(Photo courtesy of Twitter)

Viva Phx music festival

Tomorrow is the Viva PHX music festival downtown, featuring 103 bands from 34 different cities, on 20 different stages. The festival has grown a lot since its inception.

Viva PHX started as a way to kind of send off bands from Arizona that were going to play at the SXSW festival in Austin.

It’s put on by a music promotion company called Stateside Presents, which is owned by Charlie Levy.

Levy also owns a few downtown Phoenix music venues: Crescent Ballroom and Valley Bar. And he’s opening a third one called The Van Buren. He’s also opening an arts and cultural center downtown.

And over the last five to ten years, there has been a lot of development of a concentrated downtown music scene. Many people would say that this downtown scene is anchored by venues like Crescent Ballroom and Valley Bar. So I sat down for a conversation with Charlie Levy about Viva PHX but also about where he thinks the Phoenix music scene is at.