Garvin Gate Blues Festival October 9-10, 2009

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Garvin Gate Blues Festival October 9-10,2009
Louisville, Kentucky

The Garvin Gate Blues Festival is the largest free neighborhood street music festival in Louisville, Kentucky and the public is invited. This two-day event takes place this year on Friday, October 9, from 6:45-11 pm, and Saturday, October 11, from 3-11 pm, at The Gate on Garvin Place at Oak Street in 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, between 4th & 6th Streets, 2 miles south of the Ohio River and 1 mile south of Broadway and downtown Louisville.
2009: Lil' Dave Thompson
guitar pick

This year’s festival will include fantastic blues, fine foods and drinks, and artisan booths. Our headlining groups are guaranteed to bring the house down both nights. Lil’ Dave Thompson headlines Friday night and Sugar Blue on Saturday night.

The Garvin Gate Blues Festival started out as a 1988 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 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.
THE 2009 SCHEDULE IS HERE

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.
2009: Official poster - [ download ] 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.


2007: Blues Festival stage We are extremely grateful to Louisville Metro District 6 Councilman George Unseld for financial contributions that have made this festival possible over the years, along with the Kentuckiana Blues Society for their support, including their president Gary Sampson. Much thanks go out to Mike Suttles for the musical lineup; 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.