41st Annual Dallas International Guitar Festival Returns to Market Hall
The 41st Annual Dallas International Guitar Festival (DIGF) will be held Friday through Sunday, May 4-6 at Dallas Market Hall. Market Hall, located at 2200 Stemmons Freeway, provides ample free parking for show attendees. DIGF hours are 12 noon to 7 p.m. Friday; 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday; and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday, with continuous music throughout the festival.
The Dallas International Guitar Festival is the largest and oldest guitar show in the world, blending musicians, fans, collectors and celebrities together into one huge musical extravaganza. Visitors can buy, sell, trade, or just browse among the thousands upon thousands of new and vintage guitars, basses, amps, banjos, mandolins, straps and strings, effects pedals, keyboards, music memorabilia and more.
Listen to the best local and regional bands at the festival’s multiple stages. Enjoy performances by more than 60 local, regional and national artists performing on the festival’s four music stages. More than 20,000 people are expected to attend this year’s festival at Dallas Market Hall, with over $3 million of instruments and memorabilia trading hands.
Musical entertainment will be continuous throughout the event. Past headliners include Ted Nugent, George Lynch, Eric Gales, Sonny Landreth, Ian Moore, Derek St. Holmes, Rick Vito, Andy Timmons, Chris Duarte, Gary Hoey, Mark Lettieri, Jimmy Wallace and Stratoblasters, Paul Reed Smith, Buddy Whittington, Jim Suhler, Alan Haynes, Wes Jeans, Maylee Thomas, Quinten Hope, and Rick Derek.
This year there will be a Young Guns Stage, featuring bands with members who are under 20 years old, all day Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Performers including the Peterson Brothers, Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, Brandon “Taz” Neiderauer, Jacob Kershaw, Reece Malone of Salvation from Sundown, Anthony “The Fallbrook Kid” Cullins, and Ally Venable will take the stage throughout the weekend.
The Texas 10 under 20 contest will begin at 10 a.m. Sunday morning, where audiences can catch the best in new young talent. Ten finalists under the age of twenty will be chosen from competing bands and solo artists across all genres of music to perform in the live showcase Sunday, May 6.
The festival features more than 800 booths and exhibits, where you can rub elbows with guitar legends and up-and-coming artists and get tips from the very best musicians at instructional clinics throughout the show. Featured again this year is the Unplugged Room, especially for acoustic instruments.
A single day ticket price is $24 for adults and children 11 or older; free for children under 10. Two-day passes are $40, and three day passes are available for $50 each.
Admission to the Friday night concert is $10, or free with a two-day or three-day pass. The Saturday night All Star Jam, to be held at Market Hall starting at 8:30 p.m., is also $10, or free with a two or three-day pass. The two-day pass includes either the Friday night or Saturday night concert, and the three-day pass includes both Friday and Saturday night concerts. Student tickets are available at the door only for $15 one day ticket; $30 for two day student pass and $40 for a three day student pass.
VIP passes that allow ticket holders to sit in the front few rows of all concerts are also available for single, two-day or three day admission tickets, priced at $40, $70 and $90. All tickets are available at the door. Advance tickets to the Dallas International Guitar Festival are also available online at guitarshow.com. DIGF is sponsored by Live Nation, GuitarPlayer, Guitar Center and Heritage Auctions.
Photo: Ted Nugent at 2017 DIGF, photo by Calvin Mims.
