Iowa City Songwriters Festival 2026

Iowa City Songwriters Festival is a three-day festival and conference that takes a deep dive into the craft of songwriting. Through intimate performances, interviews, panel discussions, and community building, ICSF is designed to unveil the mystery behind the process. Its home, Iowa City, is steeped in literary tradition – home to the Iowa Writers Workshop, the first UNESCO City of Literature in the United States, its sidewalks are literally paved with the words of great writers. ICSF aims to celebrate songwriting as a literary artform alongside poetry, fiction, and nonfiction, and to create its own legacy for Iowa City as a destination for songwriters to get better.
From November 5th through November 7th, ICSF will take over intimate stages all over Iowa City, from the historic Englert Theatre, to the hushed listening room of The James, to the community-centered music incubators Trumpet Blossom Cafe and The Black Angel to present stripped down performances where artists are invited to share not just their songs but the stories behind them. Going deeper, on Saturday, November 7th ICSF will present a conference at the Iowa Conservatory (ICON), a performing arts high school in the heart of Iowa City’s northside, to put down the instruments and talk about the process.
We hope that you will join us, whether as a fan or an aspiring writer, whether for the full three days with the Festival Pass, for an individual show or two, for the conference, or just to experience the free programming happening every day at The Black Angel. Thanks for being a part of our songwriting community. Bring your notebooks!