Impressed by the breadth (and probably fun) of the NMNY, the Walker Arts Center in Minneapolis wanted to replicate the experience[5] and held a similar festival a year later, this time named New Music America.
[9] San Francisco followed in 1981,[10] Chicago in 1982,[11] Washington, D.C., in 1983,[12] Hartford, Connecticut in 1984,[13] Los Angeles in 1985,[14] Houston in 1986,[15] Philadelphia in 1987,[16] Miami in 1988,[17] returning to New York in 1989[18] and ending in Montreal in 1990.
Perhaps its greatest accomplishment was connecting large audiences (sometimes in the thousands) with works which critics, music industry reps and radio people all considered too serious, complex, weird or difficult.
In addition, audience members were placed in a unique position of being among the musician's peers as the week-long length permitted performers to attend each other's concerts or events.
All festivals were considered great successes but took so much effort of coordination (and in some cases treaty-building between opposing music factions) that it acquired the Olympics paradox of being unable to reduce itself in size.