Three Birmingham-Southern students will take the stage on Sunday, April 10, at the Southern Environmental Center’s ninth annual Darter Festival at Avondale Brewing Co.

The Lilly Hart Band will open the festival with lead vocalist Lilly Hart, a first-year student at BSC from Atlanta. Bassist Ben Swearingen and guitarist Luke Sligh are also students at BSC, and they will be joined by drummer Will Lochamy, Birmingham Mountain Radio host.

Hart with her Atlanta-based band.

“I’m excited to be a part of the music scene in this city,” Hart says. “There are many smaller venues like Avondale Brewing and Saturn that host smaller bands and the shows are awesome. It’s very lowkey and there are a lot of talented artists.”

The last two years have been huge for Hart – she watched her songwriting take off and released her EP, “Overrated:Complicated,” in November 2021.

“I have been playing the piano since I was seven, and I picked up the guitar when I was 12,” Hart says. “I have always had an ear for music allowing me to write. I started taking writing seriously during COVID and I have been growing ever since.”

Hart writes all the melodies and lyrics for her songs and produces all the instrumental music in her recorded tracks. She likes to bring a diverse range of genres and styles to her music, which is one of her favorite things about her artistic approach.

“I don’t necessarily have a particular genre in mind when I come up with melodies,” Hart says. “Some of my songs have aspects of pop and R&B while others are rock and indie. Some of the songs I wrote are about personal experiences and others are stories.”

Since moving to Birmingham to attend BSC, Hart has been featured on Birmingham Mountain Radio’s beloved show Reg’s Coffee House, and host Scott Register has become a fan to say the least.

“If you could choose one musical artist to introduce the entire world to, who would it be?” asked Register on social media following The Grammy Awards. “Lilly Hart is my choice.”

Hart and her band will perform at the Darter Festival starting at 12:30 p.m. They will open for the Faith Apostolic Praise Choir and DJ Rod Core.

The ninth annual Darter Festival is a fundraiser for the Southern Environmental Center’s educational programming at Turkey Creek Nature Preserve in Pinson, Alabama. The festival is named after the vermilion darter fish, a species that lives at Turkey Creek and nowhere else in the world. Purchase tickets to DarterFest here.