The Hudson Music Project – Saugerties, NY, July 11-13, 2014 (FESTIVAL RECAP)

Flaming Lips

The inaugural Hudson Project Music and Arts Festival was held at Winston Farms in Saugerties, NY, the site of the infamous Woodstock ’94 Music Festival that celebrated the 25th anniversary of the original 1969 iconic event. The first year of the festival had its glitches and mis-steps, like a tedious off-site parking with shuttle busses, which along with the outrageous mud might be the only thing that resembled the 1994 event. Off-site parking was a less expensive choice over an obsurbinate on-site parking option that still required long walks to campgrounds. With over 800 acres, The Winston Farm site seemed like it would be a good candidate for the more desirable car camping setup that allows for a much more pleasurable festival experience. What happened to free parking and free camping with the purchase of a festival ticket?

Bumpy road or not there was plenty of incredible music at a truly beautiful venue, that is, until Sunday. Sunday began with another day promising more inspiring moments until 4:45 PM, when announcements came over that PA systems throughout the venue that due to severe weather on the way, attendees were to evacuate the concert area and seek shelter in their cars. And if you were without your car (i.e. in off-site parking) you should seek shelter in someone else’s car and to follow The Hudson Project’s social media for updates for when it was safe to resume. There were no updates until the official post came hours later that read, “Based on the recommendation from Ulster County and information from the National Weather Service concerning approaching storms in conjunction with the previous afternoon inclement weather, we have decided to cancel this evening’s performances. This is a decision that we don’t take lightly, but our first priority is always the safety of our patrons, artists, and staff. We regret having to cancel any show, but safety always comes first. Please return to your campsites to pack up and depart the property as quickly as possible. Thank you all for an unforgettable weekend, we can’t wait to do it all again next year. Stay tuned for more information in the coming days.”

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This translated to many as, “Get out”, and after a flurry of angry posts on all of the event’s social media outlets expressing concerns that people were being forced to leave who thought they would be camping that night and were in no condition to drive, the festival posted that if you were in no condition to drive they could stay. In fact, thousands of people could not leave because their vehicles were hopelessly stuck in mud.

MCP Presents did put together a terrific line-up and while Electronic Dance Music was a focus of the festival, the weekend was peppered with diversity. Jazz and funk provided a solid groove with performances from Lettuce and Marco Benevento. Lettuce’s funk comes from core members Eric Krasno (guitar) Neal Evans (B-3 organ/keyboards), from Soulive, Adam Smirnoff (guitar) Adam Deitch (drums), Erick Coomes (bass), Ryan Zoidis (alto, tenor, and Bari sax), and Eric Bloom (trumpet). Marco Benevento’s trio featured Ween bassist Dave Dreiwitz and guest appearance by Aaron Freeman (aka Gene Ween) on vocals. DJ George Evelyn, known as Nightmare on Wax and previously as DJ Ease blended Hip-Hop, Trip-Hop, and experimental electronic music. Two standout bands began an incredible Friday night; indie rock band Modest Mouse’s crushing set that featured songs “Tiny Cities Made of Ashes”, “Dramamine”, “Breakthrough”, and “The Good Times Are Killing Me” and electronica outfit Sound Tribe Sector Nine’s soaring instrumental jams combined with an artistic light show was a sonic and visual exhibition.

Flaming Lips
Flaming Lips

The Flaming Lips set was stellar, complete with costumes, dancing mushrooms and rainbow characters, confetti canons, and incredible lights. Front man Wayne Coyne rolled out into the crowd in an inflatable bubble during “Vein of Stars” and showed incredible patience when there was a medical emergency in the crowd, waiting atop a LED lighted tower and calming the crowd until EMT’s finished helping the stricken music fan. At least two and half of three exclamation points in the band !!!’s name belongs to vocalist Nick Offer who enthusiastically threw himself around the stage in crazy dance moves and jumped into the audience several times to dance with fans. DJ Bonobo performed with a live band that featured songs with two different vocalists and eerie clarinet and flute.

Fireworks preceded an energetic set by Matt and Kim that combined catchy indie pop with impressive gymnastic style moves by drummer Kim Schifino, who not only drummed while treating her kit like it was a gymnastic apparatus, also walked out into the crowd being held up by the audiences hands with equal agility. Hip-Hop artist Kendrick Lamar’s headlining set featured the rappers smooth style combined with a tight band and included “The Art of Peer Pressure”, “m.A.A.d city” , “Backseat Freestyle”,  “Money Trees”(with Jay Rock), and “Poetic Justice” from the artist’s 2112 Good Kid, M.A.A.D  City album. A sparse crowd assembled for singer Kelela’s silky songbird voice flowing over her DJ’s programmed musical accompaniment early Sunday. Sunday’s highlight, before the day came to bitter and early end, came from The Soul Rebels who blended Hip-Hop, Jazz and Funk into a traditional New Orleans Brass Band. The evacuation announcement interrupted rapper Isaiah Rashad’s set which was the last performance of the festival.

Certainly The Hudson Project cannot be blamed for the weather and the decision to cancel the rest of the festival, while not popular, was understandable. The organizers could have done a better job informing the festival attendees and updating the status of the situation in a more timely fashion but were standup in offering refunds. Those with Sunday single-day passes will be fully refunded, two-day passes will be refunded 50%, and three-day ticket holders will be offered a 33.3% refund. Apart from some glitchy first time festival missteps and the unfortunate end, The Hudson Project with its roomy and scenic venue and imaginative production has the potential to be a popular live music destination.

Check out our full PHOTO GALLERY from the Hudson Project!

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