DRAPER, Utah (ABC4) — A Draper man and contestant on The Voice 2023 will perform at the Mitten Durch Mental Awareness Festival in Ogden this May for Mental Health Awareness Month.

EJ Michels, 31, joined The Voice on Team Blake after he sang “Easy on Me” by Adele during his blind audition. He most recently performed “The Tracks of My Tears” by Smokey Robinson with another voice contestant, Tasha Jessen, on March 27. The performance took place during The Voice Battles, which you can watch here.

In high school, Michels started singing and writing songs, and formed the band Foreign Figures. They toured the country together and even played at a festival headlined by Kesha, Michels reported. Foreign Figures will now perform at the festival in Ogden, Utah on May 27 at 1:30 p.m., to bring awareness to Mental Health problems, as well as resources to combat them.

According to Johns Hopkins, using the latest statistics from the National Institute of Mental Health, an estimated 26% of Americans ages 18 and older suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder. That means that approximately one in four adults suffer from a mental disorder. Many people suffer from more than one mental disorder at a given time, Hopkins reported.

Utah is not exempt from mental disorders or mental health problems. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, 33.3% of adults in Utah reported symptoms of Anxiety and/or Depressive Disorder, reported from February 1 to 13, 2023.

This is the first year for the Mitten Durch Mental Awareness Festival. In German, Mitten Durch means “going straight through it,” or “right through the middle,” according to Google Translate.

Hohmann said she got the inspiration from the children’s game Bear Hunt. One quote from the Bear Hunt that Hohmann said related to mental health is: “We can’t go over it. We can’t go under it. We can’t go around it. We are going straight through it.”

The festival begins at 1:30 p.m. on May 27 at the Ogden Amphitheater — you can purchase tickets here. The festival will also the feature bands future.exboyfriend, Blindlove, Junk Percussion Trio, and Old Ghost. There will be food trucks available for those planning to attend.