Worlds are colliding for twenty-one-year-old music video director Kelly Butts-Spirito. The director and event curator just posted the lineup for the next “Love, Kelly” concert, and man oh man is the lineup exciting for his hometown of Burlington, Vermont. YES, you read that correctly…VERMONT… AND TO TOP IT OFF, SOMEHOW THE SHOW IS FREE ENTRY. 

It’s honestly crazy. Kelly has either completely lost his mind or is a marketing genius who will be broke until his master plan pays off… Either way, something is working because Vermont is making noise in the music world. The small state has been grabbing eyes over the past year with the emergence of alternative music group 99 Neighbors, new faces in the music world like North Ave Jax and Kelly Butts-Spirito, and now this festival-style concert. It is pretty cool to see the small ski state that half the country barely knows exists make noise. The concert buzz has made its way to us three hours across the border of Canada. Headlining the show is viral rap star behind Tik Tok’s “Down South Hood Baby” which makes all the girls go crazy KBFR accompanied by ZAIA, the artist behind hit single ‘Blue’ who made noise touring alongside Skizzy Mars before the pandemic. The rest of the lineup includes North Ave Jax and an assortment of Vermont artists such as Rivan C., Real Ricky, KAMI OK! and others.

Kelly must be pulling out every trick he has up his sleeve to book heavy hitters like these guys. It really is mind-boggling that artists with hit records are performing alongside kids that probably have never performed on a stage before. But honestly, this is exactly what the industry is craving: authenticity.  

Everything about this shows why Kelly is as real as it gets. The fact that the concert is free shows he is really paying homage to his hometown. He is not only using his stature as a director to bring big artists to Vermont, but he is putting unknown artists from the state on the same lineup card as the big heavy hitters.

I don’t know how any twenty-one-year-old kid can afford to put on a free concert of this size, and book high-tier Atlanta-based talents like ZAIA and KBFR but he’s making it happen. Vermont is certainly not known for its hip-hop scene. But November 6th, that will all change.

Wouldn’t it be obscene if a 21-year-old white kid like Kelly Butts-Spirito surrounded by a group of talented homegrown artists like North Ave Jax could be the spark to put a small place like Burlington Vermont on the national map as a destination for Hip Hop. Imagine if Burlington, Vermont became a place like Houston Texas, or even Nashville Tennessee for music. That would be great for us up here in Canada. For reference, we are about two hours from Vermont.

Check out some of Kelly’s work below!

Watch Lonr. – The End (Official Music Video) Here: