Papadosio brought their Summer Sequence Festival to Wonderland Forest on June 21 and 22 in Lafayette, New York. Summer Sequence has been around in different variations since 2017. This summer they decided to give the new venue in the Finger Lakes a try, moving the festival from their home in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Asheville, North Carolina.
Wonderland Forest, still in it’s nascent phase, was a great low-key location for a music festival, as it was intimate and hassle free. Everything was centrally located with two campgrounds on either side of the venue, and besides a trek up the hill for the late-night stage, you were never a far walk from anything. The main stage, nestled in the forest was intimate, and the trees offered a great spot for people to set up their hammocks and set up their own home bases away from their camp site. I did not venture into the other campground area, so I’m not sure if they had any other food options out that way, but the main stage did have a small menu for food. They cooked it made-to-order and they had a pretty damn good wood-fired pizza as an option. If you are camping there for a festival in the future it would probably be smart to not depend on those options for the whole weekend though. The Finger Lakes offers a ton of opportunities to take in some nature in the afternoon, both onsite and offsite, exiting and entering the venue was a breeze.
Papadosio are a mix of Prog Rock, Livetronica, Jazz and Jamband, and their eclectic style reflected on the wide-ranging line-up. Along with Psy-Dub producer Ott, both acts were scheduled to play longer sets each night. After some afternoon Yoga, the music started both days around noon. The afternoons started off laid back, with sparse crowds but as the days went on, the crowd thickened out and were really ready to go by 7 or so.
As it was a new venue, there were still a few kinks to the weekend. As reported, a neighbor in the area is not exactly excited about the venue, and the late-night stage on Friday was shut down early at 2 AM (it was supposed to go until 5). Because of the legal issues with the sound, the late-night for Saturday was entirely canceled. The late-night stage itself was a hike up the mountain, but the venue had shuttles to remedy this and escorted people back down into the late of the night. To no fault of anyone, Ott’s Saturday’s set was cut short after only 45 minutes, as a lighting storm appeared in the area. Everyone went back to take shelter at their camp sites, some left but most stayed in the hopes that Papadosio would still be able to properly close out their festival. During the break the storm turned into a torrential downpour, but as quickly as it started, it stopped. Right before their scheduled set at 10, you could hear some sounds from the stage, and the lights turned back on. Someone from venue drove around in an ATV and let people know that Papadosio would be coming on soon.
Papadosio was able to play their final set, you could tell that everyone was enjoying getting a win at the end. Wonderland Forest was a great spot for their Summer Sequence Festival, the weekend was a success with only a few hiccups. Hopefully the venue is able to work out some of the issues and they will be able to come back next summer. Papadosio still has several dates planned throughout the summer, including the Secret Dreams Music & Arts Festival in Ohio and AVL Fest in North Carolina. Wonderland Forest will be bringing back the Disco Biscuits over the 4th of July weekend for their second Biscoland music festival.
