Just a note about our festival coming up in one year. Shortly after there was an announcement regarding the Montreal Festival ceasing it's operations and then a note from Chris Herrod that Healdsburg was going to take a year off, I felt there was/is a window of opportunity...that we need another venue for luthiers to showcase their work. After a considerable amount of time, I decided that Memphis was the perfect place for a guitar festival. We already have festivals on both coasts, but nothing towards the center of the country. There are a
LOT of custom, luthier built guitars that are sold outside of California and New York.
With mentoring from Chris and six months of work already on this (and we are still a year away), we have put together what we believe will be a fabulous festival. There will be 60 plus luthiers in one exhibit area, 20 workshops (guitar/mandolin/uke), live demo room, concert room and 3 large 'quite rooms' for attendees to play these instruments to hear them under ideal conditions. We will be using almost 15,000 square feet and everything is located just rooms away from each other; for example, the 'quite rooms' are immediately adjacent to the exhibit hall; the workshops are about 15 yards away in one direction and the demo and concert rooms are about 15 yards away in a different direction (separated by a large food concession).
In addition to the food, there will be plenty free water available for everyone in the exhibit hall, transportation to and from Beale Street Friday evening and an optional evening at Graceland (with catered dinner from the famous Corkeys); even free transportation from the airport to the hotel (and back), so no need to rent a car.
We have fantastic reserved pricing for the event ($119.00 plus Memphis taxes for those who guarantee early - this will be on our site by mid July...the earliest that Hilton can get all of the online links working between our website and theirs). We are planning on having this event bi-annually in the odd years (with Healdsburg in the even years). We have gotten tremendous support from the city of Memphis, Graceland and the Hilton. We are looking for a truly spectacular festival!
While we are very close to being sold out (with luthiers). If you have any interest in exhibiting guitars (acoustic only) or being a vendor for guitar accessories, please email me
ASAP. If you are interested in a giving a workshop, we still have two slots to fill. The website is
www.MemphisGuitarFest.com and my email address is
[email protected]. I look forward to hearing from you. Please ask any questions you like either here or to me directly. The table fee is $795.00 payable in two payments.