Discover the secret
The Secret Stages Music Discovery Festival, to be held at several downtown venues Aug. 5-6, will feature acts from around the South and the United States — including Tucson, Arizona; St. Louis, Missouri; and New York City — and from right here in Birmingham.
But the artists have something important in common, regardless of their place of origin. They are all exciting, up-and-coming acts on the cusp of making it big, said Sam George, the festival’s creative director and a co-founder.
“Nobody has a focus on discovering music in the way we do,” he said. “We have a focus on bringing the best up-and-coming buzz bands, which means we provide a level of quality you have to find for yourself at a festival like South by Southwest, where there’s so much happening.”
Longtime Secret Stages programmer and co-founder Travis Morgan said he believes the festival offers a “unique music experience that cannot be seen anywhere else in the world.”
“Our soul is built around the idea of discovery,” George said.
Birmingham music lovers who share a taste for new artists and new sounds will have ample opportunity to indulge at Secret Stages, which will feature about 60 artists in every imaginable genre including alt-country, honky-tonk, jazz, R&B, punk, pop, electronica and psychedelic rock.
Secret Stages will, as always, feature many talented musicians from the Magic City — artists who often don’t get enough credit locally, organizers said.
And Secret Stages is a walking festival, meaning the acts perform in seven clubs — all on First and Second avenues north between 22nd and 24th streets — allowing fans easy access and a chance to see these buzz-worthy artists in small, intimate settings before they become headliners.
“For that one weekend, the Loft District … becomes a music haven,” Morgan said.
Not only can festival-goers check out up-and-coming bands, “they can experience new genres they wouldn’t necessarily go out to see,” George said. And they can feel confident the performers have been carefully chosen.
“We have found the very best of those specific genres,” he said.
“We want people to feel they have seen something good, and it’s worth it to come down,” said festival event director and co-founder Jon Poor.
The festival will include a dozen hip-hop acts chosen by DJ and Lobotomix founder Rashid Qandil. And for the first time, hip-hop will be spread across all of the festival’s venues.
It has been kept to a single stage at past festivals due to the genre’s production needs, George said.
And carrying out the theme of truly “secret” stages, the festival — as always — will have some secret sets that will be announced on social media a short time before the performances occur.
Secret Stages — established in 2011 after the demise of the City Stages music festival — will once again serve as a point of pride for local music lovers and a chance to highlight the many great musicians who live and work in Birmingham, organizers said.
The festival — along with other local venues and organizations — “are underscoring the fact that there is a music scene in Birmingham that is not to be ignored,” Morgan said.
The value of Secret Stages comes down to something very primal for Poor, who is a working musician.
“It all stems from that feeling you get listening to and discovering great music,” he said. “That’s the thing that’s driven me since I was a kid.”
It’s that feeling — along with a desire to “give back” to Birmingham — which makes all the work to put on the festival worthwhile, Poor said.
Secret Stages venues this year will include Das Haus, Rogue Tavern, Matthew’s Bar & Grill and Pale Eddie’s Pour House.
The festival will begin with the Willie Perry Day/Secret Stages Kickoff Party at Old Car Heaven Aug. 3. The event will honor Perry, a Birmingham resident who died in 1985 and was known for dressing as a superhero and doing good deeds. Details, including musical performances, were not finalized at press time.
For tickets and information, including a rundown of all the artists, go to secretstages.net.