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St. Louis Music Venues Gear Up For Weekend Festival And Crowded Calendars To Come

 Job seekers filled the lobby of the Fabulous Fox Theatre Wednesday morning. The venue is gearing up for its return to a heavy schedule of live performances. It will have a busy weekend as co-host of the Music At The Intersection Festival. [09/1-/21]
Jeremy D. Goodwin
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漏 2024 外网天堂
Job seekers fill the lobby of the Fabulous Fox Theatre Wednesday morning. The venue is gearing up for its return to a heavy schedule of live performances. It will have a busy weekend as co-host of the Music at the Intersection festival.

Jazz St. Louis Artistic Director Bob Bennett sat in the venue鈥檚 otherwise-deserted lounge one recent morning, talking with audio engineer Paul Hennerich.

Hennerich was about an hour into his new role. The two talked about another job they鈥檇 need to fill in coming days, before the first shows at the venue since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic in March 2020.

鈥淚 haven鈥檛 had a team in a year and a half. It鈥檚 just been me. So it鈥檚 a little surreal, because you're thinking about bringing a bunch of people back into this room,鈥 Bennett said. 鈥淭here鈥檚 some nerves. There鈥檚 also some excitement.鈥

The occasion for the jazz club鈥檚 reopening is , a three-day festival spread across multiple venues in Grand Center that begins Friday night. Festival organizers expect as many as 10,000 attendees. The busy weekend is just the kickoff for a full slate of fall performances at and other participating venues.

If everything proceeds as planned, it鈥檒l all add up to more live events this fall and winter than St. Louis has seen in a year and a half.

There鈥檒l be no mistaking the environment for pre-pandemic times. As the delta variant continues to spread widely among people who have not received the COVID-19 vaccine, most music venues in the region now require proof of vaccination or a negative test. Audience capacity is usually capped. The indoor mask mandate is still in effect.

But event calendars will be full once again.

 Jazz St. Louis Artistic Director Bob Bennett, left, plans for the upcoming season with new audio engineer Paul Hendrick. Hendrick will be a key player as the venue gears up to reopen.  [9/10/21]
Jeremy D. Goodwin
/
漏 2024 外网天堂
Jazz St. Louis Artistic Director Bob Bennett, left, plans for the upcoming season with audio engineer Paul Hennerich. Hennerich will be a key player as the venue gears up to reopen.

Busy weekend of music

Music at the Intersection will feature more than 60 acts, spread across six stages.

Mike Zito, Janet Evra and the Clark Terry Centennial Project will play at Jazz St. Louis. Roy Ayers, Gregory Porter and Lalah Hathaway headline performances at the . , the Soul Rebels featuring GZA and Tef Poe will play the , and , respectively. The outdoor tent by the Grandel will also feature live music for VIP ticket holders.

The deep lineup also features local artists including , , Blvck Spvde, , Anita Jackson and the Funky Butt Brass Band.

Though venues are gearing up for more action, the pandemic still informs all event plans.

鈥淲e鈥檙e making sure that these spaces are not just jam packed full of people, both for safety reasons and also because our venue partners need time to get everything back up and running,鈥 said Chris Hansen, executive director of the Kranzberg Arts Foundation, the festival鈥檚 chief organizer.

For some venues, getting up to speed again includes staffing back up again after cutting payroll when venues went dark in 2020. Job seekers streamed into the lobby of the Fox for a job fair on Wednesday. The organization was looking to hire dozens of people.

Not all of the new employees are needed for Music at the Intersection, but this weekend leads to a full schedule of concerts, comedians and touring Broadway productions at the venue this fall and winter.

鈥淭his is really a big moment for Grand Center as a neighborhood to welcome the guests back, turn the lights on, have music, you know, a bit of a homecoming in a lot of ways,鈥 said John O鈥橞rien, the theater鈥檚 director of programming.

The Fox 鈥渄ipped its toe in the waters鈥 with smaller events starting in the spring, O鈥橞rien said, but the pace of performances will soon pick up sharply.

Soul-jazz pianist Dave Grelle takes the stage this weekend at the inaugural Music at the Intersection festival with his band Playadors and Funky Butt Brass Band.
File photo/Jeremy D. Goodwin
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漏 2024 外网天堂
Dave Grelle's eponymous band will close out the first night of the Music at the Intersection festival at the Grandel.

The weekend festival, and all the shows scheduled to follow in coming months, are good news for local musicians who saw their incomes dry up when venues shut down at the start of the pandemic.

Local hip-hop fusion group the planned a long-delayed album release show at Delmar Hall in August, but the event was canceled. A sizable portion of its fanbase was turned off by the newly instituted requirement for proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test, emcee John Harrington said.

Harrington said Music at the Intersection is a well-planned event whose organizers are treating local musicians with respect, but he鈥檚 waiting to see if ticket buyers will show up.

鈥淚 think it鈥檚 great that they鈥檙e providing an opportunity for artists, but are the people gonna come? I say we just gotta do it and see what happens,鈥 he said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a gig for us, you know what I鈥檓 saying? So people are excited to get back out there and make some money playin鈥 a show, and being around people and kickin鈥 it.鈥

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Jeremy is the arts & culture reporter at 漏 2024 外网天堂.