The Crossroads Guitar Festival is a series of music festivals and benefit concerts founded by Eric Clapton. The festivals benefit the Crossroads Centre founded by Eric Clapton, a drug treatment center in Antigua. The concerts showcase a variety of guitarists, selected by Eric Clapton personally. To the 2007 audience, Clapton declared that each performer was one of the very best, and had earned his personal respect. The first concert was held on June 30, 1999, at Madison Square Garden in New York City, and there again in 2013. The 2004 concert was held at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, while the 2007 and 2010 festivals were held at Toyota Park, Bridgeview, Illinois, just outside Chicago. The festival returned to Dallas in 2019 at the American Airlines Center. 1999 festival The first Crossroads Benefit concert was held at Madison Square Garden, New York on June 30, 1999. It was held under a different title which was Eric Clapton & Friends In Concert: A Benefit For The Crossroads Centre At Antigua. The first official Crossroads Guitar Festival did not happen until 2004. Performers Some performers at the 1999 Concert were David Sanborn, Sheryl Crow, Bob Dylan and Mary J Blige. Backup musicians included Nathan East (bass), Steve Gadd (drums) Andy Fairweather Low (guitars), Tim Carmon (keyboards) and Dave Delhomme (keyboards). Back-up vocals were by Tessa Niles and Katie Kissoon. 2004 festival Held at Cotton Bowl stadium in Dallas, Texas, from June 4, 2004, to June 6, 2004. A two-disc DVD containing 250 minutes of footage of the 2004 concert was released in the same year. This became the first official Crossroads Guitar Festival even though the 1999 concert had a different title. It was also the first benefit concert under the Crossroads Guitar Festival name. Performers Some performers at the Crossroads Guitar Festival such as Jeff Beck, Pat Metheny, Neal Schon, and Styx were not included on the DVD. Eric Clapton Johnny A. Vishwa Mohan Bhatt Ron Block Joe Bonamassa Booker T. & the M.G.'s Doyle Bramhall II JJ Cale Larry Carlton Robert Cray Steve Cropper Sheryl Crow Bo Diddley Jerry Douglas David Honeyboy Edwards Rocky Frisco Vince Gill Buddy Guy David Hidalgo Zakir Hussain Eric Johnson B.B. King Sonny Landreth Jonny Lang Robert Lockwood, Jr. John Mayer John McLaughlin Robert Randolph Duke Robillard Carlos Santana Hubert Sumlin James Taylor Susan Tedeschi Derek Trucks Dan Tyminski Steve Vai Jimmie Vaughan Joe Walsh