The Town and The City Festival, the two-day music and arts festival set to take place Friday, April 28th and Saturday, April 29th, announced additional artists and programming certain to enhance the remarkable line-up of performances and activities set for the 2023 Festival.
Celebrating the adventurous spirit of renowned Lowell native author Jack Kerouac, the Fourth Annual edition of The Town and The City Festival features an eclectic line-up of artists that would make Kerouac proud including Buffalo Tom, Dalton and the Sheriffs, Rhett Miller, John Doe Folk Trio, Ted Leo, Peter Mulvey & SistaStrings, Alisa Amador, Pile, Vapors of Morphine and MUCH more
The Town and The City Festival 2023 announced today that Future Teens, Downtown Boys, Troy McAllister, Hilken Mancini, Savoir Faire, The Nocturnal Adoration Society, Laney Ryan, Opal Canyon, Crow Follow The Jacklights, Jetty, Artisin, Nervous, Troubadour Davis, Evan Kelley, Big Fat Family and Emily Desmond have all been added to the lineup. Two-Day Passes are on sale now at www.thetownandthecityfestival.com. Single day passes and single show tickets will go on sale this Tuesday, February 28th at 10:00AM along with the release of the venue schedules (times subject to change).
New to the festival this year is a special edition of Earfull, a performance series featuring writers and musicians doing their respective things in intimate settings which will take place Saturday, April 29th at the Academic Arts Center. Writers read from their new books, and in this case The Town And The City Festival will present two authors who are also musicians. Bill Janovitz, a founding member of the rock group Buffalo Tom, has just written “Leon Russell: The Master of Space and Time’s Journey Through Rock & Roll History.” due out in March. A member of the Del Fuegos and a former vice president of The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Warren Zanes will read from his forthcoming book “Deliver Me from Nowhere- The Making of Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska.”
Also on Saturday April 29th, The Town and The City Festival will present noted singer/songwriter, and UMass Lowell alum Jen Kearney in concert as part of Points of Light, a free celebration of unity and renewal that brings together the food, music, and traditions of Lowell’s diverse cultures. The performance will take place at Ecumenical Plaza on the West Canal in Lowell. The centerpiece of the night is a special ceremony in which participants personalize water lanterns that will be released onto the Western Canal, creating hundreds of floating points of light. The concert also features music by UMass Lowell Cambodian Music Ensemble Wong Pleng Khmer.
The inaugural edition of The Town & the City Record Show will host some of the area’s best independent record dealers from 10:00am to 3:30pm on Saturday April 29 on Mill No. 5’s bustling fourth floor (at 230 Jackson Street.) . The show will include Lowell’s iconoclastic landmark shop RRRecords and the mill’s Vinyl Destination. In addition, the show will focus on independent dealers offering a bit of everything, appealing to all tastes and ages. There will also be live music on the Hi Hat Stage throughout the day, a special poetry/spoken word program at the Luna Theatre called “Defining Moments: Stories and Poems of Transformation,” and later the music shifts up to the fifth floor for The Town & The City Festival’s live show at The Overlook.
"The Town and The City Festival’s first three years were met with great enthusiasm from music fans, performers, the venues and the community” " said festival producer, Chris Porter, a Lowell native. "As the festival has grown, we’ve had the opportunity to expand programming to include more free events such as the Record Show, and enabled us to collaborate with more members of the Lowell community to present events like The Points of Light Lantern Celebration.”
Besides the Academic Arts Center, the stages at Mill No. 5, and the Points of Light Stage, The Town and The City Festival will also present performances at a number of other downtown venues including Taffeta (at Western Ave. Studios), Zorba Music Hall, Warp & Weft, The Old Court, CNCPT6, The Worthen Cafe, Gallery Z, Smokehouse Tavern, Lala Books, Brew’d Awakening, and Navigation Brewery.
Produced by Porter Productions with support from the Greater Merrimack Valley Convention & Visitors Bureau, Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism, and the Lowell Cultural Council, The Town And The City Festival features both locally-based and national touring acts.
The Town and the City Festival will take place Friday, April 28 and Saturday, April 29 at venues across Downtown Lowell. Two-Day Passes are on sale now. Single day and single show tickets will go on sale this Tuesday, February 28th at 10:00AM. For tickets and info visit www.thetownandthecityfestival.com.
