The Town And The City Festival in Lowell, MA announces lineup additions, new venues and full schedules

Article Contributed by CK Communicati… | Published on Thursday, March 3, 2022

The Town and The City Festival announced its venue by venue schedule for the two-day music and arts festival on Friday, April 8th and Saturday, April 9th in downtown Lowell, Massachusetts. Two-Day Passes and Advanced Individual Day Passes are on sale now at www.thetownandthecityfestival.com

Recent additions to The Town And The City Festival lineup include Saturniids, Sinnet, Naomi Westwater, Layzi, ODB Project, and SAVAK.  In addition, Gail Greenwood will join Tanya Donnelly and The Parkington Sisters as a special guest. Festival representatives also announced that due to renovation delays at Christ Church United, the church unfortunately won’t be used this year as a venue.  Subsequently two new venues have been added to the festival for 2022, Taffeta at the Western Avenue Studios and 5th Floor at Mill No. 5 (both newly developed venues).

Designed as a walkable event, attendees who purchase single-day or two-day passes will have access to performances across all the participating venues (per any age restrictions and capacity allowance). Other event spaces, bars, cafes, and galleries hosting shows as part of the festival throughout downtown include Lala Books,  Zorba Music Hall, Warp & Weft, The Luna Theater (at Mill No. 5), Gallery Z, Smokehouse Tavern, The Old Court, The Purple Carrot Bread Co., The Worthen Cafe, and Brew’d Awakening. 

The Tanya Donelly and the Parkington Sisters/Will Dailey show will now take place Friday, April 8th at 5th Floor at Mill No. 5.  Robyn Hitchcock and Robin Lane will now perform at Zorba Music Hall on Saturday April 9.  The April 9th scheduled show featuring Screaming Females, Linnea’s Garden, and TVO has moved to Taffeta at Western Ave. Studios.

Throughout 2022,  the community will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the birth of Lowell native Jack Kerouac. Named after the novel The Town and the City, the first major work published by Kerouac, this year’s festival includes a block of performances by Lowell Storytelling, showcasing Lowell’s diversity, culture, and daily life by promoting residents’ true stories.

In addition, the “Visions of Kerouac” exhibit at Lowell National Historical Park – Boott Cotton Mills Gallery will be open 12PM-5PM daily throughout the festival’s weekend..  This unique exhibit is free and will include the return of the original “On The Road” scroll. The scroll in its entirety stretches to 120 feet and is one of the most extraordinary and highly valued manuscripts in American literary history.  On loan from The Jim Irsay Collection, the 24-foot portion will be available for viewing along with archival books, writings, personal objects, and photographs including never-before-seen images of Jack Kerouac taken by fellow Beat Generation pioneer Allen Ginsberg as well as a collection of photographs by John Suiter.

"Lowell has always had a special connection to music and the arts, The Town and the City Festival continues to build off the incredible legacy that Jack Kerouac and so many others have created," said Chris Porter, founder of The Town And The City Festival. "After a prolonged delay we are ready to welcome everyone back to bars and businesses across the city and show the immense talent that makes up this thriving performing arts scene."

The 2022 schedule is as follows:

FRIDAY, April 8, 2022

5th Floor at Mill No. 5 (6:30pm Doors)

7:30   Will Dailey

8:30   Tanya Donelly & The Parkington

Sisters with special guest Gail Greenwood   

Zorba Music Hall (8:00pm Doors)

9:00 D-Tension’s Secret Rock n Roll Band

10:00 Adam Ezra Group

Smokehouse Tavern (7:00pm Doors)

7:30   Tell

8:15   Naomi Westwater

9:00   Corner Soul    The Worthen Cafe (8:30pm Doors)

9:00  The Old Rochelle

10:00 Arthur Terembula

11:00 ODB Project

Warp & Weft (9:00pm Door

Charge Starts)

9:30   Hilken Mancini & Chris Colbourn

10:30 Aaron & The Lord (featuring Aaron Perrino) 

The Old Court (8:00pm Doors)

Lowell Spin presents

8:30 Senseless Optimism

9:30 oldsoul

10:30 Fish House

11:30 The Shirts and Shoes

Lala Books (open afternoon/

early evening)

A Spoken Word presentation by Free Soil Collective & the Cambodian American Literary Arts Association

6:30 - Performance

SATURDAY, April 9th, 2022

Zorba Music Hall (7:00pm Doors)

7:30  Robin Lane

8:30  Robyn Hitchcock  

Taffeta (at Western Ave. Studios) (8:00pm Doors)

9:00   TVO

9:45   Linnea’s Garden

10:30 Screaming Females

Warp & Weft (9:00 Doors)

9:30  Massy Ferguson

10:30 Jon Langford & Friends

Mill No. 5 Stage (Free admission during record show)

2:00   Dyer Holiday

3:00   Scott Pittman and The Deluxe Fiasco

4:00   Eileen Rose & Rich Gilbert

Gallery Z (6:00pm Doors)

6:30  Brian Porter Hinkley

7:15  Alisa Amador

8:15  Damn Tall Buildings   

The Old Court (7:30pm Doors)

Lowell Spin Presents

8:15  L.ucas & Timi O

9:15  Layzi

10:15  Evolfo

11:15  blindspot

The Worthen Cafe (5:00pm Doors)

6:00  Tysk Tysk Task

6:45  SAVAK

7:30  Colleen Green   

Brew’d Awakening

3:00  Lowell Storytelling

Smokehouse Tavern (7:00pm Doors)

7:30  The Only Things

8:15  The Daylilies

9:00  The Chelsea Curve

9:45  RoseR

The Purple Carrot Bread Co. (7:30pm Doors)

Pasithea Presents:

8:00   Kind Being

8:45   Sinnet    

9:30   Divine Sweater

10:15 Saturniids

Luna Theater at Mill No. 5

Pasithea presents ‘Origin Story’ - A multimedia event with spoken word artists, live jazz, solo musicians and visual projections.

(5:00pm Doors / 5:30pm Show)

Performances by Spoken Word Artists and Musicians featuring: Amanda Shea, Duncan Wilder Johnson, Amber Tortorelli, Ashley Wonder Prateek, Ava Sophia, and The Luna Collective. The complete schedule and additional information and updates can be found at www.thetownandthecityfestival.com.

Produced by Porter Productions with support from the Greater Merrimack Valley Convention & Visitors Bureau, Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism, and the Lowell Cultural Council, The Town And The City Festival features both locally-based and national touring acts.

The Town and the City Festival will take place Friday, April 8th and Saturday, April 9th at venues across Downtown Lowell. Two-Day Passes and Advanced Individual Day Passes are on sale now. Tickets can be purchased via a link at www.thetownandthecityfestival.com.

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