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Crossroads Guitar Festival | |
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![]() Eric Clapton and Bill Murray kicking off the Crossroads Guitar Festival in 2007 | |
Genre | Blues, country, rock, bluegrass |
Dates | Summer |
Location(s) | 1999: New York City 2004: Dallas, Texas 2007, 2010: Bridgeview, Illinois 2013: New York, NY 2019: Dallas, Texas 2023: Los Angeles, California |
Years active | 1999, 2004, 2007, 2010, 2013, 2019, 2023 |
Founders | Eric Clapton |
Website | http://crossroadsguitarfestival.org/ [Official website] |
The Crossroads Guitar Festival is a series of music festivals and benefit concerts founded by Eric Clapton. The festivals benefit the Crossroads Centre founded by Eric Clapton, a drug treatment center in Antigua. The concerts showcase a variety of guitarists, selected by Eric Clapton personally. To the 2007 audience, Clapton declared that each performer was one of the very best, and had earned his personal respect.
The first concert was held on June 30, 1999, at Madison Square Garden in New York City, and there again in 2013. The 2004 concert was held at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, while the 2007 and 2010 festivals were held at Toyota Park, Bridgeview, Illinois, just outside Chicago. The festival returned to Dallas in 2019 at the American Airlines Center.
The first Crossroads Benefit concert was held at Madison Square Garden, New York on June 30, 1999. It was held under a different title which was Eric Clapton & Friends In Concert: A Benefit For The Crossroads Centre At Antigua. The first official Crossroads Guitar Festival did not happen until 2004.
Some performers at the 1999 Concert were David Sanborn, Sheryl Crow, Bob Dylan and Mary J Blige. Backup musicians included Nathan East (bass), Steve Gadd (drums) Andy Fairweather Low (guitars), Tim Carmon (keyboards) and Dave Delhomme (keyboards). Back-up vocals were by Tessa Niles and Katie Kissoon.
Held at Cotton Bowl stadium in Dallas, Texas, from June 4, 2004, to June 6, 2004. A two-disc DVD containing 250 minutes of footage of the 2004 concert was released in the same year. [1] This became the first official Crossroads Guitar Festival even though the 1999 concert had a different title. It was also the first benefit concert under the Crossroads Guitar Festival name.
Some performers at the Crossroads Guitar Festival such as Jeff Beck, Pat Metheny, Neal Schon, and Styx were not included on the DVD.
The 2007 Crossroads Guitar Festival was held at Toyota Park in Bridgeview, Illinois on July 28, 2007. Tickets were estimated as sold out for the 28,000 capacity park in twenty two minutes. A DVD of the concert was released on November 20, 2007.
Eric Clapton played alongside various performers, and there were many one-off collaborations during the show. In order of appearance, the performers on the main stage were
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On the second stage at the Festival Village, performers included:
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The 2010 Crossroads festival was again held at Toyota Park in Bridgeview, IL (outside Chicago) on June 26, 2010.
In order of appearance. Artists in bold have received star billing in advertisements. [3] Comedian Bill Murray MC-ed.
The 2013 festival was held April 12–13 at Madison Square Garden in New York City. [4]
Performers included: [4] [5] [6]
The 2019 festival was held on September 20–21 at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas. [7]
MC: Bill Murray
Performers included:
Outdoor Venue: Among the Village Stage performers will be surprise main stage artists, along with special guest guitarists such as Eric Johnson, Joe Robinson, Andy Timmons, Paul Reed Smith, Boscoe France, Bryan Ewald, Ryan McGarvey and Peterson Brothers, with others. In addition, next-gen guitarists Jacob Reese Thorton and Brotherhood of the Guitar, the Ernie Ball Play Crossroads national contest winner, and Gibson’s G3 trio will make their Crossroads debut on the Village stage. [8]
A 2023 edition of the festival was held on September 23–24 at the Crypto.com Arena in Downtown Los Angeles. [9]
Buddy Guy and Robbie Robertson were both announced on the lineup. However, Guy canceled his performance on September 19th because of a medical issue and Robbie Robertson died on August 9, the month prior to the festival.
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Crossroads Guitar Festival 2013 is a music DVD, concert film and eleventh live album by the British rock musician Eric Clapton and was released on November 18, 2013, through Warner Bros. Records. It features recordings by various artists that performed during the Crossroads Guitar Festival 2013. The release reached international album, DVD and Blu-ray charts and was certified by various organisations with gold and platinum awards.
Crossroads Guitar Festival 2007 is the Rhino Entertainment and Warner Brothers release to the 2007 Eric Clapton Crossroads Guitar Festival. The concert was recorded on July 28, 2007 at the Toyota Park in Bridgeview, Illinois. The recordings were released on both Compact Disc and DVD on November 28, 2007 in the United States. The CD and DVD releases sold more than two million copies worldwide and reached various international charts.
In Concert: A Benefit for the Crossroads Centre at Antigua is a live concert film featuring performances by the British blues musician Eric Clapton and invited friends, such as David Sanborn, Sheryl Crow, Mary J. Blige and Bob Dylan. The DVD and VHS formats were released on 26 October 1999 under license of Warner Bros. Records. The concert tickets revenue was donated to the Crossroads Centre Foundation. It was the first Crossroads Guitar Festival, although titled differently at the time. The release reached various national charts and sold more than 225,000 copies worldwide.
The Crossroads Guitar Festival 2004 is a concert film, released by the British rock musician Eric Clapton. It documents live performances and interviews by various guitar players Clapton admires and is the first official Crossroads Guitar Festival. A previous benefit project titled In Concert: A Benefit for the Crossroads Centre at Antigua is sometimes regarded the first festival in the series. The video footage for the release was recorded between June 4 and 6, 2004 in Dallas, Texas. The DVD hit the international market on November 9 the same year and is distributed and licensed through Reprise and Warner Bros. Records.
Crossroads Guitar Festival 2010 is a concert film released on November 8, 2010, by the British rock musician Eric Clapton under Rhino Records and the Warner Music Group. It is sometimes credited as a "Various Artists" compilation release. The music film features 40 tracks on the DVD and Blu-ray format. Crossroads Guitar Festival 2010 was released worldwide, reached various international music charts and was awarded several certification awards for outstanding sales and shipments.
Live in San Diego is the thirteenth live album by British rock musician Eric Clapton. It was released through Reprise Records as a live album on 30 September 2016 and as a 2-hour live DVD on 10 March 2017.
The live and video album Crossroads Guitar Festival 2019 is the sixth release in the series of Eric Clapton's Crossroads Guitar Festivals to support his rehabilitation centre in Antigua, the Crossroads Centre, documenting the 2019 performances from two concerts held on September 20 and September 21, 2019 at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas. The album was released on November 20, 2020 through Warner and Rhino Records.
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