Amplify Decatur Music Festival to inaugurate Decatur Square Stage

As the annual Amplify Decatur Music Festival returns June 4 through 7, it will not only be celebrating its 10th year as an outdoor festival, but it also will bring the first live concerts to the new downtown Decatur Square performing arts stage.  

While Amplify My Community was founded in Decatur in 2010, its earliest concerts were held indoors at Eddie’s Attic. Ten years ago, the multi-day event expanded to include outdoor performances.  

In announcing this year’s event, festival director and co-board chair Christine Mahin said, “This is a really special year for the festival and for me. It’s our 10th event and the first on the new downtown stage where so much great music will find a home for years to come. Personally, it’s also my 10th festival, and it’s been an honor to watch the community rally around Amplify, its music, and its cause over the last decade.” 

The annual event has a dual purpose—it brings popular performers to the area and raises money for several nonprofits, including Decatur Cooperative Ministry, where the mission is “to help families facing homelessness settle into safe, stable homes and build healthy lives filled with peace, hope, and opportunity,” according to its website. 

Decatur Education Foundation, which, its website notes, works with City Schools of Decatur, Decatur Housing Authority, and the city of Decatur “to bolster community efforts and ensure that all students have the resources, opportunities, and experiences in order to foster their growth and ensure their academic success,” is also an Amplify beneficiary. 

Another is Neighbor in Need, a nonprofit organization that, according to its website, “provides critical home repairs for low-income seniors living in the East Lake, Kirkwood, and Edgewood neighborhoods of Atlanta. It is 100 percent volunteer run, so all money raised goes directly into action to keep elderly residents safe, warm, and dry.” 

Amplify My Community was created “to leverage the universal love of music to fight poverty at the local level,” according to Mike Killeen, one of the founders of Amplify, who noted that to date, Amplify has produced more than 140 concerts, and raised and donated more than $645,000 in unrestricted gifts to locally oriented anti-homelessness and poverty-focused organizations — including more than $430,000 in Decatur. 

Calling Amplify “one of the best homegrown Americana music festivals around, with an incredibly talented and musically diverse line-up that features national, critically acclaimed artists as well as emerging local talent,” Amplify co-board chair Drew Robinson said, “We are most proud that we are able to support the hardworking nonprofits in our area. By raising money for their work, we free them up to do that amazing work instead of spending time and effort on fundraising.” 

This year’s Amplify Decatur Music Festival kicks off at 7 p.m. Thursday, June 4, at the Avon Theatre in Avondale with Penny & Sparrow and opening act Eliot Bronson.  

Amplify’s Friday, June 5 concert, starring The Sundogs Present: The Tom Petty Show with Canyonland featuring Michelle Malone will mark the first official show on the new Decatur Square stage. The evening includes a silent auction organized by and benefitting Neighbor in Need. Music begins at 6:30 p.m. and is preceded by pop-up performances at select restaurants on and around Decatur Square, beginning at 5 p.m. All Friday night shows are free.  

The new permanent stage—part of city of Decatur’s transformation of Decatur Square— will be the venue of the festival’s signature ticketed event on Saturday, June 6. Billed as “A Decade of Music on the Square,” the evening will feature performances by Gillian Welch & David Rawlings, PattersonHood of Drive-By Truckers, Dylan LeBlanc, Kyshona, and Georgia Mountain Stringband.  

The long weekend of music will wrap up where it started with a special event at 8 p.m. Sunday, June 7, at Eddie’s Attic. The “Amplify Hall of Fame” show will feature an array of local and regional artists performing songs by the artists who have played the festival over the last 10 years. Performers include Run Katie Run, Eli Blackshear, StoryGhost, Wyatt Espalin, Polly Holliday, and Mike Killeen. 

“Everyone with the city is thrilled to introduce our new stage to the people of Decatur as a place where art and music lovers can gather, listen, and share communal experiences,” said Decatur City Manager Andrea Arnold in announcing the event. “That’s the very spirit that Amplify Decatur has embodied for a decade, so it’s fitting and exciting that they are presenting the first show on our new stage.” 

 The Amplify Decatur Music Festival is presented by Lenz and produced in partnership with Eddie’s Attic.  For ticket information and purchases as well as other details, visit AmplifyDecatur.org.