Now in its second year, the Symmetry Music and Arts Festival is poised to be an even greater success than in 2024—its inaugural year, when it pulled in over 900 festival attendees from across the US, and all over the world. Held at an outdoor venue outside of Libertyville, Symmetry is a three-day celebration of electronic music, art and community, kicking off with a preparty event Thursday night, October 2. The main festival runs all day and through the night Friday and Saturday, October 3 and 4. Featuring over 80 acts, the Symmetry Music and Arts Festival promises to be amazing.
“Normally you would have to go to a larger metropolitan area like Chicago or Denver to have this experience, but we are bringing it to the Heartland near Fairfield, IA,” says Fairfield native Donny Revolinski, festival co-founder, co-owner, talent broker, and artist relations manager. And Symmetry builds on the foundation of cofounder and co-owner Jesse James’s ongoing music and event promotion through his production company, Lucid Journeys.
A Fairfield resident, James built valuable connections in the entertainment world through his public facing job as manager of the theater in the Fairfield Arts and Convention Center. James realized that there was a lot of “wonderful underground music in this area that just wasn’t getting very good exposure.” To remedy this, he started Lucid Journeys with some associates. It started producing events in early 2021. Since then, Lucid Journeys has grown to include Jeremy Erdman and Ellana John. A mutual friend reached out and offered some forested acreage in the middle of cornfields, just outside of Libertyville, as a venue. James thought that sounded like an amazing opportunity. The Lucid Journeys’ team, assisted by local volunteers, put in a “massive amount of effort,” clearing out space for a festival stage and a camping area.
Lucid Journeys hosted a number of free events at this venue over the next few years. “I really want to have these artists express themselves in the best way possible,” James explains, adding “Thankfully, through the theater and other venues I manage here in town, I have access to a lot of equipment and resources that allows them to elevate their art. I believe in art in this town and art in general.”
After bringing in 500 people for a performance in the summer of 2023, they decided to “throw our first proper paid festival.” Working in conjunction with a gentleman out of Cedar Rapids, Lucid Journeys organized the 2023 Balance Music and Art Festival–which has since moved to Waterloo. Donny Revolinsky, another Symmetry co-founder, was one of the performers. Afterwards, James says Revolinsky brought up the idea of a larger festival.
Centered around the electronic music subgenre of Wave music, the Symmetry Festival was born through synchronicity and shared artistic passion.
Co-founder and co-owner Neil Merchant, who hails from Denver, says, “Donny and I got connected back in 2018, through Wave music, which is specifically a niche subgenre of electronic music. . . I was so interested in this up and coming style of music.” Merchant explains that electronic music, which is made using production software instead of just traditional instruments, has a number of diverse subgenres. He says “Bass music is the umbrella term for these subgenres. Most of the music at Symmetry is bass music of one form or another. Wave is a subgenre focused on emotional melodies and hip hop drum patterns, which has a lot of overlap with other subgenres of electronic music like trap, trance and breaks.”
Merchant, as Symmetry Festival director, says many of the artists involved in the festival are “not explicitly one genre or another. Their styles will blend, they take elements from lots of different genres and different styles.”
A long-time festival attendee, Merchant was interested in putting on a show in Denver in 2018, and reached out to Revolinski—who had started vibe.digital, a platform based in Iowa City for connecting and promoting musicians and artists involved in the electronic music scene, with a podcast, a record label and an artist agency heavily involved in Wave music. That first show was a small event in an art gallery, but step by step, they started throwing bigger shows. After working together over the following years, they decided to take things to the next level and produce a festival. They reached out to James, and the Symmetry Music and Arts Festival was born. “It’s amazing how all the local connections came together to make the first year happen,” James says. “It was a wonderful experience. And it wouldn’t have happened without so many of the countless volunteers, many of whom carried over from the festival we did the year prior.”
Why stage a major festival in the middle of Iowa cornfields? “The pieces of the puzzle just happened to come together here,” says Merchant. “Fairfield is a very unique place. There is a local community of very talented, creative, people who are interested in a project like this, so Fairfield was the right spot. And, on top of having a strong local community that was interested in helping support this type of project, we had access to a great private venue that we have been able to shape into a music festival grounds.”
Local Fairfielder Tihomir Liptak joined the organizational team as a co-owner this year after he and his wife Tanell visited last year’s festival. “Tanell and I went out to the festival not knowing the artists. I think Neil and the team have done a great job of appealing to the Wave audience—that was not me. And at the same time, we went and had a phenomenal time.”
Even being unfamiliar with the artists, he says, they really enjoyed the music and were very impressed with “the production quality of the event, from the stages to the light shows, the sound, and the vendor village. The whole experience was honestly magical. I think everyone was just blown away that this was here in Southeast Iowa.”
Symmetry’s second year promises to build on its success. Merchant is particularly excited about their headliners, G Jones and Mersiv. “They are both very popular in the electronic music scene, and draw crowds from around the Midwest and all over the country,” he says. “They were the right fit for staying true to the types of music at Symmetry, while also making people excited, even if they aren’t familiar with Wave music or with what we’re doing in Iowa, and getting them intrigued to come out to the middle of nowhere to see what’s going on.”
The festival area has been expanded, and includes space for three stages and a vendor village. James, as head of production, is responsible for the building and operation of the stages, and is happy to lend his connections to the festival.
Symmetry is not just a music festival—art experiences are a central part of it. Merchant explains that independent artists apply to bring their art and art installations to the festival. “We have live painters who are literally creating paintings while the music is happening at the stages,” he says. A vendor village features a variety of food from the Fairfield area and all around the Midwest, as well as apparel and art.
The Symmetry team is committed to ensuring top notch experiences and exceeding expectations. Come out and explore this immersive musical and artistic experience.
The festival venue is just outside of Libertyville, only a 20-minute drive from Fairfield. Attendees are encouraged to camp at the festival grounds to get the full experience, but both weekend and day passes are available. For more information, visit https://symmetryfestival.com/ Follow on Instagram, Tik Tok and Facebook.
Symmetry features light shows. The flickering lights and strobe light effects may be triggering for photosensitive individuals.