Contributed by Skip Lichter
Great Alaska Music Festival
May 26-27, 2018
Great Alaska Music Festival
Alaska State Fair
2075 Glenn Hwy. Palmer
Cost: $50-$243
WHAT:
The first ever Great Alaska Music Festival will kick-off this coming summer at the Alaska State Fairgrounds over the Memorial Day weekend on Saturday & Sunday, May 26 & 27, 2018.
This first annual music festival will feature national and Alaskan bands performing from morning through night on both days.
The Great Alaska Music Festival will have reserved and general admission seating with a VIP area, complete with catered food, wine, liquor and craft beer for the artists, special guests and VIPs.
The Great Alaska Music Festival will offer music fans a way to kick-off the 2018 Alaska summer season during the most favorable weather periods of the year.
WHERE:
The Alaska State Fairgrounds in Palmer is the state’s premier outdoor music venue, it’snly 35 minutes from Anchorage, with its own Alaska Railroad stop. Its great accessibility, parking, camping, bathrooms, showers, vendor & RV/motorhome wth power, is music to the ears for all festival goers, especially for first-timers.
The Great Alaska’s venue is the Borealis Theatre, a beautiful grass bowl amphitheater where the Alaska State Fair holds all their major concerts.
Between the weather, facility and location, this is the greatest outdoor venue in Alaska.
WHO:
Putting on the Great Alaska Music Festival is an experienced team of industry professionals who have been producing major concerts and events in Alaska since the 1970s. One of them, Skip Lichter, was a founding and key member of Northern Stage Company, perhaps the most successful concert event company in the history of Alaska.
Northern Stage helped shape the Alaska music scene with ground-breaking concerts at West High School with the Grateful Dead and Bonnie Raitt. They also produced the inaugural concerts at the Sullivan Arena in Anchorage with Willie Nelson and other major Alaskan concerts with Journey, Beach Boys, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Buffett, Huey Lewis, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Joe Cocker, Crosby, Stills & Nash, Ozzy Osbourne, Van Halen, Aerosmith, Metallica and many others.
Great Alaska Festival booking team member, Lichter, has continued to bring music to the north country as part of the music appearing at the Alyeska Resort the past seven years; booking artists such as Lucas Nelson, Leftover Salmon, Wailers, Keller Williams, Punch Brothers, Lucero and Peter Rowan, to name just a few. This last March, Alyeska brought up Bob Weir to perform with David Nelson Band. See the below Alaska Dispatch News article:
https://www.adn.com/arts/music/2017/03/16/surprise-announcement-recalls-the-year-grateful-dead-played-westhigh-auditorium/
Also part of the Great Alaska team is festival adviser, Jeffrey Abel, the owner of Northbound Productions in Anchorage and co-founder and former producer of Salmonfest. Other team members are Rob Bashleben, promoter of Hatcher Pass Discovery Presents in Palmer and Warren Weldon, well-known luthier, songwriter and former road manager for Peter Rowan and Tony Rice.
The founders of the festival are committed to making the annual Great Alaska Music Festival an important and integral part of the Alaskan music and cultural scene for many years to come.
CONTACT:
For updates on the music line-up as well as information on tickets, transportation, directions, camping and hotel accommodations, sponsorship, on-site food, beverages and vendor opportunities and all “Things You Should Know”, please visit, www.GreatAlaskaMusicFestival.com and www.facebook.com/GreatAlaskaMusicFestival.
