Nonprofit profile: Downtown Live kicks off summer music fun

Line up of bands runs 5 p.m. Thursdays until Aug. 15

Photo courtesy Gilroy Downtown Business Association

By Calvin Nuttall

The popular Downtown Live street music festival made its triumphant return with Soul Kiss entertaining crowds June 20 in the heart of Gilroy.

A lineup of music and family-friendly activities will bring fun in the summer sun every Thursday evening from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. through Aug. 15 .

The free-to-attend entertainment event transforms the city’s historic downtown area into a vibrant celebration of music, culture, and community. Organized by the Gilroy Downtown Business Association in partnership with the city of Gilroy, Downtown Live has been a staple of the city’s summer calendar since 2015.

“We took a break from it due to COVID, so it feels like it’s new for a lot of people, because it was gone for a couple of years,” said GDBA chair Jeffrey Orth at the event’s premiere. “It’s gotten bigger and bigger. Last year was the first year back, and we just had a stellar year. It was one record crowd after another. Our smallest crowd last year was bigger than any we’d had in the history of Downtown Live.”

The festival’s return marks a milestone in Gilroy’s post-pandemic recovery efforts and is expected to draw thousands of visitors from across Santa Clara County as it takes over Monterey from Sixth streets to Lewis and Fifth streets from Monterey to Eigelberry streets.

“One of the things that we’ve found is that our media was doing a good enough job that we were actually drawing from out of town,” Orth said. “We were getting a significant number of people from San Jose, Hollister, Salinas, Santa Cruz, that kind of thing.”

The free event showcases a diverse lineup of local and regional musical acts. Genres will range across the spectrum, ensuring there’s something for every musical taste.

The band Soul Kiss plays to a Gilroy audience at the June 20 Downtown Live concert. Photo by Calvin Nuttall

“Because last year was the first year that we had a really good year, we took some risks, and I upped the budget on bands,” Orth said. “So we’re spending more on bands now than what we were three years ago, so we’re getting much better quality music.”

Headlining this year’s festival is Soul Kiss, a “high-energy party dance” band originating from San Benito County, where they have been honored as Best of San Benito County for the past eight years. They were also named Best of Gilroy in 2023.

“The band we’ve got tonight, I was so impressed with three years ago that I said, ‘As long as I’m the chair of Downtown Live, you’re going to be the first band,’” Orth said. “And that was Soul Kiss. They have their own draw.”

The event is emceed by local personalities Whitney Pintello and Jayson Stebbins, known for performing with Gilroy’s own Pintello Comedy Theater.

“I’ve seen Whitney and Jason Stebbins work a lot in the past,” Orth said. “They’re charismatic, they’re funny, they know how to work with the audience, they know how to build audience participation. They’re darn good at what they do. Jayson has performed with Whitney many times, either as an actor or director.”

The GDBA hopes that the weekly event will encourage Gilroyans to come out and rediscover their own downtown, which they call the “heart and soul of Gilroy.”

“A lot of cities that have let their downtown go have found out the city wasn’t far behind,” Orth said. “We’re coming through a revival in our downtown, there is a lot of vitality, a lot of new businesses, and we see these events as a way to bring people down here and see that this is a clean, safe place. Believe it or not, we’ve got people who live six blocks from here who have never been to a Downtown Live.”

Calvin Nuttall is a Morgan Hill-based freelance reporter and columnist.