BRATTLEBORO — Event in a Tent, a combination of musical performances and a gathering of community, comes to Brattleboro on June 30.
“Southern Vermont should get ready for an outdoor festival like they never have seen before,” said Hugh Keelan, performer and organizer of the event.
Music New England presents the celebration that Keelan said, “fuses live music with other genres of performing art and audience participation to create a singular entertainment experience.”
The day begins with a wide assortment of outdoor festivities and workshops, and culminates when everyone joins together in a large tent for a grand concert of many types of music.
“The Event in a Tent is all about community,” said Keelan who, along with his partner Mark Burke, formed Music New England. “Everything we are doing is built around our community's needs.” Keelan said he doesn't want this festival to be highbrow or lowbrow, but something for everyone.
He explains, “This is not a classical concert like Tanglewood, or a country and western festival, or hip hop.” He said it is an amalgam of all these, which, through distillation, becomes something quite new.
Gates open for The Event in a Tent at noon on the grounds of Famolare Farm on Old Fairground Road in Brattleboro, which is also the site of the Vermont Agricultural Business Education Center. Family and friends can enjoy an afternoon of picnicking while being entertained by strolling minstrels, clowns, and other activities.
Food and nonalcoholic beverages will be available from Hardy Foard Catering of West Chesterfield, N.H., while wine and beer will be provided by Nesbitt's Portside Tavern of Vernon.
Workshops throughout the day will enable audience members to take a participatory role in the Main Event, which begins at 3 p.m. Nimble Arts will provide instruction in circus moves, human pyramids, balancing, and juggling.
Didgeridoo virtuoso Pitz Quattrone will be selling inexpensive models of the didgeridoo and teaching people how to play the ancient instrument.
Garry Jones and Erik Newquist from The Harmonic Forge will be showcasing their musical park benches with the help of percussionist Jane Boxall, who will play the bench with orchestra members in the debut performance of Concertino for Park Bench and Strings.
Violinists and fiddlers of all ages and abilities are encouraged to bring their instruments to take part in a mass performance of Vittorio Monti's Czardas, with the orchestra during the Main Event. A special workshop will be held with orchestra members to rehearse for the performance of this energetic, gypsy-influenced composition.
Audience participation
In addition, anyone is eligible to take part in the Drum Ride workshop conducted by Master Teaching Artist Bob Bloom of Drumming About You. Bloom will be trucking a cargo of colorful drums and percussion trinkets from Storrs, Conn., for use in the workshop. No experience is necessary and participants will perform with orchestra accompaniment during the Main Event.
“This takes audience participation to a new level,” says Keelan. “We are creating the actual context to perform. The audience now literally will be part of the concert.”
The pre-concert festivities gradually build to a finale, signaling the approach of the concert itself and bringing those with the appropriate tickets inside the 1,000-seat tent. “The tent is essential to our image,” said Keelan. “Tents are all about wonder, about intemperance, about safety.”
Those without a tent ticket will be seated on the grounds, much like Tanglewood, around the tent.
Under the baton of Maestro Keelan, a professional orchestra will perform selections that celebrate the mystical spirit of the traveling festival culture as well as the bucolic Vermont landscape upon which it takes place. Selections include Copland's Fanfare for the Common Man, Strauss's The Emperor's Waltz, Fucik's Entrance of the Gladiators, and Beethoven's Pastoral (Symphony No. 6).
Aerialists from Nimble Arts, including founder Serenity Smith Forchion, will perform choreographed circus acrobatics during many of the selections. Special guest vocalists include tenor Alan Schneider performing the Recitar! aria from Leoncavallo's opera, Pagliacci; jazz and blues chanteuse Samirah Evans singing Moonlight in Vermont; and gospel powerhouse Moonlight Davis on Ol' Man River.
One piece of music that Keelan said he wants to perform in all the festivals that New England Music will present is perhaps the most famous march of all time, the National Emblem (the tune to “And the monkey wrapped its tale around the flagpole...”), which was written by a Vermonter, Edwin Eugene Bagley from Craftsbury.
“We plan to make it our signature tune,” he said. “The theme of the whole whole concert is Vermont Pastoral. Even Beethoven's iconic Pastoral Symphony can be seen as a perfect Vermont piece of music.”
“In this music,” Keelan continued, “Beethoven paints a picture of sylvan rural life much like our ideal vision of Vermont, celebrating benign nature and village harmony.
However, in the third movement of the symphony, the calm is interrupted by a distant drum roll indicating thunder, as a ferocious storm sweeps in.
“What else could that be for today's Vermonters but Hurricane Irene. And then, in the final movement of the symphony, after the storm has subsided there comes a hymn of thanksgiving to celebrate peace and renewal, which mirrors Vermonters who last year joined together to help one another after the devastating tropical storm.”
Summing up, Keelan added, “What Event in a Tent is really about is joy.”
“We want people to say 'woo woo' over this crazy collage of performances that is pure Brattleboro.”
Volunteers needed
The Event in a Tent is still looking for volunteers to help out on the day.
Volunteer Coordinator Vicki Friedman says, “It will be a lot of fun. Volunteers will get will get free admission, a lunch, and a special T-shirt.” For more information, email Friedman at [email protected].
Main sponsors of The Event in a Tent include the Vermont Department of Tourism and Marketing, the Vermont Tent Company, Brattleboro Memorial Hospital, Brattleboro Savings & Loan, and Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee. Community Sponsors include the Brattleboro Area Chamber of Commerce, Burton Car Wash & Detailing Services, Casey Storage Solutions, Holton Home, Latchis Hotel and Theatre, Through the Music Gallery & Studio, and Vermont Artisan Designs.
Tickets can be purchased in advance at musicnewengland.org or at the gate the day of The Event in a Tent. Admission is $18 (free for children ages 5 and under). Seating in the tent is first-come, first-serve with a maximum capacity of 800 people. The option to enjoy the concert from blankets or lawn chairs is available to all. For more information about The Event in a Tent, contact Music New England at [email protected] or by calling 802-451-0436.