10th Annual Homegrown Live Music Festival Happens May 5

Published on: 2018/05/03 - in Releases

Homegrown Live Music Festival will celebrate its 10th year as a major fundraiser for Joe’s M.I.L.L. on Saturday, May 5, 2018.

The one-day festival will showcase some of Kingston’s best musicians at multiple venues in downtown Kingston while providing much-needed support to the Joe Chithalen Memorial Musical Instrument Lending Library (Joe’s M.I.L.L.).

An all access bracelet for the festival is $10. Since 2008, Homegrown Live has raised over $88,000 for Joe’s M.I.L.L.

“Our 10th anniversary is something we never thought we’d get to, but this year will be our biggest festival yet” says festival coordinator Tom Stewart. “We have an incredible talent pool in this city, and the music community really gets behind this cause, which allows us to put on a great show year after year.”

“We’ve long called this festival “the event that pays the rent,”” says Terry Snider, president of Joe’s M.I.L.L. “Every year at Homegrown, we see musicians that got their start with one of our instruments, and we actually see quite a few of the instruments themselves on stage.”

The 2018 lineup once again includes more than 100 local bands and over 350 musicians, performing in 15 genres in 13 venues, showcasing their talents in a wide variety of music genres: rock, blues, jazz, Celtic, punk, folk, country, and many more. Festival bracelets allow access to the entire event, which offers performances from 11 AM to 2 AM.

Homegrown Live is made possible thanks to the generous sponsorship of Downtown Kingston! B.I.A., Kingston Sound Works, HC Concepts, CFRC, MusicFly.ca, Peter Finnegan of BMO-Nesbitt Burns, Long & McQuade, Kingston Whig-Standard and Kingston This Week, plus dozens of door and stage volunteers.

A full list of venues, performers, and sponsors is available at www.homegrownlive.ca.

Also check out the Homegrown Live Music Festival on Facebook and Twitter.


The Joe Chithalen Memorial Musical Instrument Lending Library (Joe’s M.I.L.L.) is a registered charity in Kingston, Ontario founded by musician, Wally High, in memory of his friend and band member, the late Joe Chithalen.

Joe’s M.I.L.L. operates in tribute to Joe’s love of music such that everyone who wants to can enjoy playing music as he did. Approximately 6000 loans were issued in the past year alone from an inventory of over 1000 instruments. More than 200 of those are signed out to students enrolled in school music programs, camps, and community groups in the Kingston area.

MISSION STATEMENT: Our lending and teaching program fosters music appreciation, knowledge, community enrichment and provides opportunities for youth and adults to meet their full potential. www.joesmill.org

Homegrown Live Music Productions is a non-profit organisation responsible for organising the annual Homegrown Live Music Festival, a music festival celebrating live music in Kingston.


Release source: Chris Morris / Homegrown Live