After a decade as a pillar of the music scene in Des Moines, Lefty’s Live Music is closing. “As our tenth year draws to a close and after much consideration, we’ve made the challenging decision to say goodbye before the new year,” co-owners Anne Mathey and Erik Brown said in a social media post on […]
Des Moines venues
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Locals Bar & Stage is ‘bringing entertainment back’ to Walnut Street
You could say it has risen out of the rubble — a long-awaited, much-needed presence in the neighborhood. Locals Bar & Stage is helping bring Walnut Street in Des Moines back to life. The area has suffered some losses: the shutdowns of the Gas Lamp, Vaudeville Mews and other downtown establishments have left the area […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
As xBk expands, Tobi Parks is doubling down on her mission to uplift local talent
When Tobi Parks opened a 250-capacity music venue in Des Moines’ Drake neighborhood in 2019, she was enacting her plan B. “I think it always goes back to this idea: I was a musician [and] when I first started it was always like, yeah, you can be a musician but always have a plan B, […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Contact Buzz: Create your heart out across Central Iowa
Few countries have monetized making an annual expression of love more than America. Thankfully, true love does not place the almighty dollar as the main ingredient for its most alluring recipe. The arts offer a myriad of avenues to explore variant facets of love. Just as the beauty of nature is always around us, if […]
Posted inCentral Iowa
Built in 1917, Varsity Cinema is getting a $5 million upgrade thanks to Des Moines film lovers
In the mid-1990s, Ben Godar started making the drive from Ames to Des Moines to go to the Varsity Cinema. “Back then, the Varsity was just one of those places that would get films that nobody else had,” he recalls. Now, as four years of renovations on the Varsity come to a close, Godar, who […]
