Avondale Hosts Secret Stages Festival This Weekend

BIRMINGHAM, AL - Birmingham has had a summer packed full of music festivals and events, and that wave of music is not over. The 8th Annual Secret Stages music festival is coming to Birmingham's Avondale community August 3-4.

The festival has always been billed as a "discovery festival" wherein artists from the city and region perform for audiences made up primarily of music fans who may not be as familiar with the music they are seeing. In essence, the festival's aim has always been to introduce music fans to new artists.

(For more updates on this story and free news alerts for your neighborhood, sign up for your local Patch morning newsletter.)

In the first seven years of the festival's existence, it was held in the downtown Birmingham Loft District, but for the first time, the organizers of the festival have chosen to move to a new neighborhood with new venues.

The decision to move the festival from downtown was due mostly to access to the area's businesses and which businesses wanted to participate. The downtown Loft District has been a growing nightlife destination over the years, and Secret Stages has been a large part of that revitalization. Venues such as Rogue Tavern, Das Hous, Pale Eddie's, Matthew's and Urban Standard had been involved in the festival in the past.

This year, the venues in use with include Avondale Brewery, Saturn, The Hangar and 41st Street Pub.

One of the founders of the festival, Jon Poor, said after much discussion, the executive team with the festival made the decision to move to Avondale, which has been a growing entertainment district in its own right. "Over the years, the Secret Stages crew has had many discussions about the best location for the festival," Poor said. "We have always loved being downtown. Seeing and being a part of the growth there has been one of the more rewarding aspects of the event. That said, the changing business landscape has often presented us with challenges as far as having a consistent and viable footprint each year."

Artists performing in this year's festival will include a handful of acts - including Heath Green and the Makeshifters and Will Stewart - that had originally been slated to play Birmingham's Sloss Music and Arts Festival, but had their sets either cut short or canceled due to weather.

Related story: Weather Puts Damper On Sloss Fest

The festival kicks off Friday at 5:30 p.m. The complete schedule and ticket information can be found here.

Photo by Jay Dexter/Secret Stages

Like the Birmingham Patch Facebook page for more local news.