they can be it.”
Siegel was brought on board about a year ago after spending about 20 years in the arts and entertainment social sector of Southern California. She said that, after an assessment about six years ago, the foundation was re-positioned into Music Forward to fit the career pathways available to young people.
“Having folks like Cortez Bryant on this panel – for these young people to be able to see people of color, as well as women in executive and powerful roles in the music industry, will, hopefully, give them inspiration and we at Music Forward want to help build spaces where these interactions and this inspiration can happen.”
Festival headliners include Travis Scott, Lil Wayne and Kevin Gates.
