Center For Cultural Events

Guitarfest tuning up for second year

Written by BY KATHRYN BASSETT kathrynb@kpcnews.net

Saturday, 15 August 2009 00:30

AUBURN — Musicians are tuning up for the second annual GuitarFest, coming Aug. 29 at 6 p.m. at the DeKalb Outdoor Theater.

Event organizer and guitarist “Joey O” Ortega of Auburn said gate proceeds from GuitarFest will be donated to the Auburn Cord Duesenberg Festival. Admission will cost $5 per person or $20 for families. Children under 10 will be admitted free.

Ortega said he and one of his guitar students, Craig Bassett, came up with the idea for GuitarFest last year.

“We thought an event like this needed to be done, where the focus is on guitar music,” said Ortega. “It can bring attention to guitar music and to guitar students and people who are making a commitment to learning to play an instrument.”

The Joey O Band will headline this year’s event, with many of Ortega’s guitar students taking the stage as opening acts. Performers will include Relative Insanity, The Ukulele Quartet, Brian Kauffman & Friends, Jake Miller and more, Ortega said.

Ortega said organizing and performing at GuitarFest also allows him to show his appreciation to the community that has been his home since 1997.

“I’m not from Indiana. When I came here, I knew one person — my wife, Donna. To have moved here and not know anybody, and have it really feel like home, and have people around here make me feel at home really meant a lot. A little of that went a long way,” Ortega said. “It (GuitarFest) was a way for me to give back to a community that has been very good to me.”

Ortega also has reached out to friends and contacts in the music industry for sponsorship and prizes that will be given away as door prizes. Ortega said give-away items will include drumsticks signed by Kenny Aronoff and Denny Fongheiser, guitar picks from Robben Ford, movie passes, tickets to the Fort Wayne Children’s Zoo, T-shirts and copies of the new Joey O CD. One person will win the grand prize of a new guitar with two months of free lessons.

Event sponsors include Garrett State Bank, Sweetwater, the ACD Festival, Campbell & Fetter Bank, New Image Printing, D’Addario, Planet Waves, Froggy 106.7 and anonymous donors, Ortega said.

“We’re all in this for the long haul,” Ortega said. “We want to see this grow.”
Guitarfest
WHEN: Aug. 29, 6 p.m.
WHERE: DeKalb Outdoor Theater
TICKETS: $5 per person, $20 per family, children under 10 admitted free

KATHRYN BASSETT  Joey Ortega, left, instructs guitar student Jake Miller of Garrett, right, at the Guitar Infirmary in Auburn. Ortega is organizing the second annual GuitarFest for Aug. 29 at the DeKalb Outdoor Theater. Ortega and his band, the Joey O Band, will headline the event with opening acts from many of Ortega’s students, including Miller.