Iggy Pop and Jack White to headline CBGB Festival in Brooklyn
The iconic New York music venue and birthplace of punk, CBGB, in partnership with The Bowery Presents, has announced plans for a star-studded festival. A one-day event set for September 27th, CBGB Festival will take place at Under the K Bridge Park in Brooklyn and feature an extensive lineup of 21 artists.
Among those 21 artists are a wealth of bands representing the past, present and future of punk rock. Alongside up-and-coming artists like Lip Critic, The Linda Lindas, and Lambrini Girls, there will also be appearances from established punk stalwarts like The Damned, Lunachicks, Melvins, and the new incarnation of The Sex Pistols, featuring vocals from Frank Carter.
The festival will also pay homage to the hardcore punk scene that blossomed at CBGB during the early 1980s, with appearances from Gorilla Biscuits, Murphy’s Law, and Cro-Mags. However, a notable absence from the line-up is Agnostic Front, who were at the centre of that CBGB hardcore scene back in the day.
Headlining the show will be punk godfather Iggy Pop, marking his first return to New York City in over a decade, along with garage rock academic Jack White. Elsewhere, the line-up also features The Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr, who took a huge amount of influence from the CBGB punk scene during his early years, and Marky Ramone, drummer of iconic punk band The Ramones, who defined the CBGB scene during the 1970s.
CBGB was first opened in 1973 by Hilly Kristal, and existed as a biker bar before being adopted by the East Village’s blossoming punk rock scene during the mid-1970s. The venue acted as a springboard for a wealth of now-iconic artists like Television, Blondie, Talking Heads, The Ramones, and Patti Smith, to name only a handful.
The club closed its doors in 2006 after being sued for years of unpaid rent. Original owner Hilly Kristal passed away the following year, and the CBGB name was attached to numerous different projects in the years that followed. Since its closure, everything from clothing brands to an airport bar has featured the CBGB name. The original building now houses a designer clothing store.
Tickets for CBGB Festival are set to go on sale Friday, May 16th. A limited number of discounted tickets will be available from the Music Hall of Williamsburg the following day, priced at $73 as a homage to the year of the club’s opening. The festival will also feature reduced admission for New York residents under the age of 25.
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