1997 City Stages

The 1997 City Stages was the 9th annual edition of "Birmingham's World-Class Music Festival". It was held June 13-15, 1997 in and around Linn Park in Downtown Birmingham. There were 270 acts on sixteen separate stages, and the estimated attendance was 255,000 people. Thunderstorms skirted the site early Friday and Saturday afternoons, but no performances were canceled due to weather. Day passes were $18 and 3-day passes were $25 in advance.

Poster

The 1997 City Stages poster was designed by Susan Oliver

Line up

Friday

• Birmingham's Three Tenors
• Birmingham Heritage Band
• David Grisman Quintet
• Matthew Sweet
• Collective Soul
• Quinsonics
• Haley-Bopp
• Michael Levine and Cool Water
• Little Feat
• Trisha Yearwood
• Kool & the Gang

Saturday

• Auntie Litter
• Kristi Tingle Higginbotham
• Topper Price and Scott Boyer
• The Connection
• Tina and the B-side Movement
• The Blues Healers
• Verbena
• National Sacred Harp Convention singers
• The Skeletons
• Satan & Adam
• Crooked Road
• Suzanne Vega
• Partial to Mabel
• Chris Scheurich & Junior Atomic
• Little Charlie & the Nightcats
• Allen Toussaint
• Ronnie Dawson
• Charles Brown
• Telluride
• Rusted Root
• Farmer Not So John
• BR-549
• Michael Ray & the Cosmic Krewe
• Dee Carstenson
• Suzanne Vega
• Emmylou Harris
• Ray Charles

Sunday

• Boozoo Chavis and his Majic Sounds Band
• Laurie Lewis
• David Olney
• Austin Lounge Lizards
• Buddy and Julie Miller
• Guy Davis
• Southern Culture on the Skids
• Trout Fishing in America
• Sister Hazel
• Taj Mahal & the Phantom Blues Band
• Celebration Winds
• Cordelia's Dad
• Beausoleil
• Barenaked Ladies
• Willie King
• John Prine
• The Temptations
• Marcia Ball
• Georgia Mass Choir

Notes

The Birmingham Police Department reported 25 arrests during the festival, which was staffed by more than 100 officers. Of the arrests, only one was on a felony charge, with the remainder being for disorderly conduct, intoxication, possession of alcohol by a minor, and traffic offenses.

The northbound lanes of I-59 were closed for a little over an hour following a fatal collission between the 4th Avenue South and Roebuck Parkway exits just as the festival was closing on Sunday evening.

The 1997 City Stages coincided with an ongoing touring exhibition of objects from the Smithsonian Institution on display at the Birmingham Museum of Art, which also hosted the Mind Expanding Grits Theater.

References

• Carlton, Bob (June 12, 1998) "City Stages retrospective." Birmingham News.

External links

• Set list and reviews of John Prine show from the Wise Old Geezer.

Preceded by: 1996 City Stages

City Stages 1997

Succeeded by: 1998 City Stages