By Sue McHugh

The 6th annual CHICKWEED ~ Celebrating Indestructible Women is coming to Salisbury on Saturday. During this one of a kind open-air evening of music and art, performing and visual artists in an all-women revue bring original and popular music to an 8-hour concert and mini-festival in downtown Salisbury.

CHICKWEED is a non-profit organization that aims to deliver the message of empowerment, through the arts, to female victims of violence. Created by local female musicians, CHICKWEED created the perfect synergy to foster a fundraising and awareness event…for women, by women… for the Family Crisis Council of Rowan and its Battered Women’s Shelter.

CHICKWEED donates 100 percent of the event’s net proceeds to Family Crisis Council of Rowan County shelter for women victims of violence.
Performers, spanning generations and genres, take the CHICKWEED stage from 4:30 p.m. to midnight, while guests enjoy local food, wine, and beer and a host of vendors offering creative and interesting wares.

The Trolley Barn at Liberty and Lee Streets is the site where the festivities take place both in outdoors and the indoors. Despite an all-female cast, all are invited!

Gate opens at 3:30 p.m. Advance tickets are $15 available until noon, July 22 at:
• Pottery 101, 101 S. Main St.,
• South Main Book Co. 110 S. Main St.,
• Mean Mug Coffee Company, 1024 S. Fulton St.
• www.eventbrite.com/chickweed
Ticket donation at the door is $20.

CHICKWEED 2017 will feature music performances by:
•Chelsea Rae Childers ~ quirky & fun original singer/songwriter/guitarist
•Laura Vella ~ smooth & smoky, guitarist & pianist, singer/songwriter
•Daisy Clover ft. Mary Gillespie, Melissa Adams, Lou Bodak ~ country guitar/fiddle/percussion
•Ang Medlin singer/songwriter/guitarist
•Rebecca Stinson ~ blues and gospel singer
•Courtney Puckett and The Paper Wasps ~ 40’s style soft swing
•LYRIC Leeda Jones ~ funk band
•Faron Brazis ~ punk originals, singer/songwriter/guitarist
•April C. Turner ~ story telling through dance
•Gigi Dover & The Big Love ~ gypsy soul!

CHICKWEED Featured Visual Artists:
•Faron Brazis
•Laura Rasmussen
The featured art is for sale and the artists generously donate a portion of their proceeds is donated to the CHICKWEED cause.
CHICKWEED is proud to present Queens of D’Nile Belly Dance Troupe from Concord.

Additionally, CHICKWEED 2017 features:
• Chair massage by Green Life Massage
• Reflexology by Shalom Regel Reflexology
• Handmade leather notebooks & jewelry by DeAnna Brannon & Vintage Way
• Locally brewed beer with New Sarum Brewery
•Shrimp on a stick with Shuckin’ Shack
• Shish kabobs with KABOBS
• Local wine with Morgan Ridge Vineyards
• Coffee and sweets provided by Mean Mug Coffee Company
• and much more!

Coming to CHICKWEED? You can bring much needed items for the women’s shelter such as toilet paper, cleaning products, children’s toys and books, new t-shirts and sweatpants, new flip flops, old cell phones, and more. Check the ‘Our Needs’ tab under ‘Get Involved’ on the Family Crisis Council website (www.familycrisiscouncil.org).

CHICKWEED will host a silent auction that will feature, among other items, original art from local artists such as Sue McHugh, Bailey Wingler (Just Bailey Designs), and Salisbury’s own Phyllis Eaton Steimel. Auction items also include musical instruments from Griffin Guitars and Guitars USA, our yearly bicycle from Skinny Wheels Bike Shop, hand-decorated gourds by artist Pamela Deal, and more.

For more information, see Facebook (www.facebook.com/chickweed), or visit www.TheChickweed.com

Be part of the solution. Help CHICKWEED empower, through the arts, women victims of violence.