The Salt Creek Song Festival Enters Fourth Season

May 14th, 2025

The thrill of a live performance is an experience that is unlike any other. For performer and audience member alike, every live show is truly unique. The Salt Creek Song Festival is a week-long celebration of music held right here in the Midwest. The festival enters its fourth season on May 18.  

Gretchen Crane, Community and Donor Engagement Manager at the Omaha Conservatory of Music, started the festival with co-founder Jared Hiscock. Crane had been living in New York when the COVID-19 pandemic began. She moved back to Nebraska when restrictions were originally being lifted and recognized a need for artistic community in the city.  

“So, you know, it’s like we both have this expertise in vocal music and we wanted something to exist that created opportunities to show off the immense talent that exists here in the Midwest musically, and creatively and artistically,” Crane said. 

Crane and Hiscock me while both were studying music in college. Both went off to have successful musical careers in which the connections they made in the industry became instrumental in getting the festival off the ground. What was originally a vague set of ideas, the first steps in organizing the Salt Creek Song Festival began to take shape.  

With planning in full swing for the first season, Crane and Hiscock decided to base the festival in Ashland Nebraska, a small town in the middle of Omaha and Lincoln. Although the festival is a celebration of musical talent across the Midwest, the pair wanted to cast a spotlight on the smaller artistic communities outside of cities.  

“But there is, I think, sometimes a perception that, you know, the Midwest is a flyover region artistically, and it’s absolutely not,” Crane said. 

The festival also gained its nonprofit status shortly after. Crane and Hiscock debuted the first season of The Salt Creek Song Festival in May 2022. The festival has become a yearly feature in Ashland’s art scene. Musicians and art enthusiasts from across the Midwest attend events throughout the week that range from concerts to socials.  

The Salt Creek Song Festival’s fourth season features events around the theme ‘When It Rains’. The festival’s kick-off event for the season is a collaborative performance by both festival artists and the Ashland-Greenwood Highschool Choir titled Voice of the Rain. The performance will be held at the AGC Performing Arts Center at 1842 Furnas Street in Ashland from 4 to 5 p.m. 

“And, you know, it’s like there’s so many ways to there’s so many things to enjoy about our concerts, that I hope that people just leave feeling like they are, part of this community because they are,” Crane said. 

For more information about the festival’s other events, you can visit saltcreeksongfestival.com.