There is a wonderful festival in Lowell, Massachusetts this weekend that celebrates music and Jack Kerouac in the city where he was born and buried. Many local musicians as well as national touring artists are featured. I have some favorites who are appearing – Jon Langford, Damn Tall Buildings, and Will Dailey to name a few – but I am excited to see artists who are new to me! See you there!

The Town and The City Festival announced its venue by venue schedule for the two-day music and arts festival on Friday, April 8^th and Saturday, April 9^th in downtown Lowell, Massachusetts. Two-Day Passes and Advanced Individual Day Passes are on sale now at www.thetownandthecityfestival.com

Recent additions to The Town And The City Festival lineup include Saturniids, Sinnet, Naomi Westwater, Layzi, ODB Project, and SAVAK.  In addition, Gail Greenwood will join Tanya Donnelly and The Parkington Sisters as a special guest. Festival representatives also announced that due to renovation delays at Christ Church United, the church unfortunately won’t be used this year as a venue.  Subsequently two new venues have been added to the festival for 2022, Taffeta at the Western Avenue Studios and 5th Floor at Mill No. 5 (both newly developed venues).

Designed as a walkable event, attendees who purchase single-day or two-day passes will have access to performances across all the participating venues (per any age restrictions and capacity allowance). Other event spaces, bars, cafes, and galleries hosting shows as part of the festival throughout downtown include Lala Books,  Zorba Music Hall, Warp & Weft, The Luna Theater (at Mill No. 5), Gallery Z, Smokehouse Tavern, The Old Court, The Purple Carrot Bread Co., The Worthen Cafe, and Brew’d Awakening.  

The Tanya Donelly and the Parkington Sisters/Will Dailey show will now take place Friday, April 8th at 5th Floor at Mill No. 5.  Robyn Hitchcock and Robin Lane will now perform at Zorba Music Hall on Saturday April 9.  The April 9th scheduled show featuring Screaming Females, Linnea’s Garden, and TVO has moved to Taffeta at Western Ave. Studios.

Throughout 2022,  the community will celebrate the 100^th anniversary of the birth of Lowell native Jack Kerouac. Named after the novel The Town and the City, the first major work published by Kerouac, this year’s festival includes a block of performances by Lowell Storytelling, showcasing Lowell’s diversity, culture, and daily life by promoting residents’ true stories. 

In addition, the  “Visions of Kerouac” exhibit at Lowell National Historical Park – Boott Cotton Mills Gallery will be open 12PM-5PM daily throughout the festival’s weekend..  This unique exhibit is free and will include the return of the original “On The Road” scroll. The scroll in its entirety stretches to 120 feet and is one of the most extraordinary and highly valued manuscripts in American literary history.  On loan from The Jim Irsay Collection, the 24-foot portion will be available for viewing along with archival books, writings, personal objects, and photographs including never-before-seen images of Jack Kerouac taken by fellow Beat Generation pioneer Allen Ginsberg as well as a collection of photographs by John Suiter. 

“Lowell has always had a special connection to music and the arts, The Town and the City Festival continues to build off the incredible legacy that Jack Kerouac and so many others have created,” said Chris Porter, founder of The Town And The City Festival. “After a prolonged delay we are ready to welcome everyone back to bars and businesses across the city and show the immense talent that makes up this thriving performing arts scene.”

The 2022 schedule is as follows:

FRIDAY, April 8, 2022

Lala Books (open afternoon/early evening)

A Spoken Word presentation by Free Soil Collective & the Cambodian American Literary Arts Association

6:30 – Performance

SATURDAY, April 9^th, 2022

The complete schedule and additional information and updates can be found at www.thetownandthecityfestival.com.

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 8^th and Saturday, April 9^th at venues across Downtown Lowell. Two-Day Passes and Advanced Individual Day Passes are on sale now. Tickets can be purchased via a link at www.thetownandthecityfestival.com.

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 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 projects including Hardly Strictly Bluegrass (San Francisco, CA), Sweetwater Music Hall (Mill Valley, CA), the South Lake Union Block Party (Seattle, WA) and The Town and The City Festival (Lowell, MA). 

Porter is also the President of the Board of The 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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