Shindig is back.
After a five-year hiatus as a result of the pandemic, Billy Reid is reviving his Shindig festival, the fashion, music, food and art event he had hosted annually in his hometown of Florence, Ala., as he gears up to celebrate his 20th anniversary.
This will mark the 12th anniversary of Shindig, which started in 2009 as a press junket for editors to visit Reid’s studio and personally experience his Southern culture. Since then it has grown into a consumer-facing festival featuring concerts in Muscle Shoals — where everyone from The Rolling Stones to Lynyrd Skynyrd have played over the years — meals from well-known chefs, conversations and Billy Reid fashion shows.
Reid actually got his start in fashion in 1998 with the William Reid label which had a successful run — he won the Council of Fashion Designers of America’s Best New Menswear Designer award in 2000 — before being shuttered following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks when business dried up for the self-funded label and Reid returned home to Alabama from New York City, where he was living and working at the time.
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To make ends meet, he did freelance design work for everyone from Fruit of the Loom to Reebok until he was convinced to try again. He restarted the collection and this time, he called it Billy Reid. “No one calls me William,” he said at the time. That was 2004.
Today, his collection is known for its classic American designs and vintage details that he reinterprets in a modern way. His focus on textile design and high-quality construction also help set the brand apart.
The first time Reid held a runway show during Shindig was in 2016, when he showed current season merchandise. This time around, the runway show will be a retrospective of his two-decade career creating the Billy Reid collection.
The weekend will kick off on Oct. 11 with entertainment that should be confirmed shortly. Oct. 12 will feature a concert by American folk artists Gillian Welch and David Rawlings at the historic Shoals Theatre, followed by the 20th anniversary show.
Other events are still being finalized, but chefs who will participate this year include James Beard-winner Adam Evans, who owns Current Charcoal Grill in Birmingham, Ala.; Sean Brock, who also won a James Beard award and is known for reviving Southern cuisine; Bill Briand, who has worked for Emeril’s and Cochon in New Orleans and who is opening his own restaurant, Little Bird, named after his late mother, and Josh Quick, who is known for his focus on American food with Southern and international influences.
Private tours of well-known music studios — Fame and Muscle Shoals Sounds — will be offered along with the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Rosenbaum House.
Artists who have performed in the past include Kacey Musgraves, Jack White, The Raconteurs, Justin Towne Earle, Jason Isbell, Margo Price, Alabama Shakes, John Paul White, and The War & Treaty.
Ticket prices range from $125 for the 20th anniversary retrospective show and the concert by Welch and Rawlings to $3,000 for an all-access pass for two which includes two nights of accommodations, a welcome dinner, customized gift bags filled with limited-edition Billy Reid pieces and gifts from other partners, and tickets to the runway show.
