GULF SHORES, Ala. — Come gather, collaborate and celebrate new music.

The Frank Brown International Songwriters Festival is back on stage from Nov. 13-23.

With 333 artists — the largest gathering ever — to step up to the microphone, the 10-day festival will surely be jam-packed.

The event will stretch across the Gulf Coast at 30 venues, including restaurants hotels and the Flora-Bama.

Coordinator Reneda Cross said the mission of the festival is to give a platform for those who are usually behind the scenes.

“We are about songwriters; it’s all about the songwriters,” Cross said. “They are the heart and soul behind how a song was created.”

Originally, the festival was started as an end of season party to honor Frank Brown, a night watchman who protected the Flora-Bama until he retired in the 80s at 91.

Today, it has grown to be a rally of writers who come together to share what they know with their peers and fans.

“We have people from all over the world coming here,” Cross said. “We have people from Norway, Australia, Belgium.”

Pulling from all ends of the world, the festival will feature new names to old friends like Elaine Petty and Top Hat and Jackie.

Nashville songwriter Barbara Cloyd said the warm reception she receives every year keeps her coming back.

The eight year veteran said the festival provides a friendly platform for songwriters to share their art.

“It’s a wonderful anecdote to all the rejection and frustration of the music business,” Cloyd said. “The audiences here are awesome.”

Headlining the festival this year is Shenandoah, playing at the Lillian Community Club on Nov. 15 and T. Graham Brown, who will play at the Belmont Arts Center Nov. 14 and the Tin Top restaurant on Nov. 16.

Shenandoah is a CMA and ACM award-winning group known for their songs “The Church on Cumberland Road,” “If Bubba Can Dance (I Can Too),” and “Next To You, Next To Me.”

To kick off the musical madness, a locals party will be held tonight at Hub Stacey’s at the Point in Perdido Key with an open mic night.

This weekend the Write Key Songwriting Weekend seminar will occur at the Island House, offering songwriter hopefuls a chance to get some education behind the music. A panel of musicians from Los Angeles in New York will be flying in to teach.

Next weekend, a two-day workshop titled “The Craft and Business of Songwriting” will give insight into the business of music making. The workshop will be held on Nov. 21 and 22 at the Perdido Beach Resort.

New to the festival will be the rock and roll meets blues night, all done with original music.

A complete schedule, list of venues and list of writers can be found at the Web site, fbisf.com