Apr 24, 2023
LOS ANGELES, CA – Eric Clapton announced today the 6th installment of the Crossroads Guitar Festival. The Festival, which has become legendary in its own right for hosting performances and impromptu collaborations from the world’s most renowned guitar players, will take place over two nights on September 23rd and 24th at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, CA. Clapton will gather the past, present and future of guitar music onto one stage for an unparalleled musical event featuring performances from the below list of notable guitarists. Tickets to the Festival will go on sale this Friday, April 21 at 10:00 a.m. local via Ticketmaster. Please note that each day will be sold as its own ticket and there will not be 2-day passes.In addition to the concerts, Guitar Center, a co-sponsor since 2004 and a strong supporter of the Crossroads At Antigua Foundation, will once again host the Guitar Center Festival Village on-site adjacent to the arena on Xbox Plaza and Chick Hearn Court at L.A. LIVE. Some of the world’s best guitar and gear manufacturers, including Fender, Gibson, Martin, BOSS, D’Angelico, Ernie Ball, Focusrite, Ibanez, Mark Bass, Marshall, Mitchell, PRS, Shure, Yamaha, and more, will host interactive exhibits where guitar enthusiasts can plug in and play new products and classic favorites. In addition to the guitars and gear exhibited throughout the Village, Guitar Center will again be exhibiting important selections from its must-see, multi-million dollar Legends Collection of historically significant guitars, including Clapton’s “Blackie” Strat and cherry ES-335, as well as Stevie Ray Vaughan’s “Lenny” Strat. Additionally, Guitar Center, in partnership with Eric Clapton, will unveil the 25th Anniversary Crossroads Guitar Collection – a rare series of meticulously crafted, limited-edition guitars, based on vintage, iconic instruments that Clapton played early in his career with Cream, Blind Faith and Derek and the Dominos. This collection will be of interest to both passionate players and serious collectors alike, and available exclusively through Guitar Center stores with a significant share of the profits going to the aid of Crossroads Centre at Antigua.
The Guitar Center Festival Village will open at 9:00 a.m. on both Saturday and Sunday, with exclusive access strictly limited to Crossroads concert ticket holders. One of the recurring highlights of the Village will be nonstop live performances on the outdoor Village Stage on Xbox Plaza, on which main stage artists, other world-renowned guitarists, and next-gen virtuosos will be featured throughout both days. Meanwhile, local food trucks will offer a convenient selection of Southern California cuisine throughout the Village’s operating hours, while Toyota will also be an exhibitor in the Village.
Since its inception, Clapton’s vision for the Crossroads Guitar Festival has been to create an event where his friends and contemporaries can have fun and perform together for the benefit of a good cause. This year, the Festival will partner with Heritage Auctions to once again conduct an online, global event featuring items including the one-of-a-kind reproduction prototypes of the Crossroads Guitar Festival 25th Anniversary Guitar Collection – as well as guitars handpicked
by participating Festival performers from Guitar Center’s high-end vintage collection, and donations from the 2023 Artists and Village Exhibitors. The auction will run online for three weeks in October following the Crossroads event, culminating in a live auction on October 21st. All profits from the Festival and auction will benefit The Crossroads Centre at Antigua, a treatment and education facility founded by Clapton for chemically dependent persons.
The first Crossroads Guitar Festival, held June 2004 at the Cotton Bowl and State Fairgrounds in Dallas, was an unprecedented collection of guitar icons from blues, rock and contemporary music. The sold-out show was chronicled in a two-disc DVD that has since gone on to become one of the world’s top-selling music DVDs. The Crossroads Guitar Festival 2007 and 2010 were the second and third such concerts by Clapton and were staged at Toyota Park in Chicago. Both Festivals were filmed for DVDs and also achieved multi-platinum status. The fourth Crossroads Guitar Festival in 2013 brought the world’s best guitar players to the world’s most famous arena, Madison Square Garden in New York and met with huge critical acclaim, similar to the most recent sold-out festival in 2019 that was held at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, a return to the city that hosted the first-ever Crossroads Guitar Festival.
For more information, please visit crossroadsguitarfestival.com.
About The Crossroads Centre, Antigua
Founded in 1998, Crossroads Centre, Antigua was created to provide treatment and education to chemically and alcohol dependent persons, their families and their significant others. Treatment is provided through residential care, family and aftercare programs. The pathway to recovery is founded on the 12 steps and a change in lifestyle. Crossroads Centre, Antigua also operates a halfway house in Antigua called the Bevon House and facilitates various ongoing recovery initiatives on the island of Antigua and in the Caribbean. For more information visit www.crossroadsantigua.org.
About Guitar Center
Guitar Center is the leading retailer of musical instruments, lessons, repairs and rentals in the U.S. With more than 300 stores across the U.S. and one of the top direct sales websites in the industry, Guitar Center has helped people make music for more than 50 years. Guitar Center also provides customers with various musician-based services, including Guitar Center Lessons, where musicians of all ages and skill levels can learn to play a variety of instruments in many music genres, GC Repairs, an on-site maintenance and repairs service, and GC Rentals, a program offering easy rentals of instruments and other sound reinforcement gear. Additionally, Guitar Center’s sister brands include Music & Arts, which operates more than 250 stores specializing in band & orchestral instruments for sale and rental, serving teachers, band directors, college professors, parents and students, and Musician’s Friend, a leading direct marketer of musical instruments in the United States. For more information about Guitar Center, please visit guitarcenter.com.
About Heritage Auctions
Heritage Auctions is the largest art and collectibles auction house founded in the United States, and the world’s largest collectibles auctioneer. Since its opening in Dallas in 1976, Heritage has sold some of the most coveted treasures from some of the music world’s most celebrated artists, among them Buddy Holly, Elton John, Prince, Bob Dylan, Whitney Houston, Bruce Springsteen, Graham Nash, Linda Ronstadt, Neal Schon, Duane and Gregg Allman, Kirk Hammett, Bob Willis, Trini Lopez, as well as the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Museum. Heritage, which offers collectibles from more than 50 categories, has 1.6 million registered collector-clients in all 193 countries. The auction house logged a record $1.45 billion in sales in 2022, and holds world records across multiple categories. Heritage, the world’s first auction house to hold its auctions online, maintains offices in New York, Dallas, Beverly Hills, Chicago, Palm Beach, London, Paris, Geneva, Amsterdam, Brussels and Hong Kong.
Media Contacts
For Eric Clapton:
Kristen Foster / [email protected]
For Guitar Center:
Clyne Media / [email protected] Guitar Center / [email protected] Edelman / [email protected]
For Heritage Auctions:
Robert Wilonsky / [email protected]
