Summer is Festival Season for music lovers in the Berkshires. In this article, we will preview five festivals, featuring different styles of popular music, that are happening on the next four weekends. They are ideal for Berkshire County residents and visitors, because although each seems to target a particular market, there is enough crossover so that most will have some artists that will appeal to nearly all popular tastes. And the festivals are close enough that aficionados can go for a day or stay the weekend. A future article will preview the jazz festivals occurring later in the season.
The weekend starts today for bluegrass lovers. At Greyfox Bluegrass Festival, on the Rothvoss Farm in nearby Ancramdale New York, the gates open at noon for campers. The actual entertainment doesn't start until tomorrow afternoon (Thursday, July 18), so once camp is set up, the new residents of Greyfox will informally divide up into the two types of people who inhabit the world of bluegrass - pickers and grinners. Pickers gather into small groups at various campsites to play and sing. Grinners mosey from site to site, listening to the music and living up to their name. Thursday through Sunday, there will be national and regional acts appearing on the Main Stage, the Grassroots Stage and at the Dance Pavilion. Many of the performers will lead workshops for those interested in learning to play or learning about various instruments and styles. There are plenty of well-known acts appearing at Greyfox - Canadian fiddler Natalie MacMaster, the fast-rising Nickel Creek, Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder, The Sam Bush Band, The Del McCoury Band, Tim O'Brien, Yonder Mountain String Band and Hazel Dickens, just to name a few of the more than 60 performers expected to appear at Greyfox. The Dance Pavilion will feature instruction and dance music by Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys and John Kirk and Trish Miller with Quickstep, among others.
The movie O Brother, Where Art Thou has caused a surge in the popularity of bluegrass, which, of contemporary music styles, most closely approximates the old-timey tunes of the movie. Greyfox spokesperson Ellen Giurleo said that ticket sales are ahead of last year, when they sold out the concert area camping and opened up a lower camping area midway through the festival.
Greyfox has weekend camping tickets for sale, as well as single day tickets and a weekend non-camping pass, great for those who live or are staying in South County. More information about Greyfox Bluegrass Festival can be obtained at www.greyfoxbluegrass.com or by calling (888) 946-8495.
The next two weekends feature festivals at Long Hill Farm on Route 23 in Hillsdale New York. Falcon Ridge Folk Festival (July 26-28) and Winterhawk 2000, Bluegrass and Beyond (August 2-4) are run by the same promoters, Howard Randall and Anne Saunders. The festivals share the same infrastructure, although the music styles presented are somewhat different. Falcon Ridge tends to be a little more towards the singer/songwriter style, including an Emerging Artists Showcase on the Main Stage Friday afternoon, where each of 24 new artists or groups gets to perform a short 10-minute set. But Falcon Ridge also offers the entertaining antics of one-man-band Billy Jonas, folk-pop from The Kennedys and Narissa/Katryna Nields, bluegrass from Rhonda Vincent, and enduring favorites Lucy Kaplansky and Greg Brown, as well as some 40 other performers. Returning to Falcon Ridge for the fourth time is the diva of rebellious folk, Ani DeFranco. She is so wildly popular with her fans that they had to have her perform on Sunday, the last day of the festival. "We can't even have her on Saturday because it's too ridiculous to try to control. So she agreed to come on Sunday and do a very rare solo show," Saunders said.
This is the twentieth anniversary of Winterhawk, and their third year at Long Hill Farm. What was originally a bluegrass festival has broadened its base under the artistic direction of Saunders. Winterhawk will have contemporary western swing with Jo Miller, rockabilly swing with Commander Cody, and twang folk with Mary Gauthier and Stacy Earle/Mark Stuart, along with another 40 plus performers. Fiddle styles as diverse as bluegrass and old-timey from Vassar Clements and Susan Cunningham and Irish from Riverdance's Eileen Ivers will be represented.
Both Falcon Ridge and Winterhawk have a smaller stage where workshops and more intimate performances are held. They also have a family stage for children's entertainment and a dance tent with a 9,000 square foot wooden dance floor. Some of the best known callers and bands in the country will be at both festivals, calling and teaching contras, squares, Cajun, Zydeco, family and swing dancing.
More information on the respective festivals can be obtained at www.falconridgefolk.com , phone (860) 364-0366 and www.winterhawk2000.com, phone (860) 364-9396.
The Berkshire Mountain Music Festival, also known as Berkfest, is the last major camping festival. Berkfest will be held August 9-11 at Butternut Basin in Great Barrington. This festival features music known as groove or jam band, which is a collective name for a range of styles, incorporating jazz, funk, African, Latin, hip-hop and even bluegrass. Some of the better-known acts will include Angelique Kidjo, Soulive, Medeski, Martin and Wood, and John Scofield. There will also be some 60 other national and regional acts, which spokesman Howard Turkenkopf described as somewhat more diverse this year than last. They've added another performance space for the more acoustic acts, and they will be having some community forums there as well.
The logistics of Berkfest will be similar to last year - there will be no onsite parking and no day tickets. Everyone attending will park either at the Barrington Fairgrounds, if they're coming from the south or west, or Taft Farms, if they're coming from the north or east. At those sites, they will be processed for admission and then shuttled, with their camping gear, to the festival site. According to Turkenkopf, security will be stepped up in the parking areas as well, decreasing the possibility of illegal substances at the festival.
More information regarding Berkfest is available at www.berkfest.com or at (866) 266-3378.
All of the festivals have 24-hour first aid and security, as well as camping sections labeled as quiet, although that term tends to be relative at music festivals. Within those sections, drumming or playing instruments is not allowed after hours.
Noppet Hill Bluegrass Festival of Lanesboro will not be held this year. One of the promoters of Noppet Hill, Mark Pitsch, is now the innkeeper at Bucksteep Manor Inn in the Town of Washington, and he is having a bluegrass pickers' festival at Bucksteep July 26-28. Bucksteep has a campground for tents and RVs (no hookups), as well as rustic cabins and rooms in the Inn. The only formal entertainment will be Saturday evening when three local groups, Thickly Settled, The Beartown Mountain Ramblers and The Northeast String Band, will perform in the Barn at Bucksteep. Thickly Settled will also be releasing a CD of live recordings that night.
The rest of the weekend will be dedicated to those favorite bluegrass pastimes, picking and grinning, and the public is welcome to come for the day ($5) or to camp ($10/night). More information is available at www.bucksteepmanor.com , (800) 645-BUCK or 623-5535.
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Berkshire Food Project Closed for Power Issues
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The Berkshire Food Project is closed Monday because of a power outage early in the morning.
"We are unable to get proper electricity and heat to the building," according to Executive Director Matthew Alcombright. "We hope that this can be resolved and be open tomorrow."
The project does have some sandwiches and frozen meals that will be distributed at the entry.
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