LEVITT PAVILION: Downtown Center Stage Music Festival starts Friday

Levitt Pavilion Arlington opens its fifth year of free music under the stars on

Memorial Day weekend with the second annual Downtown Center Stage Music Festival

and one of its biggest opening weekend line-ups yet!

First on the Levitt stage for 2013 will be Delta Rae, whichdebuts at 7 p.m. The up-and-coming alternative pop band was victim to one of the few concert rain-outs last year. Since

they were originally booked for the Levitt, Delta Rae has played an event for First

Lady Michelle Obama and appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Conan O'Brien

and Last Call with Carson Daly.

Sarah Jaffe, break-out Indie artist from Dallas, takes the stage after Delta Rae. Their concerts kick off the music festival and the Texas Power 2013 Summer Concert Series on Friday, May 24.

The three-day Downtown Arlington Center Stage Music Festival continues at 8 p.m.

 Saturday, May 25, with another Dallas band, The Polyphonic Spree, the hard-to-describe

23-member pop choir. Opening for the Spree are Jody Jones at 5:30 p.m. and Calhoun

at 7 p.m.

Popular area band Old 97's takes the stage to conclude the festival at 8 p.m. Sunday,

May 26. Ryan Hamilton getsthings started before the Old 97's at 5:30 p.m., followed by Telegraph Canyon at 7 p.m.

The Memorial Day weekend music festival is free and includes Downtown Arlington

restaurants at the Levitt to sell food from their menus. Restaurants include J.

Gilligan's, MountainTop Snow, Potager, Coolberry Frozen Yogurt, Freebirds, Fuzzy's,

Maverick's Bar & Grill, Grease Monkey, Blaze's Sports Grill, Pho Xpress and Digg's

Taco Shop.

In addition to food and free music, the festival will have a variety of artists

selling paintings, watercolors, handmade greeting cards, metal jewlery, glass art

and more. The festival is sponsored by Texas Power, Downtown Arlington Management

Corp., Experience Arlington, University of Texas at Arlington, FW Weekly and Coors.

The Texas Power 2013 Summer Concert Series runs May 24 through July 14 with no concerts

on July 4 or 10. Children's Concerts on Wednesdays in June are at 9:30 a.m. and

7:30 p.m. Concerts on Thursday through Sunday are at 8 p.m. Concerts will start

at 8:30 p.m. beginning July 5.

The Levitt Pavilion has open lawn seating on blankets and chairs. Audiences are

welcome to bring picnics, snacks and coolers with beverages, but no glass containers.

The Levitt Pavilion is located in Downtown Arlington at 100 W. Abram St. at the

corner of Abram and Center streets. A complete summer concert calendar and information

about visiting the pavilion, including directions and a parking map, can be found

on the Levitt website, www.levittpavilionarlington.org.

Season sponsors for the Texas Power 2013 Summer Concert Series are Texas Power,

Levitt Pavilions, the Mortimer & Mimi Levitt Foundation, the City of Arlington,

Arlington Parks & Recreation, the Arlington Chamber Foundation, Coors, Downtown

Arlington Management Corp., FW Weekly, Pianotex, Bonnie and Alan Petsche, the

Star-Telegram,

Texas Health/Arlington Memorial Hospital, the University of Texas at Arlington,

WFAA, and grants from the Arlington Cultural Tourism Council, the Arlington Tomorrow

Foundation, the Texas Commission on the Arts and the Union Pacific Foundation.

Editor's note: High-resolution photos are available of allof the summer concert

artists.

About Levitt Pavilion Arlington

Last year, more than 108,900 music lovers visited The Levitt Pavilion for the

PerformingArts in Arlington, which made its debut in October 2008 as the fifth member of the

family of Levitt Pavilions across the country and the only one in Texas. The pavilion

is located in Founders Plaza at the intersection of Abram and Center streets. The

Levitt Pavilion provides more than 50 free concerts a year with a broad-based, eclectic

list of performers from world music to jazz and country to hot Latin rhythms. The

pavilion's programs provide the community with an accessible gathering place for

free music and performing arts open to everyone - all ages, all ethnicities, all

neighborhoods  and all income levels - to enjoy under the stars. For more information

and a complete calendar of summer concerts, please visit the Web site at

www.levittpavilionarlington.org

DOWNTOWN ROCKS: Redevelopment paying off after years of ongoing efforts

Along Abram Street a courtyard with picnic tables beckons between Freebirds World Burrito and Twisted Root Burger Co. Next door the newly reimagined Hooligan’s presents a stylish and casual bar with beautiful woodgrain touches, a stone fireplace, and a cozy patio. A few steps around the corner you’ll find old favorite J. Gilligan’s still serving cold beer and heaps of Irish nachos. Behind Gilligan’s the trendy Capital Bar has transformed an old Goodyear building.

Little of this was here a few years ago: the restaurants, the people, the cars parked along South Street because the nearby lots are full. Hard to believe. Downtown Arlington is bustling, and people are talking.

Architecture alumnus Homer Saenz takes his family downtown at least once a week. “It’s nice to have a place to go out with your friends, enjoy some live music and things that we haven’t had before,” he says. “We’ve always had to go to Fort Worth or Dallas to do that. I really like what’s going on down there.”

MIDDLE OF SOMEWHERE

South Arlington may be a hub for shoppers with The Parks at Arlington mall and Arlington Highlands, and north Arlington is a sports fans’ paradise with Rangers Ballpark, Cowboys Stadium, and abundant sports bars. But downtown has found its niche, too—eclectic dining, entertainment, cultural events. Forget north and south. The place to be is right in the middle.

Downtown wasn’t always a big deal. “It was terrible,” alumna Patti Diou, executive director of Friends of the Levitt Pavilion, recalls of her time as a UT Arlington student. “It wasn’t a downtown. There was nothing.”

Efforts to improve the area began a couple of decades ago and gained steam in 2006. The result has been a burst of development and interest.

UT Arlington has fueled downtown’s resurgence. President James D. Spaniolo sought for Arlington a college town atmosphere, so the University partnered with the city to establish the Downtown Arlington Management Corp. The two provided initial funding, then the city established a business improvement district to subsidize the support. The district taxes 400 properties within the downtown boundaries, approximately 15 cents per $100 in valuation.

Around that time, the Levitt Pavilion was rising across from City Hall in a land swap with the First Baptist Church. The outdoor performance venue was a collaborative venture involving the Downtown Arlington Management Corp., city of Arlington, Chamber of Commerce, and the University.

UT Arlington’s ambitious College Park District all by itself takes downtown to another level, adding numerous restaurants and the 7,000-seat College Park Center events venue. Diners can frequent Pie Five Pizza Co., Coolberry Frozen Yogurt, Smiling Moose Deli, Digg’s Taco Shop, Pho Xpress, Grip Mediterranean Grill, and Blaze’s Sports Grill.

Nor is College Park just for students, something locked deep within the campus, but a 20-acre residential and retail montage that blurs the boundaries between the city and the University, inviting everyone to visit.

(Article by David Hopkins: Reprinted from UTA Magazine)

CENTER STAGE MUSIC FESTIVAL: Catch Jaffe along with Polyphonic Spree

Mark your calendar. Don’t miss the Downtown Arlington Center Stage Music Festival and opening weekend of the 2013 Texas Power Summer Concert Series at the Levitt Pavilion, May 24-26.

The weekend lineup includes Sarah Jaffe (pictured above), Friday, May 24, 7 p.m., along with Delta Rae.

Polyphonic Spree performs Saturday, May 25, 5:30 p.m., along with Calhoun and Jody Jones.

The finale comes at 5:30 Sunday, May 26, with Old  97’s, performing with Telegraphic Canyon and Ryan Hamilton.

Free music by up-and-coming stars with some of the best musical artists North Texas has to offer, plus food from Downtown Arlington restaurants, including J. Gilligan’s, MountainTop Snow, Fuzzy’s, Pie Five, Potager, Cool Berry, Digg’s Taco Shop and Freebirds.

Music starts at 7 p.m. on Friday and at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.

Jaffe (born January 29, 1986) is a singer-songwriter from Denton who  self-released her first EP titled Even Born Again, which was recognized by Rolling Stone and the Dallas Observer. In 2009 she was signed to Kirtland Records and released her first full-length album, Suburban Nature, in May 2010.^[3][4] She has previously toured with Lou Barlow, Norah Jones, Blitzen Trapper and Chelsea Wolfe, as well as fellow bands Midlake, Old 97's and Centro-matic.
In 2011, she released The Way Sound Leaves a Room, which was touted as an EP that included a DVD of her performance at Wyly Theatre in Dallas that February. This release included a cover of a Drake song: "Shut it Down". It was with this release that she started moving away from an acoustic "Folk" sound to a more orchestral "Indie-Rock" sound, but it was only a hint at what was to come.
In 2012, she opened on the New Multitudes Tour where she introduced fans to songs from her upcoming album. On April 21st, she dropped her latest LP: The Body Wins, produced by John Congleton. On December 11, 2012, she performed "Talk", a single from that album, on Jimmy Kimmel Live.

Click here for the music festival lineup.