The Great American Brass Band Festival has released its music schedule, which includes 2024 headliners No BS! Brass and Lucky Chops. Both bands will take the stage at this year’s festival.

“We’re so excited to be able to welcome several new faces to the stage this year. No BS! Brass and Lucky Chops are two phenomenal brass bands that are hot in mainstream media now. Lots of fans share a love for both of these groups and beyond that, their quality of music and performance is off the charts. We’re going to have a lot of great fun and great music this year from start to finish,” said Executive Director Michaelle Perros.

This year’s lineup features a wide variety of music, something that the team aimed for last year as well as this year. The 2024 GABBF features wind bands, brass bands, jazz bands, mariachi, and New Orleans-style brass bands with a mix of styles and instrumentation.

“Just like last year, this year’s lineup offers a great mix of styles as we are aiming to celebrate the horn in any way we can and all of the bands we’re bringing have something for everyone. We want to bring as many folks as we can to this fantastic event in our lovely town,” said Perros.

The GABBF also announced the event schedule which includes event times and locations. This year’s festival has no Sunday concerts. With the festival running Thursday, May 30 thru Saturday, June 1, one of the popular events will see a new location. Bayou and Brass will be held on Friday night but will be at the Main Stage on Centre’s lawn for the very first time, instead of Weisiger Park.

“In order to best utilize three days of music, we thought Bayou and Brass would be served well on the big stage. We’ll have all of the food vendors, drinks, and fun atmosphere that the event has always had, just now on Centre’s lawn. We are bringing in some great bands with big names and we wanted the stage to help amp up the excitement of an already very popular event.”

Perros said that Bayou and Brass will feel more a part of all the festival events with the move and will get a promotion with production and stage size. Thursday night will be at Weisiger Park as a continuation of the new concert series, ‘Downtown Downbeat,’ and will create a buzzy, street atmosphere as well as promote everything local: art, food, restaurants, crafts, vendors, and music.

Bayou and Brass will begin at 5 p.m. at the Main Stage on Centre’s lawn and close at 10 p.m. with Lucky Chops. Saturday’s events will feature the 5k at 8 a.m. at Millennium park and music will begin at 9 a.m. on the Main Stage on Centre’s lawn, breaking for the parade at 11 a.m. and concluding at 11 p.m. after No BS! Brass’ headlining performance. And don’t worry – the Great American Picnic is back again this year with setup beginning at 3:15 p.m. on Saturday. If you’re a patron of the picnic and a fan of the festival, you will have the chance to purchase your table online at gabbf.org.

This year’s Great American Brass Band Festival may be without Sunday, but it will have all the quality, all the variety, and all the fun. The schedule can be found at gabbf.org and on GABBF’s Facebook and Instagram accounts.