The First Ever Hamtramck Music Festival

The Metro Times Blowout was held in Hamtramck for 15 years, then last year the organizers tried something new and made it a two weekend event. The first weekend was in Hamtramck and the second weekend was in Ferndale. This year they announced another twist, The Blowout will take place in Detroit, Hamtramck, and Ferndale over the same weekend and will be held at the end of April instead of the second week of March, as in previous years.

Hamtramck has offered a response to this and decided to create a new festival to take place the second week of March in Hamtramck. This festival will appropriately be called The Hamtramck Music Festival  and will be held March 6-8 in Ham town. Ben's Encore is the company behind booking this entire weekend and we truly believe they are onto something good.  The lineup of bars participating in the festival includes Baker Streetcar Bar, Capo Lounge, Cafe 1923, Detroit Threads, Kelly’s Bar, Lo & Behold, The Mars Bar, New Dodge Lounge, The Painted Lady, Paycheck’s Lounge, PLAV Post 10, Small's, Polish Village Cafe, Rock City Eatery, and 7 Brothers Bar. They will host a lot of local talent, including some of our favorites like Little Animal, After Dark Amusement Park, Size Queen, Pretty Ghouls, YUM, Blaire Alise & the Bombshells, Snakewing, Bars of Gold, The Amino Acids, and Voyag3r.

The interesting thing about this festival is that there are a lot of bands that we have not heard of before. For once it isn't the same old line up playing again. This will be a good chance to check out some new music and maybe discover some new talent.

The best part about this festival is that wristbands are somehow only $10! You have two options when buying tickets. You can order them online here and pick them up at will call or you can buy them at one of 15 retail locations. They include Cafe 1923, Detroit Threads, Rock City Eatery, Lo & Behold, Record Graveyard, Peoples Records, Hello Records, Dearborn Music, Stormy Records, Found Sound, UHF, Flipside Records, Street Corner Music, Melodies & Memories, and Encore Records.

I think this may end up being a really cool festival. I am antsy to get out of my house and I always looked forward to running around Hamtramck during the Blowout. So I am excited that we have a new Ham Town festival to replace that void. To learn more about the festival you can check out their website here or follow them on Facebook.

~S