This is a wonderful small festival that has been growing since its inception a few years ago. This year the lineup is fabulous and I know I am going to have some hard choices to make! Join me in Lowell, Massachusetts on April 28 and 29 for a great weekend! Note that it is possible to buy individual tickets to specific shows, but you will get the most value from buying a weekend pass ($58).

(Lowell, MA – February 27, 2023) — 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 http://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 http://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 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.

KEEP UP TO DATE WITH THE TOWN AND THE CITY FESTIVAL ON SOCIAL MEDIA:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thetownandthecityfestival/
Twitter: @townandcityfest
Instagram: @thetownandthecityfestival

See the following schedule as it exists the day of this writing – as with all festivals, it is subject to change.

Friday, April 28

The Overlook at Mill No. 5
6:30pm Doors
(Americana/Singer-Songwriters/Folk)
7:15 Alisa Amador
8:15 Rhett Miller
$22 adv/$26 dos (all ages)

Zorba Music Hall
8:00pm Doors
(Rock)
9:00 Hilken Mancini
10:00 Buffalo Tom
$24 adv/$28 dos (21+ admitted)

The Worthen Café
8:30pm Doors
(Indie-Rock)
9:00 Class President
10:00 Derek Johnson
11:00 One Stays
$7 adv/$9 dos (21+ admitted)

Warp & Weft
9:00pm Door Charge Starts
(Americana/Rock)
9:30 Laney Jones
10:30 Ali McGuirk
$13 adv/$17 dos (21+ admitted)

Taffeta
8:00pm Doors
(Country/Americana)
9:00 Toby McAllister
10:00 Dalton & The Sheriffs
$20 adv/$25 dos (18+ admitted)

Gallery Z
6:00pm Doors
(Bluegrass)
7:00 The Nocturnal Adoration Society
7:45 Nora Brown (with Stephanie Coleman)
8:45 Corner House
$15 adv/$20 day of show (all ages)

Smokehouse Tavern
7:00pm Doors
(Rock/Indie-Rock)
7:30pm Savoir Faire
8:15pm Girl with a Hawk
9:00pm Justine & the Unclean
9:45pm Dyer Holiday
$8/$10 (21+ admitted)

The Old Court
8:00pm Doors
(Indie Rock)
8:30pm StrangeColorSky
9:30PM Senseless Optimism
10:30PM Keyboard Dog
11:30PM Rusty Mullet
$8/$10 (21+ admitted)

Lala Books
6:00pm Doors
(Spoken Word)
6:30pm Free Soil Arts Collective
Cambodian American Literary Arts Association
Free Admission (all ages)

CNCPT6
7:00pm Doors
(Hip-Hop)
Hosted by D-Tension
Featuring DJ Myth
9:00 J FAITH
9:15 cropze
9:40 SoloArtist
10:05 Chi Tashi
10:30 Fee the Evolutionist
11:00 Artisin
$8 adv/$10 day of show (18+ admitted)

Saturday, April 29

The Overlook at Mill No. 5
6:30pm Doors
(Americana/Solo Indie Rock)
7:00 Ted Leo
8:15 John Doe Folk Trio
$25 adv/$30 dos (all ages)

Zorba Music Hall
8:00pm Doors
(Indie Rock)
9:00. Kaia Kater
10:00 Peter Mulvey & SistaStrings
$25 adv/$28 dos (21+ admitted)

Warp & Weft
9:00 Door Charge
(Soul/Jam/Groove)
9:30 Robin Lane
10:30 Vapors of Morphine
$18 adv/$22 dos (21+ admitted)

Gallery Z
7:00pm Doors
(Singer-Songwriters/Blues)
7:00 Evan Kelley
7:45 Opal Canyon
8:45 Dave Herlihy
$10 adv/$14 dos (all ages)

The Old Court
7:30pm Doors
(Rock)
8:00 Kevin Stevenson
9:00 Roser
10:00 Tiffy
11:00 oldsoul
$8 adv/$10 dos (21+ admitted)

The Worthen Café
3:00pm Doors
(Indie Rock)
4:00 Big Fat Family
4:45 Girl Scout Cookies
5:30 Nervous
6:15 Bull Pup
$7/$9 (21+ admitted)

Academic Arts Center
7:00pm Doors
(Spoken Word & Music)
8:30 EARFULL featuring Warren Zanes & Bill
Janovitz
$22 adv/$26 day of show (all ages) 80 tickets

Smokehouse Tavern
7:00pm Doors
(Indie-Rock & Soul)
7:30pm Crow Follows
8:15pm The Jacklights
9:00pm Jetty
9:45pm Squires of Soul
$8/$10 (21+ admitted) 80 tickets

Mill No. 5 4th Floor
2:30pm Troubadour Davis
3:30pm Laney Ryan
4:30pm Pinto Loco
Free Admission (all ages)

Brew’d Awakening
Outdoor Stage (indoors if inclement weather)
3:00pm Emily Desmond
3:45pm Arthur Terembula
4:30pm Ariel Strasser
Free Admission (all ages)

Points of Light Stage (in collaboration with
Points of Light Lantern Celebration Event)
Outdoor Stage (Ecumenical Plaza)
8:15pm Wong Pleng Khmer (UMass Lowell
Cambodian Music Ensemble)
8:45pm Jen Kearney
Free Admission (all ages)

Luna Theater (at Mill No. 5)
Defining Moments:
Stories and Poems of Transformation
5:00 pm Miguel Landestoy Jazz Trio 5 – 5:15
5:15pm D-Tension (host) – Show Intro
5:20pm Kayla Shenk
5:30pm Sky Perez
5:35pm Jerry Bisantz
5:45pm Miguel Landestoy Jazz Trio
5:50pm Resi Ibanez
6:00pm Masada Jones
6:10pm Scott Macneil
6:20pm Duncan Wilder Johnson
$10/$13 (all ages)

Taffeta
7:30pm Doors
(Indie Rock)
8:30pm Downtown Boys
9:30pm Future Teens
10:30pm Pile
$22 adv/$26 dos (18+ admitted)

Navigation Brewery
(solo acoustic)
6:00pm TBD
7:00pm TBD
Free Admission 21+