The first Bluebird District Music Festival will take place July 10 to 12 at Bluebird Theater, Goosetown Tavern, Park House, Lost Lake and Southside Bar and Kitchen. This morning, the festival announced its first 21 bands, including a handful of heavy-hitting locals. You can see the list below. A limited number of $20 three-day passes are available now via www.lostlaketickets.com.

The festival is a collaboration between the owners of the venues involved, and it's meant as a celebration of the relatively new Bluebird Business Improvement District. Drew Gottlieb, who owns Park House, is also on the board of directors for that organization, and he says he collaborated with people like Lost Lake Owner Scott Campbell to set up an event designed to, "keep people coming back to this neighborhood." 

Each venue is booking its own lineup, although there has been plenty of conversation between them. Some of the brains behind the festival include Lost Lake General Manager Tony Mason and Talent Buyer Bart Dahl, Goosetown General Manager Robdogg and Gottlieb. They're hoping to get other businesses in the District (which runs from St. Paul Street to Colorado Boulevard along Colfax) involved as well. "Organic is the name of the game," says Dahl. 

It's a rapidly growing part of town — several of the venues involved have opened or changed hands in the last year alone. The group behind the festival says they were surprised to find some people wondering whether they were concerned about the new venues — that they found themselves in conversations about whether or not their own businesses would suffer for the competition. They say that's not been the case. "More people in the neighborhood," says Gottlieb. "Good!" 

They say one goal of this music festival is to demonstrate the collaborative spirit that exists between the venues. "We're putting this beautiful puzzle together," says Robdogg. 

"It's a good feeling," adds Mason.

Bluebird District Music Festival 2015 Lineup (Initial Announcement):
A Tom Collins
Dragondeer
King Rat
Dirty Few
Pan Astral
Bunny Gang
Reno Divorce
Toe
Synthetic Elements
The Blue Rider
Fauxgazi
Nuns of Brixton
The Patient Zeros
Brent Loveday and The Dirty Dollars
Bonfire Dub
Von Stomper
Tallgrass
Casey James Prestwood and The Burning Angels
Andy Palmer & Grub Street Writer
Saving Verona
And many more to be announced...