Uptown! teams with World Cafe Live to bring in live acts

Uptown! Knauer Performing Arts Center and World Cafe Live have announced an entertainment partnership, bringing classic artists to West Chester’s new theater. After just a little over a year, Uptown! caught the attention of World Cafe Live promoters as a potential ideal venue to serve up world-class concerts and also to lure those who remember World Cafe Live at the Queen in Wilmington, Del.

World Cafe Live is an independent music venue in the University City District of Philadelphia. World Café Live has been offering local, national and international artists since 2004.

In addition to more than 500 shows annually, World Cafe Live offers food and beverages, and hosts and caters for more than 200 special events a year. In early 2017, the World Cafe Live Presents initiative was announced, bringing concerts and events to other venues in and outside the region.

Sharon Gabor, Uptown! marketing associate, is “super excited” with the partnership.

“In just our second year, we feel like we were noticed,” Gabor said. “We feel validated. They noticed.”

No concertgoer in the 327-seat main venue is more than 75 feet away from the stage.

“Everything is up close and personal,” Gabor said. “There is not a bad seat in the house.”

Music fans from near and far are quickly realizing that Uptown! is a special place for outstanding live performances.

Gabor said that the theater’s calendar is filling up quickly. She is confident that with a good showing of the first two scheduled events, those coveted weekend spots for World Café Live shows will be found.

Matt Rogers, talent buyer for World Café Live, hopes to team with Uptown! for 10 to 15 shows a year.

“We’ve established relationships with certain artists,” Rogers said. “We’re starting to promote artists in other spaces.

“Typically you don’t book shows in the same market, but West Chester is far enough out (from Philadelphia) that it has its own population.”

Rogers visited and fell in love with the beautiful former National Guard Armory on North High Street turned live performance venue – both inside and out.

He said the theater, with a great sound and lighting system, is a “beautiful space” to host artists.

The first collaboration, Live at the Fillmore, is set for Feb. 23. Widely recognized as the definitive tribute to the original Allman Brothers Band, Live at the Fillmore recreates their mu-

sic and style.

Tom Rush will headline the second World Cafe Live/ Uptown! show on March 26. An American music icon, Rush has had a profound impact on generations of

artists such as James Taylor, Tom Petty, Emmylou Harris and Joni Mitchell.

Uptown! Knauer Performing Arts Center is located near ample parking and more than 50 restaurants, at 226 N. High St., West Chester. Purchase tickets at uptownwestchester.org at the box office or call 610.356.ARTS (2787).