HOUSTON -- Bayou City Art Festival Downtown 2014 proudly introduces Bayou City After Dark, a can't miss downtown destination event. Enjoy fine art, drinks and live performances by Martha Wash of The Weather Girls, C+C Music Factory and Black Box fame as well as Grady Gaines & The Texas Upsetters from 5-9:30pm on Oct. 11.
With Houston's iconic skyline as a backdrop, the fall festival will feature the first annual Bayou City After Dark on Saturday night at Walker and Bagby with live music and libations.
Susan Fowler, Executive Director of Bayou City Art Festivals describes After Dark as, "An evening art festival featuring art, concerts and cocktails. We've always had a Saturday night event, but never anything like this." She continues, "We are extremely excited to launch After Dark with the twice Grammy nominated Martha Wash and hometown favorite Grady Gaines & The Texas Upsetters. We thought this would be the perfect addition to the festival offering a place to relax, drink and listen to great music on a Saturday night downtown."
Known to many as "the Queen of Clubland" and recently featured in Rolling Stone Magazine, Martha Wash is the voice behind some of the most well-known pop hits of all time including "It's Raining Men"; "Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)"; "Strike It Up"; "Everybody, Everybody"; "Carry On" and her latest singles, a cover of Aerosmith's "Dream On", "It's My Time" as well as the "I'm Not Coming Down" remix, which reached no. 2 on the Billboard Dance Club Songs this year. Additionally, her voice can be heard as a backup singer on numerous Sylvester songs, Bob Seger's "Like a Rock", Aretha Franklin's "Freeway of Love" and multiple movie soundtracks including a cover of Elton John's "I'm Still Standing" for First Wives Club. With multiple chart toppers that appeal to all ages, Martha Wash offers something for music lovers of all generations.
In addition to making new music and performing solo shows around the world, she is an avid advocate for multiple charities including: LGBT rights and fundraising for the fight against HIV/AIDS, "QSAC Inc", "You Can Play Project" and the Huntington Arts Council.
Kicking off the evening is Houstonian and award-winning Grady Gaines & The Texas Upsetters. With a long list of accolades, Grady & The Texas Upsetters recorded numerous classics with Little Richard including "Long Tall Sally", "Send Me Some Lovin" and "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On" and appeared in three movies with Little Richard. They went on to record "Bring It On Home" and "Twisting The Night Away" among many more with Sam Cooke. An accomplished saxophonist and bandleader with a career that has spanned six decades, Grady & The Texas Upsetters have played The Apollo and The Paladium, with many of the great artists including: Diana Ross and the Supremes, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Bo Didley, Etta James and Jackie Wilson amongst many others.
Additionally, he has toured Europe with Fats Domino, received the first annual Blues Heritage Award from the Texas Blues Preservation Society, played at one of President Clinton's 1993 inaugural parties, won the Blues Artist of the Year at the Juneteenth Festival in Houston and was named to the Houston Press Hall of Fame, Class of 2014. More information on Grady Gaines & The Texas Upsetters can be found at www.gradygaines.com.
After Dark will also feature an added element of interactive performance art with NOMAD Sound of Austin, Texas designing performance pieces, which will combine live painting and architectural video mapping. The results are projected in real time onto landscape, buildings, and other public structures.
Featuring fine art and fine craft, the Bayou City Art Festival is one of Houston's most anticipated bi-annual outdoor events offering a fun-filled weekend of art, entertainment, live music, food, wine and beer. Boasting 300 national and international juried fine and visual performing artists working in 19 media and touted as one of the nation's top ten annual outdoor fine art events, the Bayou City Art Festival Downtown 2014, produced by Art Colony Association, will turn Downtown Houston into an entertainment mecca October 11-12.
Tickets are available by visiting www.artcolonyassociation.org.
