The Levitt AMP Twentynine Palms Music Series is one of the newest local music events. After Twentynine Palms was awarded a three-year grant from the Levitt Foundation—a nonprofit that brings free, live music offerings to underused outdoor public spaces—the city is providing high-level concerts for the community.
The Levitt AMP Twentynine Palms Music Series returns this fall, with live music offerings every Saturday from Sept. 26 through Oct. 24 at Freedom Plaza. For more information, visit www.29palmsmusic.org.
During a recent interview with Audrey Philpot, chair of the 29 Palms Music Committee, she explained how she became involved.
“When I moved to Twentynine Palms in 2023, somewhere early in my time living here, I saw something posted on Facebook from the Twentynine Palms tourism board, and they were looking for people to volunteer to review the grant proposals that they receive,” Philpot said. “Having been an event producer for over 30 years, I thought I had something to contribute in terms of looking at grant applications and seeing if they seemed reasonable or not. … I participated for three cycles on that grant-evaluation subcommittee, and during that time, I got an idea about what was really needed in Twentynine Palms: What I realized was we needed a signature event, something that occurs regularly and can really be linked with the identity of the city.”
A year later, Philpot learned about the national Levitt AMP Music Series program, which provides multi-year matching grants to bring big music to smaller to mid-sized cities. She said the foundation was a “perfect fit for Twentynine Palms.”
“I contacted my friend Anna Stump, who was, at that time, the head of the city Public Arts Advisory Committee, and I went to speak to the PAAC about the possibility of getting this Levitt grant,” she said. “We were a year ahead of schedule at that time, because the grant application period opened in May of 2025, but we were ready, because we had gone out and started talking to people about this grant, and we had attracted some attention by then. We had a little committee of myself, Anna Stump, a fellow named Jordan Ash and then another fellow by the name of Remo Packer.”
They submitted an application to Levitt to host spring and fall concerts at the Freedom Plaza, a public outdoor stage in downtown Twentynine Palms.
“We did research on the demographics of the city, got letters of support from various groups to submit with our grant proposal, and submitted a grant to produce 10 concerts a year for three years,” she said. “We chose the spring and fall seasons, because it’s very hot up here in the high desert in the summer.”
The application was selected as one of the top 100, which qualified it for the public voting phase. Twentynine Palms went on to place 12th out of more than 300 applicants thanks to sponsorship from the Basin Wide Foundation, a mini-grant from the Levitt Foundation—and “dogged determination.”
“The Levitt Foundation gave us a mini-grant to do the voting phase, before we became a grantee, and we had T-shirts with the QR code for voting, and we were out everywhere,” Philpot said. “There was a voting period of a week, and little Twentynine Palms, with a population of about 26,000, including the Marines, came in No. 12. … We were everywhere. If there was any event that was happening in the city, we were there with our T-shirts and our cards. We boosted the posts on social media. We did everything we could to get people to vote for us, and it worked.”
“We were everywhere. If there was any event that was happening in the city, we were there with our T-shirts and our cards. We boosted the posts on social media. We did everything we could to get people to vote for us, and it worked.”
Audrey Philpot, on the AMP LEVITT Public voting phase
The first round of concerts took place this past spring.
“We had two months to put this all together, because we started our concerts in April, and Levitt’s conference for all the grantees—where they tell you everything that you need to do—was in February,” Philpot said. “We had been notified earlier than that, at the end of November, that we were going to receive the grant, but we didn’t get a lot of information about what Levitt expected us to do. In January, we started meeting as a committee, and we started figuring out who we’d like to have, so the committee as a whole was responsible for the spring concert series.”
Heading into the fall series, Philpot and company started a music advisory subcommittee to handle booking and other duties.
“‘Many’ of the three people who are on the committee were also amongst those who wrote letters of support for us, and they are musicians of some note here in the high desert who have connections with the entire music community up here,” she said. “They are an active part of making the selections for the 2027 and 2028 concert series.”
The 29 Palms Music Committee is pulling out all the stops for the upcoming fall concerts to succeed.
“We did very respectably during the spring season, and now—with an increasing emphasis on promotion, marketing, public relations and buying advertising on the local radio station—we’re looking at expanding our reach,” Philpot said. “We have a very aggressive strategy of putting posters and fliers everywhere, so that wherever people go, in the high desert and even in the low desert, we’ve got some outlets there. We are doing things with L.A.-based media, and some with San Diego-based media as well, so we have these concentric circles where we’re trying to reach people who would be interested in coming to the events. We’re also working with community organizations, community nonprofits, and giving them the opportunity to have a table at the event and bring their members to get the word out.”
As the concert series grows and becomes the signature event Philpot and her partners intended, she said she’s determined to keep the events going.
“The goal is to have the Levitt Foundation renew our grant, because they do renew these grants for the cities that produce great concerts,” she said. “The Levitt Foundation is coming here on Sept. 26 to have a site visit, and they evaluate how we’re doing, and they make recommendations. I must say that working with the Levitt Foundation is a real pleasure. They are tremendously supportive. They have all kinds of workshops that they hold throughout the year on different issues that you confront in terms of producing concerts, and everything from booking, dealing with arts-management companies, negotiating contracts, how to do fundraising, and how to make your site safe. They offer all this support free of charge to the grantees. It is a great honor to be a Levitt grantee—and there is nobody who is going to get a grant within 50 miles of us, so we are really serving the entire high and low desert in terms of producing these events. We want to let a lot of people know about it.”
The Levitt AMP Twentynine Palms Music Series will always be free to attend.
“It’s free for anybody who wants to come, wherever they’re from,” Philpot said. “You don’t need a ticket ahead of time; you just need to show up with your folding chair or blanket. There are food vendors there at the concert, or you could bring a picnic with you if you want. The idea is to encourage people to come to sit with their friends and have an enjoyable night out under the stars—high vibes under the high desert sky.”
The Levitt AMP Twentynine Palms Music Series takes place at 7 p.m., Saturdays, from Sept. 26 through Oct. 24, at Freedom Plaza, at 6547 Freedom Way. Admission is free. Learn more at www.29palmsmusic.org.
