Are you a young songwriter? Ever wish you had the chance to learn from successful songwriters, and meet friends who share your passion for setting your words to music? If so, our Youth Songwriting Workshop is for you!
Walnut Valley Festival presents our first annual Youth Songwriting Workshop to be held on grounds Friday, September 19, 2025. The workshop will take place 9am-1pm, at Stage 7 in the Pecan Grove.
The workshop is open to those from ages 12 to 20, and there is a $20 fee to cover administrative costs (link below). There are limited spots for the workshop, so get your registration in early!
Elexa Dawson is a practitioner of the soul. Hailing from her Potawatomi and Cherokee country home in Oklahoma and now living in Kansas, Dawson’s honey-dirt vocal quality shines through her work with Weda Skirts and Heyleon, and her 2019 debut album “Music is Medicine”. Elexa’s 2024 album, “Wanderlust”, co-created with Okie indie-rockers Stanley Hotel, soared to the top of the charts with its soul-stirring journey across time, presenting ancestral channelings with an invigorating Americana soundscape.
Sally Vee is an award-winning songwriter, performer, and multi-instrumentalist from the Flint Hills of Kansas with more than twenty years of experience in the music industry. She is a registered songwriter with Broadcast Music Incorporated as well as the ECO and is a member of the Touring Roster of Artists with the Kansas Arts Commission as well as the Heartland Song Network. Sally has recently completed arts residencies in Mississippi and Kansas in which she focused on writing songs about the wonders of nature. She currently teaches at the Flint Hills Academy of Music.