Heights Music Hop announces 2021 lineup

The eighth annual Heights Music Hop, a celebration of a diverse community through music, returns in 2021, from 5 to 11 p.m., on Saturday, Sept. 18. This free music festival features a stellar lineup of artists on three outdoor community stages in the Cedar Lee Business District of Cleveland Heights.

The University Heights Symphonic Band, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary, will open the festival at 5 p.m. on the Flaherty & Collins ~ City Architecture Mainstage @ Lee & Meadowbrook. The evening continues with music from acapella group Elegie (R&B, Soul, and Gospel); Ms. Reec Pearl and the Groovemasters (Jazz, Blues, and R&B), Top Hat Black (Blues and Rock), and Dan Bruce’s Beta Collective (Jazz). Apostle Jones (high-energy Rock and Soul) will cap off the evening.

The North Stage @ the Cedar Lee Mini-Park will feature performances by Jesse Jukebox (fun music for kids and adults), Kiss Me Deadly (Rock, Punk, and R&B), and OPUS 216 (classical).

The South Stage @ Kensington Road with feature performances by Spyder Stompers and Sugar Pie (Americana/Folk), Eric Everett Jazz: Elation (Jazz), and C-Level (unique blend of funk, punk, reggae, bluegrass, and rock).

“Due to COVID, this year’s festival is limited to one night and the application process was extremely competitive,” said Deanna Bremer Fisher, executive director of FutureHeights, the nonprofit community development corporation for Cleveland Heights that organizes the festival. “We received more than 120 high-quality submissions and could only extend offers to 12 acts. We are hopeful that, next year, the pandemic will be behind us and we will once again be able to host official stages inside the many unique business venues in our walkable commercial districts.”

Since 2013, Heights Music Hop has featured free live music performances in a variety of genres, in restaurants, bars, shops and other unique Heights businesses. The festival had grown to include three nights of live music by more than 80 acts in 30 venues and did not take place in 2020 due to the pandemic shutdown.

Heights Music Hop is presented by FutureHeights and is supported in part by the residents of Cuyahoga County through a public grant from Cuyahoga Arts & Culture. Heights Music Hop is also made possible in part by state tax dollars allocated by the Ohio Legislature to the Ohio Arts Council (OAC), a state agency that funds and supports quality arts experiences to strengthen Ohio communities culturally, educationally, and economically; and with support from The Char and Chuck Fowler Family Foundation, Flaherty & Collins, City Architecture, the Cedar Lee Special Improvement District, the city of Cleveland Heights, the Heights Observer and A440 Sound.

“Several of this year’s musicians live in the Heights, and we have several Heights High grads among them,” said Fisher. “Cleveland Heights is truly ‘Home to the Arts’.”

View more festival information, including the performance schedule and full list of musicians, at www.heightsmusichop.com, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.