When the music stops, the stages clear out and the sweat gets mopped up, all that is left was the marks of a weekend of passionate musicians and adoring music lovers. The Maximum Ames Music Festival 2013 ran by Maximum Ames Records comes to a close for this third consecutive year. Every year the festival has increased in popularity and has featured more prominent acts. 

“This has definitely been the best Max Ames fest that we have ever had,” said Nate Logsdon, co-creator of the festival. “Musically as well as the organization of it, the flow of the festival, the vibe. … This has been a beautiful, beautiful year.”

Last year, Ames Auditorium housed the music of Jeff Mangum and Wanda Jackson both whom are regarded as legends to fans of the alternative and rockabilly genres respectively. This year on the third day of the festival, Ames Auditorium went back to the 1960s with the Zombies who are most known for their 1968 album “Odessey” and “Oracle,” which featured the song “Time Of The Season.”

“Day three of [the festival] 2013 was one of the best days of music we’ve had in Max Ames history so far,” Logsdon said “[The Zombies] delivered last night, that was one of the most spectacular performances, not only in the history of Max Ames, but in the history of Ames. That will go down in history.” 

Jordan Mayland, member of local bands the Wheelers and Jordan Mayland and the Thermal Detonators, opened for the Zombies and said the festival’s increase in popularity is well deserved.

“I think it’s a long time coming honestly,” Mayland said. “I think it’s great. Ames, especially the music community, deserves it. There’s a lot of interesting and talented musicians constantly coming through and creating, and new bands and record labels and recording studios. … Bi Fi and all these record labels popping up after that. Just working together to do something bigger than nothing.”

Mayland’s excitement for the future of the festival is as high as those that run it, and there are always predictions as to who will headline next year which Mayland could only predict “Elvis.”

Crowd turnout for The Zombies, and blues and folk musicians Greg Brown and Bo Ramsey consisted of a fair amount of older members of the community. For Brown and Ramsey alone the crowds of the festival reminds all that Maximum Ames Festival is not just for students but for the community of Ames in general.

In addition to the Zombies, Ames’ venue DG’s Tap House featured Greg Brown and Bo Ramsey, Midwestern folk and blues icons. More than 200 people squeezed into DG’s Friday night. 

The pre-show for Brown and Ramsey highlighted up and coming artists such Dylan Boyle, of Burlington, Iowa, and the Pines.

A blues player, Boyle had an emotional howl that resonated to a shocked crowd earlier in the evening Friday night at the London Underground.

“[Blues] is very emotional music; there’s a lot of soul and emotion in it,” Boyle said. “I think it’s really cool that they’re playing because it is a great sound. It’s a historic sound that was really developed in the late ’70s and early ’80s in Iowa. And it’s still going, there are artists, especially in eastern Iowa, that are still doing that.”

From the wail of guitars to the deep thump of a drum machine, electronic music has started once again to resurface in pop music. Bands/artists such as the Hood Internet, the Terror Pigeon Dance Revolt and local band Trouble Lights came to enchant the crowd with catchy dance beats.

Adrien Daller, lead singer of Trouble Lights who opened for the Hood Internet, showed an enthusiasm for the community of Ames and the growing popularity of the Maximum Ames Festival.

“Having bigger bands come here to play [has] some importance in the community,” Daller said. “It reminds them that awesome things are happening in their hometown, that plenty of important people that they consider famous are coming to this town, you can make anything happen you want to in this town, and Maximum Ames is a perfect example of that.”

As far as the future of the festival? The plan, said Logsdon and Chris Ford of Christopher the Conquered, is to stay the course and keep increasing the attendance of the festival.

“With the festival, I think just staying on the path and building the brand and getting more people here, that’s the main thing,” Ford said.

After Sunday’s six band barrage at Deano’s and after some much needed rest, the plans for next year’s begin to be formed, and Maximum Ames Music Festival will be here again with more music, more people and more sweat.