Credit: Dave Sasso
On Feb. 24, at 7 p.m., the Oldtone Music Festival will hold a Folk Feast and concert at Stissing House, a fundraiser to help finance the return of the roots music event after a year off in 2023.
The Oldtone festival began in 2015 as a one-day event in Wassaic. In subsequent years it became a full weekend of music, dance and food held at the Cool Whisper Farm in North Hillsdale. This year’s festival will be held there on the weekend of Sept. 6-8.
Trevor Roush, the longtime farm manager at Black Sheep Hill Farm, on County Route 83, is a co-producer of the festival along with Ancramdale’s Jim Wright, one of the founders of Oldtone. Roush said he got involved in 2016 as “head of security and anything else they asked me to do.”
Though it was consistently an artistic success, the festival struggled financially. “It only existed thanks to the generosity of volunteers and musicians willing to work for less than they might usually earn,” Roush said. The festival was not held last year so that it could be restructured as not-for-profit with the assistance of its fiscal sponsor, The New York Foundation for the Arts.
Besides a menu of vegetarian gumbo, wild game gumbo, rice and salads, the Folk Feast at Stissing House will include performances by the Empty Bottle Ramblers, a New England-based band playing traditional dance music of Southwestern Louisiana, and multi-instrumentalist Zach Bryson, a singer/songwriter based in Nashville. Tickets to the Folk Feast are $150 general admission and $200 for “Super Supporters.”
Courtesy of Zach Bryson
The Oldtone Music Festival is upfront about its goals. Their website states that “Participation is Preservation” and identifies their mission as preserving “roots music and traditional folkways through artist and audience participation, connecting neighbors, bridging cultures, and sharing insight and wisdom across generations.”
“The festival experience provides a space where people can bridge the gap between ‘we versus them’ and ‘old versus new,’ a place where folks can have an honest interaction and become friends,” Roush said. “Oldtone has always been a cross-generational melting pot where people learn from each other, teach each other and pass traditions along.”
Headlining the festival in September will be Los Texmaniacs, a San Antonio-based conjunto band. Conjunto is dance music anchored by the button accordion, introduced into south Texas by German immigrants in the late 19th century, and the bajo sexto, an acoustic bass guitar. Los Texmaniacs have played together since 1997 and their recent albums have been released on Smithsonian Folkways Records.
Other artists performing at the Oldtone festival include Foghorn Stringband, Danny Paisley & Southern Grass, Jordan Thibodeaux, Dumpster Debbie, Chattanooga Dogs and Bryson.
According to Roush, the 2024 festival site will have a dance tent, two performance stages and a workshop stage where a wide range of stringed instruments and regional musical traditions will be showcased. There will also be a theater-oriented kids’ area directed by a member of the Bread & Puppet Theater. Camping is an option for attendees.
Oldtone Music Festival ticket information link