The 25th annual Festival will be held on September 30 and October 1, 2023.
Jim McRae, from Warwick, is the Organizer of the Main Music Stage at the Festival. He reflects on how he came to love the event and fold it into his life as a musician. He started out as a parking lot volunteer, as many of the other more recent Organizers did. Watch the full playlist of performers from over the years.
The 2023 Main Stage Performers are:
Saturday, September 30
12:00 PM Tempo-Airy Jazz Ensemble
We are a group of guys that got together to play Jazz. We live within 15 miles of each other and have a passion for this music.
1:00 PM Sorry Mister
Sorry Mister combines electric organ, wailing guitar solos, and vocal harmonies into a sound that hints to artists like Mark Lanegan, PJ Harvey, and the Pixies. The Worcester-based group showcases rock scene veterans Bridget Nault, Earl Nezuch, Tracy Putnam, and Ashley Rhodes.
2:15 PM Love Crumbs
3:30 PM Bombajazzeando
Lively and joyous, Bombajazzeando brings Puerto Rican bomba dancing and drumming together with North American jazz — corazón y alma, heart and soul. This is music of connection. Drummers and dancers, trumpet and trombone, musicians and audience, tradition and creativity, la isla and el norte. Featuring dancer Brendalíz Cepeda (granddaughter of bomba great Rafael Cepeda) and drummer Saúl Peñalosa “El Pulpo.”
Sunday, October 1
12:00 The Inside Out Dance Company
Inside/Out Dance Company was founded in 2008 to give students at The Dance Studio of Orange, MA, a more in-depth artistic experience through additional training, deep collaborative work, creating choreography, increased performance opportunities, local community outreach as dance ambassadors, and connecting with the larger dance world through intensives, master classes and attending conferences. They perform dances with emotional depth, physical power, and great beauty.
1:00 Wild Bill and the Flying Sparks
Wild Bill and the Flying Sparks play a blend of classic country, rock and roll, and roots music. Original tunes as well as songs by Hank Williams, Buck Owens, Merle Haggard,
Steve Earle, Johnny Cash, Taj Mahal, George Jones, Bruce Springsteen, and many more for listening and dancing.
2:15 PM Gaslight Tinkers
African, Caribbean, Funk, Reggae, and Latin grooves meet traditional fiddle music. It’s the genre-bending future of the music of the past. The Gaslight Tinkers’ blend of global rhythms creates a joyously danceable sound around a core of traditional New England old time and Celtic fiddle music, merging boundless positive energy with melody and song. Since its formation in 2012 the band has lit up the East Coast, the West Coast, and the Caribbean, headlining clubs, dances, and major festivals. Playing what The Valley Advocate describes as “Music that consistently fizzes and pops with unexpected textures and turns,” The Gaslight Tinkers’ shows are packed with delightful surprises, elated crowds, and exuberant musicianship.”
3:30 PM Shokazoba
Shokazoba is an award winning horn driven powerhouse! They began in 2005 as a Fela Kuti tribute project and now produce original work aimed to generate greater human awareness through their conscious danceabe “New World Funk” with passionately honest critically progressive lyrics. Voted “Best of the Valley” five times, nominated for “Live Act of the Year” by the New England Music Awards, winners of the 2017 Valley Music Showcase, and recognized with several honorable distinctions by the African Jazz Review, Shokazoba performs top quality high energy music designed to move your feet, inspire the mind, and activate our souls. The essence of the inspiration for Shokazoba’s existence is derived from deep fulfilling meaningful human connections within the celebrations of ecstatic music and the joyous expressions of dance.
