Monday, August 16, 2010

Music Monday - The Wassaic Project

This is a fairly massive post, but I just can't help it because The Wassaic Project
was too awesome for words.

Wassaic

Wassaic is a beautiful litte town in New York, and the festival is run once a year by The Wassaic Project, an artist community that is based out of Luther Barn and Maxon Mills, which are beautiful unused farm buildings. This festival was nothing like the other ones I've been to recently; it is very small (I guessed that there were maybe 1,000 people there throughout the weekend, but at each performance there were between 50-200 people) and therefore had a great sense of community. I loved recognizing people as they moved from gallery to stage to campfire, and it was wonderful having all of the artists in our midst.

Wassaic

Maxon Mills

Maxon Mills

I went with my friend Peter and we had a great time trying to point out our favorite "urban woodsman" specimen. Has anyone heard about this? Apparently it's a new sub-classification of hipster. I think it's hilarious! Plus, I guess I secretly have a soft spot for urban woodsmen because I once dated a guy who my friends called "the arrogant lumberjack" because of his love for flannel, his beard, and complicated sentence structure.

Wassaic

Installation

Luther Barn

Maxon Mills is probably one of the most excellent arts spaces I have ever been in. Because it is an old mill it is incredibly tall, so we ended up climbing dizzying amounts of stairs, but I think because of that we all got to know each other a little bit better...I mean, what's more of an ice breaker than rubbing up against someone in a tiny staircase? Most of the rooms that came off the stairs had tons of windows, and the soft natural light was a beautiful addition to the surreal feeling the art installations created.

I loved every bit of what we saw, but these were my three favorites:

Jonathan Bogarin, "Was it Evening or Afternoon"
Jonathan Bogarin, "Was it evening or Afternoon"

Ben Cuevas, "Transcending the Material"
Ben Cuevas "Transcending the Material"

Henry Klimowicz's amazing cardboard installation was in the highest level of the mill, and it was like being in some kind of martian fairy cardboard cocoon. I wanted to stay there for hours.
Art

During the day the music was on the Maxon Mills porch, and there was poetry in between sets. The poetry was a wonderful idea, because there is nothing worse than waiting through setups and sound checks for ages. Of the daytime sets Hannah Cohen's beachy vocals and Sebastian Blanck's amazing guitar skills were the standouts.

In the evening the party moved up to the Luther Barn, where the stage was set up at the bottom of a hill, complete with whimsical lights and the beautiful tiled roof of the barn as a backdrop.

Spirit Family Reunion

Spirit Family Reunion

Spirit Family Reunion started off with a sweet folk performance, and She Keep Bees followed with some hilarious moments and Jessica Larrabee's wailing siren of a voice. My personal favorite of the night were Pearl and the Beard. Each of them is such a strong vocalist, and their raging harmonies and the addition of a kazoo and various other interesting percussion instruments to their trio of guitar, drums, and cello made every song more exciting than the last. I swear, the cellist must have to replace her bow after every performance, she has so much energy!

What really made this festival wonderful was the free pancake breakfast on Sunday morning. I mean really, what more could you want?

Pancake Breakfast at the Luncheonette

My favorite questions from the weekend:
What kind of fairy are you?
and
How did you manage to Beadazzle your face?

Beadazzled Face

Flower Headband: Homemade, Dress: Thrifted, Sandals: Gap

Wassaic

I finally put up a followers button and got a twitter. I feel like I have officially inaugurated myself into the blogosphere!

Wassaic

Also...I cannot for the life of me figure out how to get rid of underlines on links. Anyone know?

Wassaic

10 comments:

E said...

This is such an incredible setting. Sounds like an amazing event!

Peter said...

For the urban woodsman... the hipster axes, of which I spoke. Truly, I was not kidding and here is the proof. http://bestmadeco.com/

Anonymous said...

It looks like an incredible place. Thanks for sharing this!

QuiteQuaint said...

oh this all looks so fun, i love the dress and the flower headband x

chloe said...

lovely photos by the train track!
osheaga was really fun, i saw arcade fire, beach house and edward sharpe.
cute blog! check out my vintage store on etsy :) free delivery in mtl!
xox

Rio said...

Looks like sooo much fun! :)
(http://showersofsunflowers.blogspot.com)

Rosie said...

Great photos! It looks like a lot of fun!

Anonymous said...

this is so awesome! looks like it was really fun! ^,^

Victoria said...

Wow, looks like you had an awesome time and those pictures of you are so cute!

Just found your blog so I'm going to follow :)

If you get chance please check out my blog http://my-favourite-fashion.blogspot.com/ Thank you! xxx

Jazzy E (Hivenn) said...

such beautiful photos!
xx

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