CBGB Festival Returns With Morrissey, Patti Smith, Interpol, Sex Pistols…
CBGB was a New York City music club opened in 1973 by Hilly Kristal and his ex-wife Karen Kristal at 315 Bowery in the East Village in Manhattan, New York City.[2] The club was previously a biker bar and before that it was a dive bar.[3] The letters CBGB were for Country, Bluegrass, Blues, Kristal’s original vision for the club, but CBGB soon emerged as a famed and iconic venue for punk rock and new wave bands, including Ramones, Dead Boys, Television, Richard Hell and the Voidoids, Patti Smith Group, Blondie, and Talking Heads.
CBGB’s second awning, the one in place when the club closed in 2006, was moved into the lobby of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland.[39]
The CBGB Festival produced large free concerts in Times Square and Central Park on July 7, 2012. They also showcased hundreds of bands in venues across the city.[40][41] The festival premiered dozens of rock-n-roll movies in theaters around Manhattan.[42] A new CBGB Festival was announced to take place at Under the K Bridge Park in Brooklyn on September 27, 2025.[43]
