Woods Fest Music Festival postponed its third annual festivities until 2021. The COVID-19 outbreak caused the festival to be moved till next year to protect everyone involved. The lineup includes local favorites like The Roots of Creation, The Old Main, and West End Blend.
The festival will take place the same weekend it usually does in August next year on August 7-8 of 2021. The festival will be held at Woods Valley Ski Area on State Route 46 in Westernville. Woods Fest was planning to expand to being a two days festival this year with limited camping available on site and is planning that same structure for 2021. The festival will be back with a newly renovated Woods Valley chalet as the backdrop next year.
“We are very disappointed to have to cancel this year’s event as it has quickly become an annual celebration of Central New York’s music, art and culture in its two years of existence,” The press release stated. It continued saying, “However, we feel the most prudent thing to do is to postpone this event until next year.”
The 2021 festival will have The Roots of Creation, The Old Main, West End Blend, Annie in the Water, Strange Machine, Blind Owl Band, Wild Adreatic, Sixfox Whiskey, Les Brers, Maddy Walsh and The Blind Spots, Brickdrop, Trampoline Jetstream, Kluster Phunk, Vaporeyes, Peak, Ramblin’ Brooks Band, with more to be announced.
For more information on the Woods Fest Music Festival visit their Facebook Page.
For the past 18 years the Northwest String Summit has been a festival catering to all things string. Country, folk and bluegrass artists, well-known and just discovered, would descend upon Horning’s Hideout. Festival-goers can listen to the music and enjoyed a myriad of activities including but not limited to arts and crafts, glamping, yoga, and instrument building.
Unfortunately, COVID-19 has created the conditions in which having a traditional festival would be dangerous. In the interest of public safety, the event has closed its on-site activities. Even though the physical festival is no longer possible, the lockdown has not stifled the creativity of the artists that were slated to attend the summit this year.
To connect fans to artists, the Northwest String Summit has gone virtual.
Over 28 different artists will be streaming their performances live or remote this July 17-19 on LiveXLive. Archival footage spanning the history of the event will be sprinkled in-between sets. Thirty hours of never-seen-before footage will be shown. All of the proceeds will go back to the artists, crew, and industry. The Early Bird special pricing of $29.99 will be available until July 7 for this three-night event.
Check out this stream and more through our series NY Stream and Support. You’ll discover artists around the Empire State streaming nightly, with ways to support musicians and charitable groups close to home!
NYC-based art punks, Rich Girls, released their single “The Fighter,” an anthem of low-key defiance. Frontwoman Luisa Black shares her thoughts on what the song means.
“Fuck bigots, it’s all I thought about this year. If it’s about anything, it’s about that.”
Photo Cred: L. Black
Rich Girls combine British art rock polish with primitive energy of American garage. Black started the band as the solo recording project after the breakup of her San Fran garage band The Blacks. It evolved from series of dark pop demos Black wrote while living in London.
A steady stream of EPs cemented the Rich Girls high/low sound and found a small following in unexpected outposts across the UK and Europe. Rich Girls live create a big, urgent sound out of minimal elements. All proceeds from Bandcamp digital purchases of the single will be donated to the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Beau Fleuve Music & Arts Festival will be continuing its celebration of local art and culture with a 4th annual festival. Titled “Ultimate Sunday Funday,” it will take place on Sunday, Aug. 30, 2020 at Silo City.
The Beau Fleuve Music & Arts Festival will have art installations, culture exhibitions, a silent disco, vendors, food trucks, and a diverse musical lineup for all ages. Additionally, there will be an indoor and outdoor event space provided for festival guests. A virtual experience curated by “The Fleuve,” Beau Fleuve’s multi-media brand, sets this even up for all.
More event details about the festival will be announced in the coming weeks, you can follow these updates on Beau Fleuve’s Instagram @beaufleuvemusicarts and website.
Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival announced plans to put on a Virtual Festival. The “Spirit of Grey Fox” will take place on July 16-19. There will be never-seen-before footage of original 2020 artists for the festival. The festival will be a benefit fundraiser for COVID-19 relief for artists.
The festival will include archived performances from past years on top of the performances from the original lineup. Some of the highlighted 2020 lineup includes The Infamous Stringdusters, Jerry Douglas, and Delle Mae. Some of the highlighted archived lineup includes the Del McCoury Band, Sam Bush, and Hot Rize.
The festival will benefit the IBMA Trust Fund COVID-19 Relief Fund to help artists crushed by the pandemic. This Fund is specifically trying to help the bluegrass community. The Board of Trustees set aside up to $150,000 for COVID-19 crisis assistance and has established an account specifically for COVID-19 Relief. Musicians can be awarded up to $500 of relief pay. People will be able to donate by going to IBMA Trust Fund COVID-19 Relief Fund’s website.
The festival will stream for free on nugs.tv and Grey Fox’s YouTube and Facebook Page. For more information the “Spirit of Grey Fox please visit Grey Fox’s website.
Check out this stream and more through our series NY Stream and Support, where you’ll discover artists around the Empire State streaming nightly, and ways to support musicians and charitable groups close to home!
Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival announced it’s decision to cancel it’s 2020 festival due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The festival had previously planned to postpone their 2020 festival but decided to completely cancel it. Like many festivals out there right now, the priority of keeping people safe trumps the priority of the festival happening this year.
Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival was originally postponed to September 24-27 back in March. The festival was ultimately cancelled on June 24 via a statement made on their website. Their statement on their reasons behind cancelling the festival said, “Our annual time together on the Farm is nothing short of magical, but out of an abundance of caution and for the health and safety of all Bonnaroovians, artists, staff, partners and our community, this is a necessary reality. More information on lineup, camping and accommodations will be available at a later date.”
The festival will be offering for current ticket holders to either having their tickets roll over to the 2021 season or to get a refund on their tickets. Ticket holders will have to log into their Frontgate account and select the refund option starting on July 1, 2020 and will be able to request refunds until July 31, 2020. Ticket holders who don’t request a refund within this time will have their ticket automatically roll over to the 2021 festival. Ticket holders who purchased from Nashville Shuttle, Airport Shuttle, Hotel package, or purchased tickets through Lyte, Fevo, or Ticketmaster Resale, there will not be a rollover ticket option for 2021. Those ticket orders will be automatically refunded and will be issued to your original method of payment.
Although there will be no Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival this year, a weekend-long virtual festival will be taking place on the rescheduled Bonnaroo dates September 24-27, 2020. The virtual festival will include some of the staff’s favorite moments from past and present, along with some special surprises. There will be more details on this released on this virtual festival soon.
For more information on the Cancellation of the 2020 season and the virtual festival visit Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival’s website.
Marlboro New York’s Mazzstock Music Festival cancels their 2020 festival in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. This decision didn’t come lightly, but staff decided that protecting the health, safety, and well-being of their attendees, staff, performers, and vendors was most important than having the festival take place this year.
In Mazzstock Music Festival’s original COVID-19 announcement posted on their website and Facebook page on April 5 said the festival would be tentatively scheduled for August 20-23, 2020. Then it was announced on June 23 via their Facebook page they would be cancelling the event entirely saying, “Mazzstock will not take place in 2020. We will miss all of the awesome people who make our event special this year, and we look forward to celebrating life, love, music, and our health with you under more normalized circumstances in 2021. Until then, please stay safe and take care of each other. We [love] you!
Take A Walk On The Wild Side ~ The Mazzstock Allstars ~ Mazzstock 2018
If it all goes as planned, and COVID-19 calms down, Mazzstock Music Festival will be back and kicking in 2021. The Mazzstock Music Festival hosts jam bands to blues, reggae to trip hop, alternative to country, this family vibe fest covers the entire spectrum of great rock and roll. Previous lineups can be found here and include a lot of great local music. The festival started as a birthday party back in 2008 has become an annual three-day festival that sprawls over two stages.
For more information on Mazzstock Music Festival visit their website.
Saratoga Performing Arts Center, Absolutely Live Entertainment and Caffè Lena have announced the first ever “Freihofer’s Jazz Fest Stay Home Sessions” to take place June 26 -28 at 8 p.m. est. The series will feature pre produced videos from national artists along with live performances on Caffè Lena‘s stage from local favorites. Each session will be hosted through Caffè Lena’s “Stay Home Sessions” Youtube channel. “Freihofer’s Jazz Fest Stay Home Sessions” have replaced the 2020 Freihofer’s Saratoga Jazz Festival usually hosted at Saratoga Performing Arts Center that was cancelled due to health and safety concerns as a result of the Coronavirus Pandemic.
Elizabeth Sobol, President and CEO of Saratoga Performing Arts Center gave this statement in a press release; “Freihofer’s has been a generous and steadfast supporter of Jazz Fest for the last 23 years. When presented with the possibility of creating a Virtual Jazz Fest, they didn’t miss a beat – pledging to support our efforts to bring great musicians and audience together despite the challenges of COVID-19. Being able to create connection for jazz lovers – and support both national and local musicians, the latter performing from Caffe Lena — is a privilege.”
The series is broken down into three themed nights. Kicking things off with a Cuban-themed evening will be previous headliner, Grammy nominated Pedrito Martinez with local artists Chuck Lamb and Jorge Gomez. Bringing the sounds of folk and jazz together will be husband and wife duo Bela Fleck (four time headliner and winner of 15 Grammy awards) & Abigail Washburn followed by Saratoga Spring’s own Skidmore Jazz Institute Alumni Trio. Closing out the weekend long event with some smooth sounds from Detroit will be Garland Nelson’s Reflections: A Motown Tribute Ensemble” opening for musician and television personality Jon Batiste.
Freihofer’s Jazz Fest Stay Home Sessions Lineup:
*all performances at 8 PM EST
June 26
Pedrito Martinez
Chuck Lamb & Jorge Gomez
June 27
Béla Fleck & Abigail Washburn
Skidmore Jazz Institute Alumni Trio
June 27
Jon Batiste
Garland Nelson’s “Reflections: A Motown Tribute Ensemble”
The virtual benefit festival, Justice Comes Alive, was announced and will be streamed across multiple platforms. It will take place on June 28 at 12PM ET. The festival will be a donation based event supporting the PLUS1 For Black Lives Fund. It will feature live performances from big names like Phil Lesh and The Terrapin Family Band, The Soul Rebels, and Lettuce. It will also feature speakers like Gary Bartz, George Porter Jr., and Harvey Mason tackling racism & the fight for equality.
This festival is taking place after the success of the Quarantine Comes Alive which raised over $170,000 to benefit participating artists and PLUS1’s COVID-19 Relief Fund. The creators of QCA and mainstay events Brooklyn Comes Alive and Denver Comes Alive decided to create Justice Comes Alive in hopes of having similar outcome and felt obliged to shift their focus to matters of racial inequality facing our nation. The festivals partnership with the PLUS1 For Black Lives Fund will donate proceeds raised during the day-long event directly to benefit participating artists as well as organizations. Some of the organizations include Equal Justice Initiative, Impact Justice and The Bail Project. The donations will also go to Black and Indigenous-led grassroots organizations combating racism. Justice Comes Alive is also partnering with HeadCount during this event to encourage voter participation and help people register to vote.
The virtual festival will feature performances by: Antibalas, Alvin Ford Jr., BANDEMIC (feat. John Scofield, John Medeski, Billy Martin and Jesse Murphy), Big Sam’s Funky Nation, Bobby Rush, Brandon “Taz” Niederauer, Christone “KINGFISH” Ingram, Cory Henry, D’Vibes Trio w/ Adam Deitch & Adam “Shmeeans” Smirnoff, David Shaw, Doom Flamingo, Dumpstaphunk, Eric Krasno, Everyone Orchestra, Full Moonalice, The Funky Knuckles, G. Love, Galactic, George Porter Jr., The Ghost of Paul Revere, Ivan Neville, Jennifer Hartswick w/ Nick Cassarino & Christian McBride, Kim Dawson, Lettuce, Louis Cato, Marco Benevento, Maurice “MOBETTA” Brown, Mononeon, Moon Taxi, The Motet, MoTown Getdown, Nahko, Neal Francis, Nick Cassarino & Erin Boyd, Nigel Hall, The OG’s, The Original Nth Power, Phil Lesh and the Terrapin Family Band, Robert Walter, Roosevelt Collier, Shaun Martin, The Soul Rebels, Southern Avenue, Stanley Jordan, Star Kitchen, Stout, Tank and the Bangas, TAUK, Terence Higgins & The Nola Krewe, Turkuaz, and Umphrey’s McGee.
The festival will feature talks by: Christian McBride, Dennis Chambers, Ellis Hall, Eric Krasno, Gary Bartz, George Porter Jr., Harvey Mason, Ivan Neville, Karl Denson, Oteil Burbridge, Patrice Rushen, Terence Blanchard, and Weedie Braimah.
Justice Comes Alive will be hosting a donations page which can be found on their website where the viewer donates the amount of their choice and then will be emailed links to watch on the day of the show. Options range from donating $5 to $1,000 and any donation gives the viewer the link to stream on the day of show to donating. There is even a custom donation amount viewers can use to donate less or more depending on their financial situation.
For more information please visit Justice Comes Alive’s website.
Photo by Victor Diaz Lamich/Courtesy of Festival International de Jazz de Montreal
Le Festival International de Jazz de Montréal is an annual event and draws millions of visitors to the city of Québec each Summer. It holds the Guiness World Record for largest jazz festival. Unfortunately, the festival cannot be held in person this year; however, recordings of live performances will be available for free online. Thanks to support from TD Bank Group and Rio Tinto as well as public partnerships with the Government of Canada, the Government of Québec, and the City of Montréal, the Montréal Jazz Festival will reach more than ever before.
In order to keep everything up to the Festival’s standards, all performances will be filmed with high-quality production value in a specially made studio in Montreal’s L’Astral catered specifically for these online performances. Director Maxime Théoret-Bissonnette will manage these recordings and ensure that they will be of the highest quality. These live recordings will be free to view for anyone anywhere, making the Festival more accessible than it has ever been. If you can’t catch the performances live, they will be available for free on demand afterwards as well.
The Festival will kick off on Canadian Multicultural Day, June 27, with a lineup that will showcase Canada’s rich and diverse talent. The show will begin with the Apéros SAQ, a mix of live performances from some of the Festival’s favorite artists. Up next are the Sessions TD and Rhymes Rio Tinto, sessions that will be enjoyable for all fans. The Festival will also showcase recordings of performances from past Festivals. The opening night will finish with the Fin de Soirée Loto-Québec, a virtual party for everyone who wants to join.
Photo courtesy of Festival International de Jazz de Montreal
The Festival will continue for three more days and wraps up on June 30. Although the full schedule has yet to be announced, the lineup includes the top local luminaries and artists of the city. Some notable performers who will be featured are Charlotte Cardin, Jean-Michael Blais, The Barr Brothers, Dominique Fils-Aimée, Elisapie, Jordan Officer, and many more.
The Festival’s General Manager Jacques K. Primeau expresses that it is extremely important for the Festival’s team “to bring the jazz Festival to the people.” He also expressed that the Festival “is thrilled to be able to offer an innovative solution to get the music out to the fans” even with such difficult challenges.
The Festival is only taking place thanks to the leadership of Primeau and Laurent Saulnier, the Festival’s team, the artists, and the Festival’s generous sponsors. Primeau remarks that “#JazzTogether is truly a community and a family affair” even in the hardest of times.
