NYS Music 20​13

Category: Music Festivals

  • Bella Terra (Aug 15-18 2013) Becoming one of Upstate New York’s Great Annual Festivals

    Bella Terra Festival originated in 2009 as a music, art and culture festival to raise funds for Berkshire County, Massachusetts Arts Scholarships.

    Since 2009, the festival is no longer purely a benefit event, but instead a diverse mix within the art and music scene allowing many artists to showcase their work to a larger crowd. The festival puts a large focus on the green movement, inspiring their patrons to think globally and act locally (after all, Bella Terra translates to “Beautiful Earth” in both Spanish and Portuguese). Over the past few years the festival has shown a wide variety of  support from many different organizations including Strangers Helping Strangers, Berkshire Environmental Action Team, Western Mass Labor Action, The Nature Conservancy and many more. Throughout the festival’s grounds you can see the dedication to the environmentally clean lifestyle. Aside from their righteous goal to the keep the earth beautiful, they also bring some pretty phenomenal musical acts to this quaint little farm town (so quaint, in fact, that you may find your camp site a stones throw from a grazing field of cows.) The location is absolutely beautiful and a great location to showcase a variety of different artists.

    The past few years have boasted names such as Melvin Seals and JGB, Sucker Punch, Immortal Technique, Phutureprimitive, OTT, Max Creek, Lee Scratch Perry, The Mickey Hart Band, BoomBox, Hot Buttered Rum and many, many more. Clearly this festival covers a wide spectrum of musical tastes. This years initial lineup includes Emancipator, Liquid Stranger, Zach Deputy, Max Creek, Minnesota, Abakus, Cinnamon Chasers, Start Making Sense (Talking Heads tribute), Turkuaz, The Alchemystics, Arch Nemesis, Homeboy Sandman, Bastinado (powered by Reactable), Caravan of Thieves, Goosepimp Orchestra, Deejay Theory, Cheat Code, Dj Leila, Leave it On Stage, Digital $torm, Cosmal, The Edd, The Black Rebels, Danny Pease and The Regulators, Orange Television, Mentally Ill, Wolfman Conspiracy, Waylon Speed, Lion-Bird Soudsystem, Digital Dharma, Gang of Thieves, Great White Caps, Mass Air Flow, Voltran, Luzcid, The Chronicles, The Professors, Mass, Tweed, Outer Stylie, The Hornitz, Serotheft, Redshift and Iganic Soundsystem. The second announcement included one of dubstep’s number one names, Datsik, with Michael Menert who is the first solo artist to be signed to Pretty Lights Music. Also added was Ghostface Killah, Wu Tang Clan’s hip hop legend. This is sure to be another great festival for upstate New York.

    The festival will be held August 15-18 on Gardner’s Farm in Stephentown, New York.

    For more information check out Bella Terra on Facebook
    https://www.facebook.com/bellaterrafest?group_id=0

  • Snoe.down releases schedule for music and sports festival for March 22nd-24th

    Snoe.down has released their weekend schedule for the all ages Music and Sports Festival being held in Killington Resort in Killington, and Spartan Arena in neighboring Rutland, Vermont on March 22nd – 24th.

    snoe.down

    Concert goers will have the opportunity to choose between two different lodges on Friday the 22nd, all while enjoying great music and the scenery. Located at the bottom of Killington, the snoe.shed lodge will host progressive string band Floodwood and electro-rock band Jimkata, whereas further up the mountain, the K1 lodge will host, Brooklyn-based jazz/funk/pop quartet, Tauk and Brasstronica quintet, The Primate Fiasco. From my first snoe.down experience, it was surreal to be inside the lodge, dancing to music while watching snowboarders and skiers hurl down the mountain side.

    moe2.

    Saturday afternoon guests get a treat of a show from Upstate bluegrass rockers Eastbound Jesus and moe. on the Bear Mountain outdoor stage, located on the other side of Killington. It’s remarkable to hear the music echo off the mountains and to have more than enough space to groove in. Another perk of the performances outside is for the winter sports fans, who after a great run down are rewarded with music at the bottom of the hill.

    For Friday and Saturday evening, the venue is located at the Spartan Arena in Rutland, Vermont, a 30 minute drive down the road from Killington. This venue reminds me much of the Washington Armory in Albany, NY, given its wide open space, wooden floors and surrounding bench seating. There will be a private viewing section for VIPs as well as an under 21 viewing area behind the sound board and the right side bleachers. Doors open both nights at 6pm with New Orleans funk band Ivan Neville’s Dumpstaphunk performing on Friday and the reunion of Vermont’s Strangefolk on Saturday. Both evenings will feature moe. scheduled to start at 9pm.

    Sunday concludes the winter fun weekend for VIP ticket holders at the Wobbly barn for a brunch with an acoustic performance by moe. Plus a special performance by Sonic birds contest winners, The Mallet Brothers Band, at 1:30pm at the K1 Lodge.

    FRIDAY

    K1 Lodge: Tauk (12:30-2:00pm)

    K1 Lodge: The Primate Fiasco (3:30-5:00pm)

    Snoe.Shed Lodge: Floodwood (12:30-2:00pm)

    Snoe.Shed Lodge: Jimkata (3:30-5:00pm)

    Spartan Arena: 6pm doors, Dumpstaphunk (7:00pm), moe. (9pm)

    SATURDAY

    Bear Mtn outdoor stage: Eastbound Jesus (Noon-12:45pm), moe. (1pm)

    Spartan Arena: 6pm doors, Strangefolk (7:00pm), moe. (9pm)

    SUNDAY

    Wobbly Barn: VIP Brunch

    K1 Lodge: Sonicbids Contest Winner – The Mallett Brothers Band (1:30pm-3:30pm)

    Currently heading into its fifth season, snoe.down is one of the top winter music festivals to catch on the east coast. Taking place at Vermont’s most popular ski and snowboard resort, Killington offers festival goers a special Snoe.down Learn to Ski/Ride program. Fans can purchase reduced price lift tickets to Killington Resort with their Snoe.down ticket plus a variety of discounted lodging options. Weekend tickets are available as well as single day or for the serious concert goer, VIP.  All tickets are on sale and available at FlynnTix box office in Burlington, VT or by phone at 802.863.5966. A portion of all ticket purchases are being donated to Vermont Adaptive, the only year round sports and recreation organization in the state empowering individuals with disabilities.

    The Snoe.down VIP tickets include an official Snoe.down 2013 festival poster, private entrance and fast lane to both Spartan Arena shows on Friday and Saturday, admission to the Thursday night kickoff shows and more.

    The weekend starts early on Thursday evening, March 24th in Killington for the special, separately ticketed kick-off parties. The Wobbly Barn will host Marco Benevento with special guest Mike Pederson and the jam-heavy, Dead Sessions at the Pickle Barrel. Free admission is included in the VIP package for both shows.

    It doesn’t hurt to have a copy of the Killington Trail Guide handy so that fans can easily locate all their favorite bands without missing a musical beat.