Ian Cullen, a graduate student at SUNY New Paltz, is the producer of Acoustic Fest, an all day live musical event that will take place on July 20 at Cafeteria New Paltz located at 50 Main Street. Donation jars will be set out with all the money collected going to Family of New Paltz. (photo by Lauren Thomas)
For Ian Cullen, nothing gets better than acoustic. He likes where the stripped-down, unproduced sound brings the songs by his favorite bands. So the SUNY New Paltz grad student wanted to take the same concept and apply it to some of his favorite local bands. “Last semester, the spring semester, I did an internship with a company in Beacon, called Local 845,” Cullen explained. His boss — the guy behind Local 845 — helps organize concerts and events in and around the City of Beacon. “He said, you know what, why don’t you take what you’ve learned and put on your own concert.”
Cullen took his passion for acoustic songs, and for helping out, to start Acoustic Fest in New Paltz — which will benefit Family of New Paltz.
“I thought, if I’m doing thing, I’m not doing this for any money or anything. I’m not doing this to make a profit. If I’m going to put all this time and energy into doing something like this … I might as well do it for a good cause,” he said.
Acoustic Fest will take place starting at noon, July 20, at the Cafeteria Coffee House on Main Street in New Paltz. It’ll feature music from: Sophia Wortzel, Sour Mash, Outer Folk, John Morisi, The Offshore Regulars, Ross Belsky, Deep Chemistry, Kyle Miller and Multiverse Theater.
Cullen noted he was keen to have a good mix of people, like singer-songwriters, who usually play acoustically and mix it up with other acts that are almost exclusively electric. For instance, Sour Mash is the side project for Jimbo Bloomingfield — the lead singer of 16 Hundred Pound Pig — who typically plays plugged in.
Acoustic Fest is technically free, but people are encouraged to donate to Family of New Paltz during the performance. Collection jars will be out during the show. For more info, check out https://www.facebook.com/events/147270235464652/.
Family of New Paltz offers a number of services, including food for the needy, counseling and much more. Learn about them at https://www.familyofwoodstockinc.org or https://www.facebook.com/pages/Family-of-New-Paltz/160920940602682.
Family of New Paltz was the first of the Public to be shut out from the picnic area at the Town Park back seven years ago when the Town stole the public’s picnic benches, bar-b-ques (six of them) and wooden canopy in favor of the rich brats from the privatize-it community. Family never got back into the picnic area for its annual fest, and neither has the Public. You gotta pay to play; and not even one of the three picnic tables bought by the Public in 1976 on the park’s bill of sale has been put out for the Public to sit at and enjoy either? New Paltz, love it or leave it. And this was before they even created a traffic hazard-area on Mulberry Street, where the streets narrows down to 15 feet across, one foot less than required by the Town Building Code for a two land private driveway at 16 feet across? Get it?