Over the years, the Queen City Shout Festival has raised more than $120,000 for local poverty relief organizations. Organizers say this milestone year continues the festival’s two-fold mantra, celebrate the arts and support poverty relief.
The event originally began at Borders bookstore, formerly located in Primrose Marketplace.
“I was tied in with the scene, and I approached my general manager,” said Eddie Gumucio, the event’s founder. “We hosted authors and traveling musicians who were coming through, but after the Christmas season it was always kind of slow. I said, ‘Hey, how about hosting a music series in the cafe?’ So it started there.”
Gumucio made it a goal to catch artists traveling to and from the South by Southwest festival, which was growing around the same time. In the process, the idea for the poverty relief component of the event developed. Gumucio said this aspect was inspired by his wife, who worked as a counselor at Springfield Public Schools and later served as a homeless liaison.
“So, she was tied in with a lot of the nonprofit partners that we have. She worked daily with many of those folks,” Gumucio said. “She suggested maybe doing a canned food drive or something. Since people were already coming into the bookstore and cafe, we couldn’t really charge a cover at that point, so, we made a canned good donation the entry fee.”
Gumucio said that while the event slowed for a few years, he never let the idea go.
“My wife was probably tired of me talking about it. She finally said, ‘Let’s just go talk to some folks.’ I approached some people downtown early on and heard a lot of ‘Let’s talk with our partners and get back to you.’ C-Street was more like, ‘Yeah, when do you want to do this?’ ”
That marked the beginning of Queen City Shout as it is known today.
“Lindberg’s was really at the heart of that. Moon City Pub has been involved from the beginning, along with Ruthie’s Off C-Street,” Gumucio said. “I always tell folks that C-Street will remain at the heart of the festival even as we’ve expanded into downtown venues and the Rountree neighborhood.”
This year’s festival will include a kickoff party at Moon City Pub on Monday featuring a performance by the Stevie Newman Band.
A roundtable panel discussion is planned for the following day. While the location has not yet been finalized, Gumucio described it as a meet-and-greet social with members of the Queen City Shout committee and the Springfield arts community.
Later in the week, Lindberg’s will host a collaboration with Wild Bob’s Musical Book Club, a group in which local musicians perform songs inspired by books. At this special edition event, participating songwriters will perform several selections drawn from literary works they have previously explored.
Although the visual arts opening reception has already taken place, the exhibit will continue at Obelisk Gallery for the next two weeks, culminating in a silent auction of the displayed paintings on March 28.
The organization is also partnering with Alamo Drafthouse to present film screenings March 28 and 29.
Proceeds from festival events will support longstanding nonprofit partners, including Community Partnership of the Ozarks, Isabel’s House, Harmony House, The Kitchen and KVC Missouri.
“We like to keep our philanthropic efforts local, and when you talk with Eddie, you can see how passionate he is about addressing poverty and homelessness in our city,” said Curtis Marshall, co-owner of participating venue Tie & Timber. “He has a lot of ideas about how to do that, and partnering with groups that can help makes us excited to be part of it.”
For schedules, tickets and donation methods visit queencityshout.com
Queen City Shout can also be found on Instagram and Facebook.
