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Mavis Staples and more to perform at Bloomington’s Granfalloon festival

By Katy Szpak

Posted March 11, 2025

Mavis Staples will headline the 2025 Granfalloon festival in Bloomington. (Myriam Santos / Courtesy, Anti Records)

The Granfalloon arts and culture festival will return to Bloomington this spring for its sixth year, featuring multi-award-winning soul singer Mavis Staples, cartoonist Lynda Barry and more.

Indiana University’s Arts and Humanities Council announced its 2025 Granfalloon lineup Monday. The festival runs April through June, with most events June 4-8. Most events, including the Kirkwood Avenue grand stage performances, are free to the public.

A selection of Kurt Vonnegut's books. — A selection of Kurt Vonnegut's books, which inspired the festival. This year's festival is themed around *Cat's Cradle*. *(FILE PHOTO: Max Rebolledo/WTIU News)*

Staples’ performance will be on the Kirkwood Avenue main stage June 7.

This is not the first time Staples has visited Bloomington — she also headlined Bloomington’s Lotus World Music and Arts Festival in 2011.

Listen: Mavis Staples on Prince, MLK and a life onstage | It's Been a Minute - NPR

Also scheduled for the main stage June 7 is retro soul trio Thee Sacred Souls. Bloomington-founded indie folk-rock band Murder by Death will make a farewell tour appearance.

Grammy-nominated band I’m With Her will play a ticketed concert at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater at 8 p.m. June 6.

There’s also art collections, literary discussions, film screenings and themed events throughout the festival.

More information on this year’s events is on the festival’s website.

What’s a Granfalloon?

Kurt Vonnegut Jr. receives an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters May 13, 1973. (*Indiana University Archives*)

The event is named after a concept coined by Indianapolis-born author Kurt Vonnegut Jr., described as “a proud and meaningless association of human beings.”

This year’s theme is Cat’s Cradle, named after the book that granfalloon originates from. In the book, Vonnegut also writes, “I don't know what it is about Hoosiers. But wherever you go there is always a Hoosier doing something very important there.”

Listen: The legacy of Kurt Vonnegut Jr. | Noon Edition