Muscle cars and rock to be celebrated in new Motor City Muscle fest

Tune in, turn on, and step on the gas: A new music festival will roar to life this summer in the heart of the Motor City.

Motor City Muscle, a free event premiering Aug. 17-19 in downtown Detroit, will celebrate two of the region’s defining passions: muscle cars and rock.

Organizers are promising 100-plus rock acts alongside more than 250 muscle cars, vehicles billed by fest producer Carol Marvin as “the finest, baddest speedway machines.”

“Motor City Muscle needs to capture the turbocharged feeling of driving a Mustang with (Deep Purple’s) ‘Highway Star’ as your soundtrack,” said Marvin, a longtime Detroit event promoter.

With seven music stages planned from Hart Plaza to Campus Martius — similar to the Detroit Jazz Festival footprint — Motor City Muscle will run the weekend of the Woodward Dream Cruise, though it is not formally aligned with that long-running Oakland County event.

Despite the lack of official affiliation, Motor City Muscle could give the car-celebration weekend a major presence within the Detroit city limits, something long sought by those frustrated that the Woodward cruise ends at 8 Mile Road. Though smaller-scale Detroit events have sprung up on Dream Cruise weekend — including the annual Cruis’IN the D’ — Motor City Muscle would be far and away the biggest yet.

Performers will include local and national acts, and “we have already had conversations with a few key artists,” Marvin said. The artist lineup and vehicle details are expected in the spring.

Rock and muscle cars are a natural fit, Marvin said, and it's a connection that goes back decades: The song many regard as the first rock ‘n’ roll record — 1951’s “Rocket 88,” recorded by Ike Turner's band — was inspired by the vehicle widely considered the first muscle car, the 1949 Oldsmobile 88.

Brought together in the form of a festival, they make an “authentically Detroit gift to the world,” Marvin said.

“The celebration of motor stars and of rock stars are both long overdue,” she said. “We have two of the top American cultural icons combined in one bold, definitive party that everyone is invited to. And Detroit built this. People often say to me that it's so surprising that this hasn't happened before, but that's how you're supposed to feel when something is right.”

Marvin is no stranger to the downtown entertainment landscape: After seven years of managing sponsorships for the jazz fest, she founded the Detroit Electronic Music Festival (DEMF), which ran at Hart Plaza from 2000 to 2002. More recently, she spent a decade developing sponsorships for Campus Martius Park and its related events, a position she resigned in September to focus on her rock and muscle car project.

A planned reboot of DEMF at Campus Martius in 2014 was canceled, which Marvin attributed to ongoing QLINE construction.

The Free Press and its affiliated USA TODAY Network are partners in Motor City Muscle.

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Motor City Muscle will join a busy summer-festival schedule that includes downtown events such as Movement (a DEMF successor), Detroit Music Weekend and the jazz fest, along with suburban fests such as Stars & Stripes and Arts, Beats & Eats.

If all unfolds as planned, Detroit will have its “first giant free rock festival,” as Marvin put it — an annual event staking out its spot among locally focused rock fests such as Dally in the Alley and the Metro Times Blowout.

“We want to tell the story of why we’re Detroit Rock City,” Marvin said, citing a nickname that has been entrenched since the 1976 Kiss hit of that name and one often used to celebrate the city’s high-charged concert audiences and colorful rock history.

Motor City Muscle will land in a stretch of the calendar that has become classic-car season in metro Detroit: In addition to the Dream Cruise, there are annual cruises along Gratiot Avenue and Telegraph Road, as well as the Concours d’Elegance car exhibition in Plymouth.

Dream Cruise executive director Tony Michaels struck a welcoming tone.

“I want every area in this entire region rocking,” he said.

As for the Dream Cruise itself, talks with Detroit officials are in the works as “we look at ways of connecting with the city,” Michaels said.

Marvin’s team includes Camilo Pardo, the well-known muscle-car artist and former Ford chief designer who was behind the 2005 and 2006 Ford GT. The artist, who goes by the name Camilo, will create Motor City Muscle’s inaugural commemorative poster.

Marvin, who hired a production staff in October under her American Entertainment Technology brand, said she’s also enlisting vehicle collectors, dealers and consultants to help shape the festival's muscle-car showcase.

While the inaugural fest is just eight months away, the seeds were planted long ago, during the very first show Marvin produced: the Ramones' 1993 concert at the Michigan State Fair.

That same weekend, she also helped stage an attraction dubbed "Detroit Muscle" that featured 10 local groups and a muscle-car showcase at the fairgrounds' band shell.

Years later, Marvin deployed the Motor City Muscle name in a 2008 project with Camilo featuring a pair of Detroit bands alongside his art and cars.

The inspiration to develop Motor City Muscle into a full-scale downtown festival came in 2015. Marvin, who has battled a lifelong illness requiring joint replacements, had suffered a severe injury that left the prospect of never walking again.

During her six months in a wheelchair and a procedure involving state-of-the-art technology, Marvin said she asked herself: "What was my purpose after this ordeal?"

"During that tough time, I turned to the energy of rock and muscle to make it back," she said. "I gave it my all, learned to walk again and continued to build the production and create a program that I felt was everything Motor City Muscle would need to honor the Motor City-Detroit Rock City legacy."

Contact Detroit Free Press music writer Brian McCollum: 313-223-4450 or bmccollum@freepress.com.

Motor City Muscle

• New Detroit festival featuring 100-plus rock acts and 250-plus muscle cars

• Will debut Aug. 17-19 in downtown Detroit, including Hart Plaza and Campus Martius, the same weekend as the Woodward Dream Cruise in Oakland County

• Admission will be free

• Local bands can submit original songs about Detroit and cars for possible inclusion on a festival album: www.motorcitymuscle.us (goes live at noon Sunday)

• For exhibitor, sponsor and vendor info, go to www.motorcitymuscle.us (goes live at noon Sunday)