Chicago Bluegrass & Blues Fest

INDEPENDENT PRODUCERS DEFY GENRES AND STRIKE A CHORD FOR CHARITY WITH
THE INAUGURAL CHICAGO BLUEGRASS & BLUES FESTIVAL

The Avett Brothers

The Congress Theater, in conjunction with newly-formed KingTello Presents, is proud to announce the inaugural Chicago Bluegrass & Blues Festival (cbgbfestival.com). While rooted in the foot-stomping influences of bluegrass and blues, the Festival will transport the concertgoer through the genre-defying evolution of music today. The one-day event, held on Saturday, November 22 from noon to midnight, will serve as a tribute to two schools of music that continue to shape and inspire contemporary rock, jam band, funk, folk, roots, Americana, and indie cultures.

Against the backdrop of an official Chicago landmark and one of the last of the classic “movie palaces,” fans will be treated to a party with a purpose, featuring two stages and 16 bands for less than the typical price of the headliners alone. Newgrass legend and longtime Jerry Garcia collaborator David Grisman and his David Grisman Quintet will be sharing the headlining duties with surging festival sensations The Avett Brothers and their massive following of rowdy devotees. The Avett Brothers have recently teamed up with legendary producer Rick Rubin, and signed with American/Columbia Records, home of Tom Petty, Johnny Cash, and The Black Crowes.

Tickets for the festival go on sale on at an early-bird price of $31 this week through the event’s website cbgbfestival.com, ticketmaster.com, and frontgatetickets.com.

The Chicago Bluegrass & Blues Fest will offer a musical reprieve from the merciless Chicago Winter by adapting elements of a summer music festival to the historic and intimate indoor setting. The Chicago Bluegrass & Blues Fest stands alone as the only music festival experience offered during the otherwise depressing Chicago winter. In addition to 12 hours of two stages worth of nonstop music, the day’s activities will also include a pickin’ circle, Chicago’s largest live-art exhibition and indoor gallery, charitable raffles, an improv comedy showcase, and one of the Midwest’s leading alternative DJs.

The main stage will feature the co-headliners, as well as festival favorites Ha Ha Tonka, Chicago Blues giant Lil Ed & The Blues Imperials, Chicago alt-country mainstays Dollar Store and Majors Junction, and country’s Next Big Star Competition winner Billy Childers. The participation of artists from both Alligator Records and Bloodshot Records marks a rare collaboration between two independent Chicago labels universally considered leaders in their respective genres.

The opening spot on the main stage will feature the winner of “LAST BANJO STANDING,” an online contest that will scour Chicagoland to find the top bluegrass/blues artist.

The Pavilion Stage will feature some of the best musicians from the local Chicago music scene, as well as Nashville bluegrass veterans including Blue Mother Tupelo, Blackdog, How Far to Austin, Mike Mangione, Cobalt & the Hired Guns, Lindsey O’Brien & Friends, Jessica Lee, and Blue Room Hero.

And while the festival will serve to break a band or two, festivalgoers will get to save a heart. A portion of each $31 ticket will be donated to the Saving tiny Hearts Society, a non-profit organization that raises money for grossly under-funded, crucial, life-saving research of congenital heart defects (CHD), America’s #1 birth defect. Nearly one of every 125 babies born in America each year is affected by a Congenital Heart Defect.