By WILLIAM J. KEMBLE
Correspondent
ROSENDALE — Organizers of the Rosendale Street Festival, planned for July 24-25 on Main Street, are looking to reduce open consumption of alcohol at this year’s event and make it more family-friendly, while also expanding the number of musical acts.
“When you’re selling beer, you have to have a consumption area or containment area so you’re not walking the street with open (containers of) alcohol,” said Billy Liggan, the festival’s vice chairman. “So we’re making sure all the vendors will have a containment area. Last year, it was not strictly enforced. The street festival beer booth did have beer gardens; now we have to make sure that other beer sales or areas will also conform to those. So there will be no more walking down the street with your open container.”
Liggan also said security staffers will also be checking for glass bottles and weapons at each end of Main Street.
“Coolers will be subject to inspection,” he said.
LIGGAN ALSO said volunteers still are needed for the event, which began in 1978 as a way to attract attention to local businesses slightly off the heavily traveled state Route 32 corridor nearby. Using the theme of “1 Street, 2 Days, 5 Stages, 74 Bands,” organizers hope to attract up to 40,000 visitors to this year’s festival.
“We’re going to have a stage dedicated to bluegrass,” Liggan said. “That’s going to be the creekside stage. This (is because) we’re not butting up against a bluegrass festival up in Columbia County. In the past, we butted up against them and did not have any bluegrass performers.”
ANOTHER addition will be a stage dedicated to performances for small children.
“It will be acts for the kids,” said festival Chairman Charlie Kniceley. “We haven’t had that before, and it’s part of trying to make it a good place to bring the family, so that Mom and Dad can bring the kids and have a good time.”
KNICELEY SAID the event has attracted interest from people who have tried to bring similar festivals to other communities and from media specialists seeking to capture the spirit of outdoor concerts.
“I have to meet with someone who wants to use the festival as the setting for a movie, but I don’t know much more than that,” he said.
PROFITS from the festival are dedicated to scholarships for youth music schools and summer camps, as well funds for special-needs instruments.
“It’s a grassroots thing that is all volunteer staff and musicians,” Kniceley said. “When there is any extra money, if there is any when it’s all said and done, it goes to local music education programs one way or another.”
NEW THIS year is that the festival is required to get an additional permit from the state Department of Transportation to use the festivalÕs half-mile stretch of Main Street, which also is state Route 213, in the town’s business district.
“New York state has come out with Permit 33a, which is for an event occupying a state highway,” Liggan said.
“The permit engineer for the DOT region is working with us — it’s something new to both of us,” he said. “I don’t think it’s insurmountable, it’s just another thing that we have to address.”
SHUTTLE BUSES to the festival will be available at Tillson Elementary School, Creek Locks Commons on Creek Locks Road, Brookside School and Rosendale School in Cottekill, with visitor parking available at each of those sites. There also will be parking and shuttle service in a small lot on Binnewater Road, near the Iron Mountain storage facility.
For information about volunteering at the festival, call (845) 943-6497.
Rosendale fest organizers hope for fewer beer problems, family-friendly atmosphere
Related posts:
- Fest to flood screens with 300 films at Shanghai Int'l Film Festival BEIJING, May 13 — Local movie buffs will be offered...
- New beer from COAST Brewing debuts at Charleston Beer Exchange Team CBX used this week’s 5 p.m. Rare Beer Tuesday timeslot...
- First family, happy family KKR SPECIAL The match result at Eden Gardens had set the party...
- Jimmy Fallon to Unveil New Online Beer Pong Jimmy Fallon to Unveil New Online Beer Pongby Troy Rogers...
- Beer shortage in Denmark after Carlsberg strike COPENHAGEN — Denmark has been hit with a shortage of...
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.