MADERA - High School Nation, the country’s largest secondary school touring music festival, will be coming this year with two goals in mind: donating funds to the school’s music and arts program and providing an entertaining and engaging festival for local students. Madera South High School will be hosting High School Nation on Thursday, May 11th with a question and answer forum with a few hundred MSHS students and hold a concert from 1pm-3pm at the MSHS practice track.
High School Nation is committed to helping and will top the $2 million mark in donations this year during its 2017 60-city Festival Tour. The goal of High School Nation is to promote the arts and music programs in high schools across the country, and this year the Festival will expand its donation program to include the establishment of recording studios in each of the schools where it appears.
“We believe that building recording studios will be a major step forward in Madera South High School’s music programs,” says Jimmy Cantillon, CEO and co-founder of High School Nation.
“High school teachers and principals are very excited about this addition to our program. It’s a huge undertaking but we have companies in the industry who see the value and want to participate in any way they can.”
During the Festival Tour, High School Nation takes over football stadiums on each of the campuses and present a two-hour concert and events that will celebrate the arts in public schools. In addition to music programs, the Festival supports journalism, film, fine and performing arts, fashion, photography, and stage production.
Corporate support for the Festivals is being provided by over a dozen companies and as part of the Festival, students will visit interactive zones to interact with products and educational programs.
The Festival Tour features platinum selling rock band Plain White T’s. “We’re stoked to be headlining the High School Nation 2017 spring tour,” said band member Tom Higgenson. "We love the idea of playing our music and at the same time being able to help High School Nation donates to public school music programs. We believe it is a very important time to be assisting music programs as much as possible.”
The band originally formed in 1997 by high school friends Higgenson and Dave Tirio.
The tours also feature a number of young, emerging performers brought in by record labels that see the benefits in being a part of this movement. RCA records, Capitol, Warner Bros. records, and DreamWorks, are among the half dozen labels that have participated in the success of the Festival Tours.
“At the center of our Festivals are performances by some of the music industry’s hottest young rising stars,” Cantillon adds. “It’s one of the only opportunities for record labels to entertain, engage, and give back.”
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