Jordan Wolowitz, left, of Shore Sound Entertainment and Tyler Grill of GoodWorks Entertainment are the organizers of the Back Cove Music & Arts Festival, scheduled for Aug. 2-3. Derek Davis/Portland Press Herald
Jack White, Lord Huron, Andre 3000, Turnpike Troubadours and Lucy Dacus are among the acts scheduled to play the inaugural Back Cove Music & Arts Festival in Portland this summer.
The lineup for the two-day event at Payson Park was announced by the event organizers, GoodWorks and Shore Sound Entertainment, on Thursday morning. There are a total of 21 acts scheduled to play the event, Aug. 2-3.
White first gained fame in the rock duo White Stripes, Andre 3000 was part of the hip-hop duo Outkast and Dacus also performs with the indie rock group Boygenius.
Besides nationally known performers, the schedule includes several Maine-based artists or groups, including some who tour nationally: Griffin William Sherry; Weakened Friends; Oshima Brothers; Pihcintu Multinational Chorus; and Maine Academy of Modern Music.
Other performers and groups scheduled include Thee Sacred Souls, Margo Price, St. Paul & The Broken Bones, Ripe, Chance Pena, Madi Diaz, Cimafunk, Sarah Kinsley, Crowe Boys, The Greeting Committee and Eliza McLamb.
Tickets are on sale for some southern Maine-area residents now, at BackCoveFestival.com. People need to live in certain ZIP codes — listed online in the FAQs section — to get the tickets. Prices for the tickets now on sale start at $211 for a two-day general admission ticket and $122 for a single-day general admission ticket. Tickets go on sale to the general public on March 6, but prices for those have not been announced.
The Portland City Council voted 5-2 in December to give the event organizers a license to hold the festival in the city-owned park, which is in a residential neighborhood on the Back Cove. Councilors Wes Pelletier and Kate Sykes voted against the license, with Sykes citing concerns about using a public common space for a private event and Pelletier saying he wasn’t convinced Portlanders wanted the festival and that it would likely cater to tourists.
Other councilors said the festival would be a fun event for the city and could help the local economy. Several councilors emphasized that the license is just for one year. The festival will also feature food trucks and local vendors, according to a memo submitted to the council. Organizers told city officials there will be a free shuttle service between an off-site parking lot and Payson Park.
According to the application filed with the city, bus service will be free for ticket holders. Kids under 12 will be able to attend for free, and organizers will pay $1 to the city for every ticket sold. They will also make a $100,000 donation to the city to cover any potential damage to the park and to pay for a new project in the park to be determined by the city.
Organizers have said the event could bring 10,000 to 12,500 people to Payson Park each day. It’s the biggest music festival featuring national acts on city land since the Mumford & Sons “Gentlemen of the Road Stopover” in 2012. That one-day festival brought some 15,000 people to the city’s Eastern Promenade.
About half of the acts will perform the first day, and the rest on the second. Lord Huron, Andre 3000, Griffin William Sherry and Weakened Friends are among the performers scheduled for Aug. 2, while Jack White, Turnpike Troubadours, Lucy Dacus, Margo Price and others will perform on Aug. 3.
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