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The Garvin Gate Neighborhood Association Presents The 17th
2011 GGBF HighlightsGarvin Gate Blues Festival
Friday, October 12th & Saturday, October 13th, 2012
Thank You for making 2011 a huge success! Check out the 2011 festival photos here.
2011: Karen Lovely
The Garvin Gate Blues Festival is the largest free neighborhood street music festival in Louisville, Kentucky and the public is invited. The two-day event takes place this year on Friday, October 7, from 6:30-11:15 pm, and Saturday, October 8, from 3-11:15 pm, at The Gate on Garvin Place at Oak Street in historic Old Louisville.
Proceeds from sponsorships and vendor sales benefit The Garvin Gate Neighborhood Association. A celebration of the blues, The Garvin Gate Blues Festival attracts a multi-racial, intergenerational audience to the cozy Old Louisville neighborhood of Garvin Place at Oak St., between 4th & 6th Streets, 2 miles south of the Ohio River, and 1 mile south of Broadway and downtown Louisville.
2011: Grady Champion
Last year’s festival featured fantastic blues, fine foods and drinks, and lots of artisan booths on Garvin Place. James “Super Chikan” Johnson and Deitra Farr were the headliners and both brought down the house each night, plus we had perfect warm October weather both days and nights.
The Rudyard Kipling added an indoor stage with eight more acts during and after the main festival’s stage breaks. Everyone agreed this was the finest Garvin Gate Blues Festival ever.
And now, 2011 promises to be the best line up of music for the festival ever! Sizzling hot singer Karen Lovely and her stellar band headline Friday night’s show and promise to deliver a blistering mix of contemporary & old school blues for the crowd.
Saturday night singer-songwriter piano-organist Tullie Brae & The Medicine Man Revue will heat up the stage for what will be remembered as “an unforgettable performance”. Grady Champion headlines the final set of the weekend. Grady is a fine young blues singer and harmonica player with charm and insight to his lyrics, and has been compared to Sonny Boy Williamson with his high-energy performances. We hope you are looking forward to this Sweet -16 (years!) of Garvin Gate blues.
2007: Blues Festival stage
The Garvin Gate Blues Festival started out in 1988 as the Rudyard Kipling “parking lot blues jam in Old Louisville that outgrew the parking lot”. At that time the Garvin Place Association was expanding its boundaries to become the Garvin Place Neighborhood Association and offered to host the growing event. Click on our history page to read our timeline.
Some of the legendary blues musicians that have performed at the Garvin Gate Blues Festival throughout the years include Sugar Blue, Lil’ Dave Thompson, Lurrie Bell, Jimmy Burns, H-Bomb Ferguson, Eddy Clearwater, Fenton Robinson, James ‘Thunderbird’ Davis, Roosevelt ‘Booba’ Barnes, Phil Guy, Lefty Dizz, Paul Black & the Flip Kings, Jelly Roll Kings, Professor’s Blues Review (Eddie Lusk), Maurice John Vaughn, Rocky Amaretto, Winston Hardy, James “Yank” Rachel, Lamont Gillispie and the Home Wreckers featuring Sam Myers, Kent Duchaine, Junior Kimbrough, Willie Kent & The Gents with Bonnie Lee, Magic Slim & The Teardrops, Mississippi Heat with Dietra Farr, Deborah Coleman, Chubby Carrier & The Bayou Swamp Band, and Jimmy Dawkins, to name a few.
2011: Official poster - [ download ]
Bring your lawnchairs, cigars and porkpie hats, but leave your coolers, cans, bottles, dogs, and troubles at home.
If you have a question email us.
For our out-of-town visitors staying downtown, or anyone not wishing to drive, the festival is only 5 blocks south of Fourth & Broadway and can be reached by an easy walk, or on TARC bus #4. Get off at Oak St. and walk a half-block west to Garvin Place. Visit the TARC web site or call (502) 585-1234 for schedules.
With the support of the Garvin Gate Neighborhood Association, the Garvin Gate Blues Festival benefits the Old Louisville community and Metro Louisville and the quality of life in our city. Proceeds from the festival help to preserve and improve our Old Louisville neighborhood. The festival is run entirely by volunteers and you are invited to contact us and help out.
We also thank the Kentuckiana Blues Society for their support, including their president Gary Sampson. Much thanks go out to Mike Suttles for our incredible musical lineup every year; David True for his photography used on this site; and Keith Clements for his historical timeline of this event.
The Garvin Gate Blues Festival would never have made it this many years without the organization by our committee chair Howard Rosenberg.
Finally, big thanks go out to ALL of the musicians who have performed over the years, and the fans of the blues who have come out to make this event a success, without you it could not continue.
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