About panhandle.live

Are you a musician, event organizer, or venue?

Email us at [email protected] with details about your event!

If you’re located in the Eastern Panhandle, or you’re from elsewhere doing a show around here, we’d love to list your event! Please include:

• a description of what you do (one or two paragraphs, approximately 100 words or 500 characters)
• the date of your event, either one-time or recurring
• the cost and age limitations (eg, 21+), if any
• your links (website, Facebook, etc.)
• your public contact info (email, phone, etc.)
• if you’re a venue, your location so people can find you

We reserve the right to politely decline a listing if it doesn’t seem like it will fit within our focus.

About the project

Panhandle.live is a volunteer-run music calendar dedicated to promoting and strengthening the vibrant local music scene around the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia. We work hard to provide a comprehensive, up-to-date listing of all the live music events happening in our area. By spotlighting local artists and helping music lovers discover great shows, we aim to support our talented local musicians and help the music community thrive.

We define ‘local’ somewhat organically: Morgan, Berkeley, and Jefferson counties of West Virginia, as well as nearby parts of Virgina and Maryland such as Winchester and Hagerstown.

This site is free to use. It has no advertising and no algorithms, nor does it collect or sell any user data. We run this as a passionate hobby, not a business. Please consider supporting the project with a donation.

Who runs this place, anyway?

I’m John Labovitz. I live in the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia. Throughout my life, from growing up around Washington, DC, to living on the west coast for 25 years and traveling internationally, I’ve been an avid fan of live music, particularly local and independent music. (I also run The Goosenest Music House, a creative recording studio and intimate performance space in Back Creek Valley.)

In 2024, I discovered there was a lively open mic scene happening around me. After a few months of maintaining my own personal calendar of upcoming music events, I realized that other music fans and musicians could benefit from an organized, public resource of what was going on around here. At the same time, I noticed that Facebook and other social media sites were getting worse at showing useful information to folks seeking out live local music.

So I applied what I learned in a past career of web programming, and built this website. The data comes from my own research into local music events, as well as from a very generous group of like-minded friends who are equally passionate about supporting the live music scene around the Panhandle.

Questions? Comments? Suggestions? Feel free to email me at [email protected].