Online retailer Sweetwater has announced details for GearFest ’15, their free annual public music trade show

The event is scheduled for Friday, June 12-13 at the Sweetwater campus, 5501 US Hwy 30 W, Fort Wayne, Indiana.

GearFest will host musicians performing and in workshops continuously on five different stages. Special guests include electronic music gear pioneers Roger Linn, Tom Oberheim & Dave Smith.

Of special interest to synth fans, Sweetwater’s Mitch Gallagher will host a panel discussion with three pioneers of synthesis and electronic instruments: Roger Linn, Tom Oberheim and Dave Smith:

• Technical Grammy award-winner Roger Linn invented the LM-1 Drum Computer (the first sample-based drum machine) in 1979. He later designed the Akai MPC60, which combined a sampling drum machine with a real-time MIDI sequencer.
• Dave Smith founded Sequential Circuits, and his Prophet-5 was the world’s first fully programmable polyphonic synth, as well as the first musical instrument with an embedded microprocessor.
• And Tom Oberheim co-designed the Synthesizer Expansion Module (SEM), a device that allowed musicians to simultaneously combine live playing and sequenced playback – a concept that pre-dated the MIDI revolution.

They’ll share anecdotes and talk synthesis and electronic instruments in this informal roundtable discussion.

Featured guests include:

• Jeff “Skunk” Baxter, founding member of Steely Dan, and session guitarist for the Doobie Brothers, Eric Clapton, and Sheryl Crow;
• Deep Purple vocalist and bassist Glenn Hughes;
• Shawn Pelton, drummer for Sheryl Crow, Bob Dylan, Rod Stewart, and Van Morrison;
• Bassist Nathan East, who has worked with Barry White, George Harrison, Sting, and Stevie Wonder; and
• Guitarist Mike Stern, who has performed with jazz greats like Billy Cobham, Miles Davis, and Jaco Pastorius.

Other musicians include guitarists Mark Holcomb and Javier Reyes, keyboardist Steve Weingart, and many more.

About Gearfest

GearFest is the largest music trade show open to the general public in the United States. It combines a gear expo, entertainment events, flea market, and musical demonstrations, seminars and workshops.

The entire GearFest ’15 schedule of events is available online. To speed up the registration process at the festival, you can pre-register. Out-of-town guests are encouraged to book hotel accommodations as early as possible.

GearFest is free and open to the public.