A MUSIC & ENVIRONMENTAL FESTIVAL
Croton Point Park, Croton-on-Hudson
Saturday, June 19, and Sunday, June 20
Tickets: One day $65 in advance, $80 at the gate, weekend pass $90 in advance, $115 at the gate, weekend plus camping $125
www.clearwater.org
Pete Seeger celebrated his ninetieth birthday last spring with a big bash at Madison Square Garden featuring so many luminaries performing live that it’s easy to see why this pioneer of folk music can truly be called an American folk icon. The stage set-up that night was nautically themed, suggesting an enormous replica of the sloop Clearwater, the boat that Seeger helped restore back in the 1960s to sail the waters of the Hudson River — in those days an environmental disater area contaminated beyond belief with the industrial run-off of corporate polluters. Making his home in the river town of Beacon for a good chunk of those ninety years, Seeger and a diverse group of local residents succeeded in building and launching the nineteenth-century-style sailing vessel, turning the Clearwater into a sustained presence on the water, offering day trips and spreading a message of education and environmental advocacy to generations of Hudson Valley natives and visitors.
The Felice Brothers will play the Rainbow Stage on the first day of the Clearwater Festival (photo by twi-ny/mdr)
A series of concerts hosted by Seeger to raise money for this venture — and the subsequent founding of the nonprofit Cleawater Foundation (full name: Hudson River Sloop Clearwater Inc.) — were held over the course of the following decade, eventually becoming an annual event consisting of folk music and its offshoots, held at the scenic Croton Point Park on the shores of the Hudson each June. In the decades since Clearwater’s launch, passage of key environmental legislation has had a profound effect on the cleanliness of the river, and the message of conservation and environmental awareness still rings out — like the proverbial bell in Seeger’s anthem “If I Had a Hammer” — all over the land (or at least up and down the Hudson.) The Great Hudson River Revival continues as a benefit for the foundation and as a textbook example of a green event, highlighting sustainable power, recycling, and a generally friendly atmosphere encouraging environmental awareness and social responsibility. In the wake of this type of successful event have come popular nationwide events like Denver’s Green Festival and North Carolina’s Festival for the Eno, and Clearwater still maintains a distinct homegrown flavor with local acts and artists exhibiting each year alongside performers of wider renown. And of course there is the man himself, Pete Seeger, still playing at ninety-one, always asking the audience to join in and sing along.
Hazmat Modine will get things shaking on the Rainbow Stage on Sunday (photo by twi-ny/mdr)
As for the scores of other acts on the bill, this year’s roster includes an especially strong and diverse lineup of entertainers from across the musical map. Singer/songwriter Steve Earle bridges the Americana gap between country, folk, and rock; David Bromberg is a folk legend; Railroad Earth meld bluegrass with great songcraft and aren’t afraid to explore improvisational journeys; Shawn Colvin is the reigning doyenne of Austin folk; Slavic Soul Party brings manic energy to a gypsy/klezmery horn-heavy mishmash; Buckwheat Zydeco is the eponymous master of his craft . . . and there are many, many more on tap, from virtuoso Kerouac contemporary David Amram to local folk-gospel legend Tom Winslow in addition to the next generations: Winslow’s daughter Thomasina, Woody Guthrie’s granddaughter Sarah Lee, and Seeger’s grandson Tao and goddaughter Toshi Reagon, creating a family vibe throughout the weekend. (Among the others on the massive bill are Hazmat Modine, Joan Osborne, Steve Forbert, Rhett Miller, the Subdudes, and Jonatha Brooke.)
This vibe extends to the grounds of the event itself, which is especially kid-friendly, expanding beyond music and art to offer dozens of other activities such as kayaking, song circles, storytelling, and environmental displays about the Hudson River and its aquatic inhabitants. And the ecological vibe is also evident in the food, the vendors, and the green -powered restroom and stage facilities. The festival, less than an hour from Manhattan, runs June 19-20, and tickets are significantly less expensive if you pick them up now instead of at the gate. Expect the sloop Clearwater to be on hand, along with the eternally young Pete Seeger, welcoming in a weekend a celebration and music for a great cause.