| Music Festival Name: | Crossroads Guitar Festival |
| Years Active: | 1999, 2004, 2007, 2010, 2013, 2019, 2023 |
| Dates: | Summer |
| 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
On the second stage at the Festival Village, performers included:
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.