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The first-ever 80/35 music festival has the potential to be one of the premier indie and jam band festivals in the Midwest, with acts such as the Flaming Lips and The Roots coming to play in the two-day event in Western Gateway Park. But it still has a long way to go to increase its $500,000 to $600,000 budget and compete on the levels of Lollapalooza in Chicago and the Austin City Limits Music Festival, says Amedeo Rossi, project manager of the Des Moines Music Coalition (DMMC), which is putting on the festival.

The city of Des Moines’ $50,000 contribution last summer and two grants from the Greater Des Moines Community Foundation (a $50,000 grant and $50,000 matching grant) helped give DMMC the money it needed to book bands and lease equipment for the event. Rossi expects about $300,000 to come from grants and corporate sponsorships and the rest of the festival’s budget to come from ticket sales.

“Our hope is to really come out on the other side with some of this grant money still intact that can help us move forward and grow the festival next year,” he said.

To get the star lineup that will play July 4 and 5, Rossi said he targeted the Flaming Lips, whose agent encouraged DMMC to work with a production company. After the festival organizers brought Chicago-based Jam Productions on board, the Flaming Lips signed on, and shortly after, several other bands followed.

“We had a list of 600 national acts that we were targeting, which we whittled down to 100 main circle acts,” Rossi said. “I e-mailed each and every agent, described the festival and began calling them. But it took a long time to get the Lips nailed down – not until April.”

The potential economic impact for Des Moines could be huge, with 16 percent of the ticket sales so far being to non-Iowans. DMMC is expecting 15,000 paid attendees, and more in its free festival area, which will include a fireworks show and street performers. It has been put together by eight volunteer board members and will have around 200 volunteers at the event.

Rossi isn’t worried about the July 5 Lazerfest 2.0 and its headline act, Stone Temple Pilots, hurting attendance. “I see the buzz in this town on only one event,” he said.

For more information, go to www.80-35.com.