Tickets for The Avett Brothers’ Oct. 3 concert go on sale next week; the unique, tented ‘Eddy’ venue off Monroe Avenue NW can hold 4,000 and will be part festival, part art project, part food and beer event.
Michigan-Bound: The Avett Brothers are scheduled to play Grand Rapids’ riverfront on Oct. 3.
Folk-rock’s The Avett Brothers will help launch a riverfront festival in downtown Grand Rapids in early October as part of an ambitious new ArtPrize project that aims to bring art, music, food and microbrew lovers to nightly shows staged inside a massive, high-tech tented venue.
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The Eddy venue site north of I-196 downtown.
The Traverse City-based Porterhouse Presents’ “Eddy” venue – housing an art project focused on water and its connection to the urban landscape – hopes to draw thousands of visitors to the under-utilized site between Monroe Avenue NW and the Grand River north of I-196 with live music and other attractions for 11 days during ArtPrize this fall.
The internationally acclaimed Avett Brothers are scheduled to perform at the 4,000-capacity venue on Saturday, Oct. 3, with tickets, $50, going on sale Aug. 6 at porterhousepresents.com. (In addition, $150 VIP tickets will be available.) Singer-songwriter Brett Dennen and his band will open the show. Additional music acts, including other national, regional and local stars, are expected to be announced in coming weeks.
The “quadraspan” tent
“It’s more than just a show,” Sam Porter, head of Porterhouse Presents, told Local Spins, noting the elaborate Eddy venue aims to build community, promote art and ecological experiences, boost the economy and redefine riverfront space in the northern part of the downtown area.
“We’re reinventing a green space that’s never been used. … I feel like a pioneer in supporting Grand Rapids’ riverfront future. That’s a cool part of this whole event. I think it will give citizens and the community a sense of place there.”
The Avett Brothers — a band that last played the Grand Rapids area in 2013 when it pumped up more than 4,000 people at DeltaPlex Arena — will form the cornerstone concert of the 11-day riverfront “festival” on the property that has most recently been used for parking.
“They’re headlining a lot of major events and festivals,” Porter said. “We like working with artists that want to get off the circuit of structured, corporate events.”
Despite the formidable task in pulling off such an intricate, high-profile event, Porter is excited about its potential. He conceded that Porterhouse Presents is still seeking a host of sponsors to cover costs for the expensive 11-day project, noting that word of the festival and Eddy venue is just now getting out.
The Avett Brothers
“We really want to get the community involved,” said Porter, adding that food trucks and Michigan breweries will be part of the nightly offerings at the site, along with a family/children’s day and evenings devoted to different genres of music. “It’s an urban art event. It’s almost like an experiment. What’s going to be really fun for people is the total experience.”
Over 15 years, North Carolina’s Avett Brothers have built a huge following with their mix of folk, bluegrass, rock, pop, punk, country and ragtime music, headlining major festivals including this year’s Shaky Knees Music Festival in Atlanta and Boston Calling Music Festival in Boston.
Porterhouse Presents may best be known for hosting the annual Traverse City Summer Microbrew & Music Festival, which takes place this year on Aug. 21-22 at The Village at Grand Traverse Commons in Traverse City, with The Avett Brothers performing on Aug. 22. (Robert Randolph & The Family Band headline the Aug. 21 show at the festival.) Porterhouse Presents also has hosted winter versions of the festival and two years ago launched the “Tent Venue” mobile touring tent system.
Copyright 2015, Spins on Music LLC
