Backpacker To Host G. Love & Special Sauce In Special Benefit Concert At Outdoor Retailer Summer Market

EMMAUS, PA – Backpacker magazine will host a concert featuring popular blues/funk artist G. Love & Special Sauce on Thursday, August 10, 2006 during the Outdoor Retailer Summer Market in Salt Lake City, UT, with proceeds benefiting the American Hiking Society (AHS).

Tickets for the show at Elevate, 155 W. 200 South (across from the Salt Palace Convention Center), are now on sale exclusively for Outdoor Retailer attendees via 24tix.com (click on the following link: http://www.24tix.com/event.html?show_id=T20750554872075083647217). Tickets are $30.

Coleman, Thorlos, Hi-Tec, Backpacker and the AHS sponsor this special concert event.

Known as one of the nation’s hardest-working and most popular touring bands, G. Love & Special Sauce has released six CDs, most recently “The Hustle” on Brushfire Records. The Philadelphia Inquirer called native son and lead singer Garrett Dutton, a.k.a. G. Love, “one special find,” also noting that “the supporting musicianship of Special Sauce adroitly follows its front man’s stylistic change-ups.”

“We’re thrilled to bring G. Love to Outdoor Retailer,” said Backpacker VP/Publishing Director Chris Lambiase. “Backpacker has always taken pride in creating unique entertainment diversions for everyone attending OR, and this show is sure to be one of the most talked-about events of the weekend.”

“More importantly, we’re proud that the concert will help benefit the American Hiking Society and our shared vision to increase activity in America’s great outdoors and foster a commitment to preserve our country’s wild scenic places.”

“American Hiking Society celebrates two important milestones in 2006—thirty years of working to safeguard and promote the more than 200,000 miles of hiking trails that interlace our country—and producing innovative programs that inspire people to incorporate hiking into their everyday lives,” said Gregory Miller, PhD, president of American Hiking Society.

“Backpacker has worked side by side with AHS since its inception. We are excited and honored to share this special 30th anniversary celebration with them, and are grateful to them, as well as they other concert sponsors, for their collective generosity and support.”

For more information on the benefit concert, visit www.siite.com/GLove. For more information on G. Love & Special Sauce, visit www.philadelphonic.com.

About Backpacker:
Backpacker brings the outdoors straight to the reader’s doorstep, inspiring and enabling them to go more places and enjoy nature more often. The authority on active adventure, Backpacker is the world’s first GPS-enabled magazine and is the only one whose editors personally test the hiking trails, camping gear, and survival tips they publish. Backpacker’s six regional editions offer accessible, close-to-home getaways with detailed, tear-out maps to dozens of nearby hikes, as well as practical tips on dayhikes, camping and the best gear information available. This combination provides outdoors enthusiasts with the tools they need to make wilderness travel and backcountry experiences an everyday reality. Backpacker’s Editors’ Choice Awards, an industry honor recognizing design, feature and product innovation has become the gold standard against which all other outdoor-industry awards are measured. Published by Rodale Inc., Backpacker has a circulation rate base of 325,000 and is published 9 times a year. Backpacker’s companion web site, www.backpacker.com, is updated daily and features more than 30,000 hikes, a searchable and comprehensive database of outdoor gear with reviews (www.gearfinder.com), a special section for female hikers, and an all-new map and GPS center.

About American Hiking Society
Founded in 1976, American Hiking Society is the only national non-profit organization dedicated to establishing, protecting and maintaining the nation’s footpaths and promoting the hiking experience. With a strong membership base of individual hikers and hiking clubs, American Hiking represents more than half a million outdoors people and serves as the national voice of the American hiker. To learn more about hiking, the Society, and its outdoor recreation and conservation programs, please visit www.AmericanHiking.org or call 301-565-6704.