Tuesday, June 12, 2012

I Am Music Fest to debut with Arie in August

Charlotte-based concert and events promoter Michael Kitchen announced Tuesday that The Sol Kitchen will host its first music festival at Blumenthal Performing Arts' Belk Theater on Friday, August 10. Grammy winning artist India Arie will headline the inaugural I Am Music Fest with Mint Condition. Other acts will be announced over the coming weeks.

Kitchen says he's starting small - with just a handful of artists given that its Sol Kitchen's first festival. He chose Arie because of her widespread appeal. It marks her first Charlotte appearance in three years.

Kitchen has been bringing cutting edge live soul, R&B, jazz, and hip-hop to town for most of the last decade. He was behind Chuck Brown's annual CIAA gigs. He's brought well known acts like Common, Questlove, Talib Kweli, Esperanza Spalding, Will Downing, Musiq Soulchild, El DeBarge, and Eric Benet to town as well as booking great on-the-rise artists like Alice Smith, Rahsaan Patterson, PJ Morton, Anthony David, Van Hunt, and Vivian Green. Those names alone indicate a promising lineup for I Am Music Fest '12.

Tickets for I Am Music are on sale here or by calling 704-372-1000.