the house is a-rockin': heights music hop is set for saturday

Last year, the first-ever Heights Music Hop proved a rousing success, with thousands of revelers bopping about the Cedar-Lee district, stopping in various venues, noshing and checking out bands.

This year, the lineup is looking even better. There are 30 bands slated to play at 16 venues. A few of the highlights include Classical Revolution, Maura Rogers and the Bellows, Oldboy, Spyder Stompers and Commonwealth. And did we mention it's free? The only ticketed event is the after-party, which takes place beginning at 11 p.m. at the Bottlehouse. That's where headliner Commonwealth will be playing.

Greg Bonanno, a Heights resident who sits on the organizing committee, says the event was created to promote Cedar-Lee and local music. "It's an opportunity for people to come out and check out some great local music and great local eateries. We want to really raise up the neighborhood as a great destination."

Performances take place throughout the district, including unique venues like the Atma Center, Cleveland Heights-University Heights Library and Zagara's Supermarket. This year, as part of Cleveland Beer Week, visitors can purchase a passport and and explore five craft brews at official Beer Week venues.

Sponsors of the event include FutureHeights, Cleveland Beer Week, Cellar Door Cleveland and the Cedar-Lee Special Improvement District. Funding was provided by a grant from Cuyahoga Arts and Culture.

Lee Chilcote
Lee Chilcote

About the Author: Lee Chilcote

Lee Chilcote is founder and editor of The Land. He is the author of the poetry chapbooks The Shape of Home and How to Live in Ruins. His writing has been published by Vanity Fair, Next City, Belt and many literary journals as well as in The Cleveland Neighborhood Guidebook, The Cleveland Anthology and A Race Anthology: Dispatches and Artifacts from a Segregated City. He is a founder and former executive director of Literary Cleveland. He lives in the Detroit Shoreway neighborhood of Cleveland with his family.