A country jamboree and Avett Brothers kick things off, with The Crane Wives “super excited” to play. There’s also Charles Bradley, Ozomatli, Billy Strings, silent discos, food, craft beer. View the weekend schedule.
Going Up: Workers on Wednesday raised The Eddy, a tented concert venue on land off Monroe Avenue north of I-196. (Photo/Local Spins)
As the oddly shaped, mammoth white tent sprang up early Wednesday evening along the Grand River at the north edge of downtown Grand Rapids — hoisted by a forklift and a crew of workers — it was immediately clear that this would be a different sort of concert venue at a different site unfamiliar to West Michiganders.
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The Avett Brothers
No one could ever accuse promoter Sam Porter of being short on ideas.
So amid Grand Rapids’ seventh annual international ArtPrize competition – which once again is drawing hundreds of thousands of visitors – the head of Traverse City’s Porterhouse Presents chose to go big and bold with a first-ever, 10-day music, food and art festival on a downtown riverfront site that’s been used for parking and otherwise under-utilized in recent years.
“I know ArtPrize wanted to create a more interactive nightly music experience,” said Porter, whose team hauled the company’s unique, mobile tented venue space to Grand Rapids from New York this week to house concerts that will begin Friday with a local country show and really ramp up Saturday with The Avett Brothers, Brett Dennen and The Crane Wives.
NATIONAL AND LOCAL ACTS, SILENT DISCO, FOOD TRUCKS AND CRAFT BEER
Called The Eddy, the 3,500-capacity venue featuring a “quadraspan tent” in the Monroe North district off Monroe Avenue NW near the I-196 overpass will also host shows by Ozomatli, Sierra Leone Refugee All Stars and The Go Rounds on Oct. 9 and Charles Bradley & His Extraordinaires, Joe Hertler & The Rainbow Seekers and Vox Vidorra on Oct. 10.
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In addition, the festival will boast several days of local music, with several lunchtime and dinner performances by Traverse City’s Billy Strings. Visitors to the site will find food trucks and Michigan craft beer.
“The goal was to create a very diverse program. Every single night is different. We have a family day, we have art, we have a silent disco, we have Billy Strings, we have country, indie-rock, EDM, R&B, craft beer,” said Porter. “We tried to play to a diverse program so a lot of different communities experience this.”
Porter hopes ArtPrize visitors ogling more than 1,500 works of art at 160-plus venues around the city also will check out after-hours events at The Eddy, such as silent disco parties featuring several different DJs and entertainers, including DJ Dominate, Ty Beat, A.B., DJ Psycho, Mishigami, Young Heavy Souls and more. The silent disco boasts 1,000 wireless headsets with three different channels which attendees can choose from to listen to music from three different DJs.
Porter conceded that setting up such a mammoth event in a new city for the first time has been a challenge, especially in securing sponsors and getting the word out. And the weather forecast for the weekend hasn’t helped matters with chilly temperatures and breezy conditions expected — which might prompt organizers to bring in heaters for the shows.
Still, Porter said he hopes organizers will learn from the experience and further enhance the Grand Rapids festival in 2016.
A FIRST-YEAR LAUNCH WITH HOPES FOR GROWING IN FUTURE YEARS
“I hope it sticks so we can make it a perennial event,” he said, noting that the festival’s mission is “activating an unused green space” and celebrating the importance of the Grand River. “We’re still a small Michigan company, so we’re growing into events like this which are quite big. We are focused on community and it takes time to build community connections and relationships. It takes years.”
Sam Porter
Porter also recognizes that it’s critical to sell plenty of tickets for the high-profile weekend concerts because the weeknight shows – and daytime free events – will likely lose money.
“This (2015 festival) is like a kickstarter, like a launch. I hope to grow it. We need people to come support it and buy a ticket,” he said. “Promoters live in a world of risk. We’re really depending on community sponsors and ticket sales.”
On the plus side, more than 3,000 tickets already have been sold for the Avett Brothers concert.
And The Crane Wives, naturally, are stoked about opening for this powerhouse national folk act.
“Everyone is super excited of course,” said bassist Ben Zito. “It’s great we’re coming off of a few shows so we’ll be in prime form. It’ll be fun to come home to such a big event. Also, it’s great to see Sam Porter bringing his magic to Grand Rapids. Great dude.”
Tickets range from $49.50 for The Avett Brothers (with a $150 VIP option) on Saturday to $35 for Charles Bradley and Ozomatli during the Oct. 9-10 “Artoberfest” to $26.50 for Friday night’s opening “Michigan Country Music Jamboree” featuring Gunnar & The Grizzly Boys, Kari Lynch Band and Brian Lorente & The Usual Suspects. The festival wraps up on Sunday, Oct. 11 — the final day of ArtPrize — with a performance by Beatles tribute band, 1964: The Tribute.
Billy Strings plays free shows at The Eddy at noon and 6 p.m. Oct. 7 and 8. Get more details and a schedule online here.
There’s no designated parking for The Eddy, other than street parking, metered lots to the north and the usual downtown parking ramps/lots to the south. (The closest ramp is the Government Center Ramp at 300 Monroe Ave. NW.)
“I just want to be the brand that supports local music in downtown Grand Rapids,” said Porter, who sees potential for “a massive art experience” next year. “It’s an open canvas. … Grand Rapids is like our second home in terms of a community.”
Get more information online here.
VIDEO: The Eddy Goes Up (9/30/15)
Debuting in Grand Rapids: The tented concert venue being erected on Wednesday night. (Photo/Anna Sink)
Copyright 2015, Spins on Music LLC
