At Karnival, we are fans of the underdogs.  Creativity fueled only by passion  is the sort of thing that gets this team excited.  Each year we receive hundreds of inquiries to play at our festival.  We have to weigh talent with other metrics like ticket sales, followers, and monthly listeners. This makes it challenging for newer bands to get on our radar so we created this series.

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The Battles of the Bands guarantees on spot on the Karnival of the Arts East 2026 line up.   In addition, we are exposing our bands to 4 music venues in addition to our festival audience as well as special guest judging panels comprised of festival promoters, talent buyers, industry agents, and top tier touring musicians.  Previous contestants have also appreciated high quality media coverage of each event. This is your chance, take it!