The beloved musical diversity festival is celebrating 25 years with a packed lineup that will sound off on Detroit’s tumultuous summer of 1967.
A spirit of rebellion is on the agenda at Concert of Colors.
The annual summer festival has made its name through the years with a wide-ranging, all-inclusive music lineup highlighting artists from around the world. This weekend is no different, as the Midtown-based event showcases everything from Columbian electronic music (Sidestepper) and cross-generational mambo (Big 3 Palladium Orchestra) to soaring gospel-blues (Sweet Honey in the Rock) and reggae-laced Afrobeat (Rocky Dawuni) .
But it’s also an important commemorative year for the fest, which is marking its 25th anniversary as it looks back on the Detroit riot of 1967 — nearly 50 years to the week after that transformative event.
Concert of Colors is also marking the 10th anniversary of the popular Don Was Detroit All-Star Revue, a Saturday night concert at Orchestra Hall featuring hometown artists and a house band led by the Grammy-winning Oak Park native. This year’s revue theme — “Songs of Rebellion” — ties into Concert of Colors’ wider’ 67 remembrance.
Concert of Colors will run daily through Sunday with free events on outdoor stages and several indoor venues, mostly in Midtown Detroit.
Like many free festivals during the past decade, Concert of Colors has faced a shifting, challenging landscape when it comes to funding, particularly as the flow of corporate sponsorship dollars has tightened. Still, despite an operating budget that has shrunk by two-thirds since its 2001 peak of $1.5 million, fest director and co-founder Ismael Ahmed says Concert of Colors has managed to thrive, and even expand, through expanding partnerships.
“I have an old saying: When you don’ t have money, you have friends, ” says Ahmed, former head of the Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services. “Somehow we all come together to bring our work and ourselves to the table and make it happen. In fact, it’s growing, even though the budget has gotten smaller.”
This year, that includes new venues such as Third Man Records, the Jack White-owned retail and vinyl-manufacturing complex on Canfield. The site was scheduled to host a Wednesday night kickoff party with performances by Nikki D. Brown & the Sisters of Thunder, Warren Defever and Pure Heart Travelers.
Also aboard for the first time are the Detroit Historical Museum, which will host a free Friday night party showcasing its news “Detroit 67: Perspectives” exhibit, and the Michigan Science Center, which has teamed with the Detroit Institute of Arts and the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History to present Friday performances on the John R Stage, including avant garde jazz from headliner Griot Galaxy.
“It’s becoming quite a coalition of arts and cultural institutions, ” says Ahmed.
Beyond the big names, Concert of Colors has relied on grassroots community involvement since it started as a one-day event at Chene Park in 1993.
“There are probably several thousand people involved in making this happen over the years, ” says Ahmed. “People like me get interviewed (in the media) , but it really is an effort of hundreds of people every year. A lot of festivals have volunteers, but this goes way beyond that.”
Now Concert of Colors is even growing beyond its longtime Midtown sphere: In Dearborn, the Arab American National Museum will stage a Thursday forum, “Art and Rebellion: Detroit Since’ 67, ” that includes a set by L.A.’s Las Cafeteras, makers of Mexican folk music. The band is also set to lead a Friday afternoon workshop at the Detroit Hispanic Development Corporation on Trumbull, while the Alkebu-lan Village on the city’s east side will host a Friday performance by Afro-fusion group Mokoomba.
That latter high-energy band — what Ahmed describes as “the Isley Brothers of Zimbabwe” — is part of a lineup of socially conscious performers that includes figures such as Martha Redbone, a soul-gospel musician also known for her Native American activism work.
“In many ways, we reflect the aspirations of communities, especially communities of color, ” says Ahmed. “Much of this festival is themed around rebellion, and many of the groups we’ re bringing in are artists that have stood for a lot of good stuff.”
The rebellion theme will also be expansive at Saturday’s All-Star Revue, where the bill ranges from Motown’s Carolyn Crawford and poet Jessica Care Moore to homegrown pairings such as Dennis Coffey-Melvin Davis and Tino Gross-Harmonica Shah. In keeping with revue tradition, the set list is secret until show time, but it will include music beyond the summer of’ 67.
“It’s more about the vibe and not the year, ” says Ahmed, who helped sculpt the revue program with Was and WDET-FM (101.9) host Ann Delisi. “It’s music about the aspirations of people in that period and even this period.”
It’s all in keeping with Concert of Colors’ ongoing quest to serve as a kind of provocative but upbeat cultural exchange program. What started as a small-scale Chene Park show at the request of Mayor Coleman Young has become a signature event on Detroit’s summer calendar.
“The most important thing is that it has remained true to its mission, ” Ahmed says, “which is to bring people of all backgrounds and colors and religions together, sharing each other’s culture and enjoying the progress they can make.”
25th Concert of Colors
With more than 40 performers, including Sweet Honey in the Rock, Mokoomba, Big 3 Palladium Orchestra, Martha Redbone, Las Cafeteras and the Don Was All-Star Revue
Outdoor stages and indoor venues in Midtown Detroit and elsewhere
Full music lineup and schedule details: www.concertofcolors.com.
Free
