Cortex CEO Dennis Lower and LouFest Founder Brian Cohen have come together to bring St. Louis a new reason to get excited about fall—and it has nothing to do with baseball playoffs. Their new joint project, the Murmuration festival, is a 3-day event held on Cortex’s campus Sept. 23025 to celebrate the intersections of art, music, science and tech.  

“This is an opportunity for us to create a truly unique event for St. Louis,” says Cohen. “We will challenge people intellectually and stimulate them creatively. It will be exciting to experience the synergy when all of these elements come together.” 

Tapping national innovation thought leaders for speakers, hosting a juried art competition and sponsoring musical performances from both national and local talent, the festival will feature multiple stages throughout the Cortex campus, but aims to be a celebration of the entire St. Louis community, engaging Downtown, Grand Center and other neighborhoods to participate. 

The lineup will be announced later this spring, and tickets will launch in a few months. Working with Cohen and Lower on the event are Phyllis Ellison of Cortex, Chris Ruzicka of TechShop, Venture Cafe’s Travis Sheridan and Jessica Labozzetta and CIC’s Dougan Sherwood. 

The name of the festival draws from nature: a murmuration is a flock of starlings that produces intricate patterns during flight. Much like a SXSW for the Midwest, organizers promise topics will be immersive and transformative.

“When I came to St. Louis five years ago I was immediately impressed with the abundance of cultural, creative and intellectual assets housed in the region,” says Lower. “Murmuration is a time-out for St. Louisians to smell the roses and celebrate the goodness of what we do and explore the interactions between science, technology art and music.”

For more info on speakers, musicians, artists, and other details, keep murmurationfest.com bookmarked on your browser.