Crossroads Guitar Festival Returns in 2013 at Madison Square Garden

The fourth incarnation of Eric Clapton’s Crossroads Guitar Festival will be held in New York next year, according to a couple of musicians set to play the event.

An official announcement has yet to be made, but artists Sonny Landreth and Blake Mills announced that they would be playing the festival, which will be held April 12-13 of next year at Madison Square Garden. If past festivals are any indication, proceeds from the event will feature the Crossroads Centre, a drug treatment center in Antigua that was founded by Clapton.

The last Crossroads festival was held in Chicago in 2010. From the stage at that event, Clapton said that, “I know that I said this would be the last one, but I don’t think it will be.”

In addition to Eric Clapton, other notable performers at the 2010 version of the event included Jimmie Vaughan, John Mayer Trio and Sonny Landreth, in addition to Clapton. Before that, a 2007 incarnation of the festival was held in Bridgeview, Ill., a suburb of Chicago. That festival featured John Mayer, Jeff Beck, Buddy Guy and Bill Murray, among others. The first Crossroads festival was held in 2004 in Dallas. Performers at that show included B.B. King, Robert Randolph, ZZ Top, Sheryl Crow, Joe Walsh and Booker T. & the M.G.’s

Blake Mills posted a letter online that he had received from Clapton inviting him to play the festival. Mills was formerly a member of the band Simon Dawes, which is now known as Dawes.

Sonny Landreth has performed at every Crossroads festival so far, and is a blues guitarists from Louisiana. He is particularly well known for his slide guitar playing. In addition to playing the festival, he has recently been involved with Jimmy Buffet’s recent summer tours. He released a solo album called Elemental Journey earlier this year.