Decatur has always had a music identity. The Indigo Girls played here as teenagers. John Mayer came up in its clubs. The Amplify Decatur Music Festival has been part of that fabric since 2010 — and a decade ago, it claimed the downtown square as its own.
This week, the festival marks ten years outdoors with an anticipated lineup yet: Gillian Welch and David Rawlings headline the June 6 ticketed show, joined by Patterson Hood of Drive-By Truckers, Dylan LeBlanc, Kyshona, the Georgia Mountain Stringband and the winner of an upcoming high school Battle of the Bands. The four-day festival runs June 4–7 on and around the Decatur Square, with additional events at the Avon Theatre in Avondale and Eddie’s Attic.
The weekend also marks something new: the Decatur Square itself. After a two-year renovation, the city has completed a permanent downtown stage. Amplify Decatur will be the first group to perform on it. That debut comes Friday night, June 5, with a free concert by The Sundogs Present: The Tom Petty Show.
“The stage is up, the fences are down. We’re gonna get to be the first crew that gets to walk up on that stage and present some music to the community — and it’s a free show, which feels really, really good,” said Mike Killeen, co-board chair of Amplify Decatur Music Festival.
Music as a means to an end
Amplify Decatur is more than a music festival. That distinction matters to Killeen, who co-founded the organization in 2010 with a specific mission: use live music to raise money for organizations fighting poverty and homelessness at the local level.
Money raised from the festival’s ticketed events helps fund local nonprofits. This year’s beneficiaries included Decatur Cooperative Ministry, Decatur Education Foundation, and Neighbor in Need. To date, Amplify My Community, the festival’s parent organization, has raised and donated more than $645,000 across multiple cities, including more than $430,000 in Decatur alone.
Killeen said the pairing of music and anti-poverty work wasn’t accidental. It came from a belief that both address something universal.
“Music is the universal connector for people — no matter where you’re from, no matter what language, the birds were singing before we could speak,” he said. “There’s never been a war started about music. And so if we could combine this challenge on one side and opportunity on the other, we felt we might have something.”
The result, Killeen said, is a crowd that often doesn’t realize it’s fundraising.
“A lot of people out there — they don’t even know they’re raising money,” he said. “They’re just going to an awesome concert.”
A broad definition of Americana
The festival identifies as Americana, but Killeen is careful about what that means. Over the years, Amplify Decatur has featured Mavis Staples, Lucinda Williams, the Blind Boys of Alabama, Melissa Etheridge, Old Crow Medicine Show and the Indigo Girls. The roster reflects a deliberately wide interpretation of American roots music.
“We try to think about what the roots of Americana are,” Killeen said. “And this is a diverse country with a lot of great styles of music. So we try to embrace all of that.”
This year’s lineup includes a bluegrass band, singer-songwriters and a Drive-By Truckers co-founder. The June 4 kickoff at the Avon Theatre features Penny & Sparrow, a Texas folk duo. Sunday, June 7 closes the weekend with an “Amplify Hall of Fame” show celebrating artists from 10 years of the festival.
The one that finally worked out
Gillian Welch has been on Amplify Decatur’s wish list since the festival’s early years. Killeen said the organization made offers in 2017, 2019 and 2021 before this year’s booking finally came through.
“When Lucinda Williams said she would play, we lost it. When Mavis Staples said she would play, we lost it,” he said. “But Gillian has been on our short list for a number of years — so it finally worked out.”
Welch and Rawlings are known for sparse, precise Americana songs built from acoustic guitar and close harmony that have earned them a devoted following over three decades. Their catalog includes the albums, “Time (The Revelator),” “Soul Journey” and “The Harrow & The Harvest.”
What 10 years on the square built
Killeen credits two people with turning a good idea into a professional organization: festival director Christine Mahin, who joined in year two or three, and co-board chair Drew Robinson.
“She really made us a professional organization, and I’m grateful for that,” Killeen said of Mahin, who is marking her own 10th festival this year. Robinson, he said, brought visionary leadership and community-building that helped the festival grow.
The growth, Killeen said, has been organic. No one has ever said no to Amplify Decatur, he added.
“This silly little idea has gained some traction,” he explained. “Good people know good people, and it’s grown organically.”
What to expect on the square
Thursday, June 4, opens the festival at the Avon Theatre with Penny & Sparrow. Then there’s Friday night’s free show, and Saturday’s ticketed show runs 3–11 p.m. The Sunday Hall of Fame show rounds out the weekend.
The square renovation has changed the festival’s physical layout. The Amplify team had to rebuild their volunteer plans, fencing, and food placement from scratch, but he describes the result as a significant upgrade.
“I’ve lived here for almost 25 years. I’ve worked on the square the whole time. It’s always been a nice environment. It’s a hundred times better than it was,” Killeen said.
