BIRMINGHAM, Alabama -- Wondering about the Schaeffer Eye Center Crawfish Boil, traditionally held on the first weekend in May? The music-and-food festival isn't happening this year, but it's transforming into a new festival set for July 26.

Schaeffer Eye Center Uptown Live -- an event that combines music, craft beer and food trucks -- is in the works, organizer Jack Schaeffer announced today.

Details are still pending, but Schaeffer said Uptown Live will be a free event that emphasizes local flavor.

"We're re-engineering the Crawfish Boil to something bigger, newer and different," Schaeffer said. "The Crawfish Boil couldn't be sustained as it is, but we want to make sure we keep an event going. We don't want it to go away like City Stages."

The Crawfish Boil, originally founded in 1985 as a backyard party, went through many changes during its 28-year history.

For about 17 years, the Boil operated as a nonprofit event. Donations were collected at the gate; all proceeds went to charity. Cajun and zydeco bands were part of the lineup, along with more mainstream performers. The atmosphere was grassroots casual.

Over the past decade, though, the Crawfish Boil evolved into a professionally run enterprise that attracted up to 45,000 people for its weekend slate of rock bands and hip-hop headliners. The festival’s budget swelled to $850,000 or more.

Schaeffer, the event's title sponsor and figurehead, scaled back in 2013, lowering ticket prices, trimming the band lineup and opting for a single day of music.

Although the Boil drew a crowd of about 16,800 people last year, income from the event wasn't enough to pay for big-league bands and keep the festival going, Schaeffer said.

Schaeffer's team will partner with concert promoter Live Nation and the City of Birmingham for Uptown Live, rearranging elements on the site used by the Crawfish Boil in recent years: Richard Arrington Jr. Boulevard North between 22nd and 24th streets.

Corporate sponsorships, sales of VIP tickets and food and beverage sales will fund the new festival, Schaeffer said.

A nonprofit organization, the Schaeffer Foundation (formerly called the Southern Cultural Heritage Foundation), is linked to the new festival, as it was for the Crawfish Boil. Under Schaeffer’s guidance, the foundation has been a longtime supporter of charities such as Camp Smile-A-Mile. In 2013, the foundation also partnered with Miles College.

A children's area is part of the agenda for Uptown Live, along with a single stage of music. Acts haven't been confirmed yet, but Schaeffer said the lineup and other festival elements should appeal to a wide demographic.

"We want to spread it out from extremely young to extremely old," Schaeffer said.

His goal is to establish Uptown Live as an annual, multi-day event in the summer, but Schaeffer said growth will depend on the community's response to the festival.

"We need a downtown festival," he said. "We'll have to see if this is what the city wants."

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