Sunburns…Sweat…Schlafly…Summer. God, I love LouFest.

And not because I blindly support any/all musical endeavors in our city, hoping upon hope that St. Louis will one day be Austin, or Brooklyn, or freaking Portland. I want mud and humidity and sincerity and worn brick and songs about river ghosts.

I don’t want St. Louis be anything other than itself.

Same goes for LouFest. It’s a boutique music festival with a goofy mix of established local bands who warm the two main stages for several buzz bands who warm the two main stages for the headliners. The snacks come from real St. Louis restaurants that serve real, quality food. The whole things feels like a big neighborhood Labor Day barbecue with a bunch of your friends (and some famous musicians).

There’s recycling. There’s free water.

LouFest is as unassuming as it has been successful over the last two years, which is very.

Bearing all this in mind, IWTAS has a pair of free tickets to the April 3rd LouFest 2012 Lineup Release Party at one of my favorite new venues, Plush. If you’re unfamiliar with the event, it’s basically a party wherein attendees get to be the very first to know which artists are playing this year’s LouFest. And as you all know, knowledge is [Internet] power.

Leave us a comment below (include a valid email) if you’d like to go to the Release Party next Tuesday – the LouFest folks have also secured The Blind Eyes and Morning Teleportation (KY) to provide  music for the evening! Contest ends on Monday at noon. Good luck!