The line-up is now complete for the 2024 edition of The Town and The City Festival, the two-day music and arts festival in Lowell, MA on Friday, April 26th and Saturday, April 27th.The full performance schedule and ticket information, including for individual shows, is now available at thetownandthecityfestival.com.
Earfull, the performance series featuring writers and musicians doing their respective things in an intimate setting, which made its Festival debut last year, kicks off this year’s schedule on Friday evening at The Overlook at Mill No. 5 (doors open at 6:30pm) with Freda Love Smith and Dave Hill. Smith, the drummer and vocalist in alt-rock bands including Blake Babies and Mysteries of Life, is author of 2015’s Red Velvet Underground and last year’s I Quit Everything. Comedian, radio host, author, and musician Dave Hill wrote and performed the theme song for HBO’s Last Week Tonight with John Oliver as a member of Valley Lodge. He’s the author of Tasteful Nudes (2013), Dave Hill Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (2016), and Parking the Moose (2019).
Since 2019, The Town and The City Festival has celebrated the adventurous artistic sensibility of Lowell’s literary son Jack Kerouac, with a diverse mix of musical genres and artistic disciplines to inspire discovery and celebrate a love of life. Friday’s schedule includes shows by two of rock’s most distinctive indie-singer/songwriters Syd Straw and Robyn Hitchcock at Christ Church United, while at Zorba Music Hall, rockers Everfiner, Bermuda Search Party (the band formerly known as Q-Tip Bandits), and Air Traffic Controller rule the stage at Zorba Music Hall.
On Saturday things get off to an early start at 10am-3pm with The Town and The City Record Show at Mill No. 5 Fifth Floor. Thirsty First opens the doors at 2pm with indie-rockers The McCritters, Tell, and minibeast. At Mill No. 5 Fourth Floor, Americana music takes over beginning at 2:30pm with sets by Nicolas Emden, Old Tom & The Lookouts, and Sarika. Popular coffee house Brew’d Awakening will also present afternoon music (starting at 3pm) right outside its front door. Featured performers include Conor Hennessey, Forest Romm, and Emily Ovesen.
Debuting at this year’s The Town & The City Festival is Comedy at Cobblestones with Mike McDonald headlining an evening of stand-up comedy Saturday (doors at 8pm) featuring Scott MacNeil, Kristen O'Brien, Carolina Montesquieu, and Casey Woods. Restored Faith: Storytelling & Poetry will be happening at the Luna Theater at Mill No.5, with live jazz beginning at 5pm and D-Tension hosting an eclectic line-up of storytellers for an all-ages show. The Overlook at Mill No. 5 boasts sets by Bandits on the Run and Fantastic Cat beginning at 7pm; while Christ Church United will play host to indie acts ISMAY, Amythyst Kiah and Darlingside.
The Academic Arts Center will feature Willie Alexander and Dave Amran (doors at 7pm) and the stage at Zorba Music Hall (doors at 8pm) will showcase rockers Coral Moons and Ryan Montbleau Band. Smokehouse Tavern (doors at 7pm) plays host to an evening of hip-hop, hosted by Fee the Evolutionist, Featuring DJ Myth.
The full 2-day Festival Schedule is now available at The Town and The City Festival.
The Town & The City Festival takes place at more than a dozen venues throughout downtown Lowell, including Academic Arts Center, Mill No. 5 (including The Overlook, Luna Theater, and the 4th Floor Stage), Taffeta (at Western Ave. Studios), Zorba Music Hall, Warp & Weft, Christ Church United, The Old Court, Thirsty First, The Worthen Cafe, Gallery Z, Smokehouse Tavern, Lala Books, Brew’d Awakening, Navigation Brewery and Cobblestones.
The Town and the City Festival is produced by Porter Productions and the Jack Kerouac Foundation 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 will take place Friday, April 26 and Saturday, April 27 at venues across Downtown Lowell. For day passes, individual show tickets and info, visit The Town and The City Festival.
ABOUT PORTER PRODUCTIONS:
Chris Porter has over 30 years of experience in the concert industry. Over 20 years of that experience has been focused on programming and producing festivals and special events. Some notable events in the past include Bumbershoot (Seattle, WA), the LoDo Music Festival (Denver, CO), and The Nines Festival (Ft. Devens, MA). After working on Bumbershoot for 18 years, in 2015 Porter fully focused on his own company, Porter Productions, which provides talent buying, booking management, consulting, and production coordination for various events and venues in the United States. Porter currently oversees the booking at a number of festival and venue projects including Hardly Strictly Bluegrass (San Francisco, CA), Sweetwater Music Hall (Mill Valley, CA), and The Town and The City Festival (Lowell, MA).
Porter is also the President of the Board of The Jack Kerouac Foundation whose first initiative is to pursue funding for the establishment of a Jack Kerouac Museum and Performance Center in the magnificent former St. Jean Baptiste Church. Completed in 1896 to serve Lowell’s once-teeming Little Canada neighborhood, the church was the heart of the neighborhood, as well as the city’s French-Canadian population. It was also the site of Jack’s funeral Mass in 1969.
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