Artists and musicians from across the area are once again preparing to descend upon Washington Street for the annual Hoboken Arts and Music Festival on May 1, from 11 a.m. – 6 p.m., rain or shine.
The city’s Director of Cultural Affairs Geri Fallo has been organizing the event, which is co-sponsored by The Hudson Reporter, for the past 17 years.
“In 1994, [the festival] was only three streets long, and we had 80 vendors, one stage, and we put a skateboard ramp in the middle of the street just to make it feel like a festival,” Fallo said last week.
Admission to the festival is free, and will take place rain or shine on Washington Street downtown on May 1, beginning at 11 a.m.
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“[In 1994] someone came up to me and said ‘when’s the next one?” Fallo said. “So I said, ‘next year, I guess.’”
But the event was so popular that the city decided to hold an Arts and Music Festival twice a year ever since.
“It was one of those things that was like ‘if you build it, they will come,” Fallo said last week.
Fallo calls the event “a great showcase for Hoboken” and says the event’s popularity has multiplied since its inception.
Fallo said former Mayor David Roberts, a councilman at the time, told her in 1994 that he wanted to see Washington Street be the host of a festival. Although it was Fallo’s first year on the job, the tradition of the Hoboken Arts and Music Festival was born.
Securing the bands
The Arts and Music Festival, which annually draws between 30 – 50 thousand guests, jumped to new heights in 1997 when the city booked Patti Smith, according to Fallo.
“We just took a shot and asked her, and about a month before the day of the event she said she would come,” Fallo said.
Fallo added that Smith said she was happy she came to perform.
This year’s headliners are ‘Ian Hunter and the Rant Band’, and ‘The Baseball Project.’
Bern and the Brights, The Fuzzy Lemons, Frankie Morales and the Mambo of the Times Orchestra, Dawnie from Peanut Butter n Jammin’, Goodbye Friday, Mad Dog Mary, and The Pretty Babies will also perform live.
The city will also host a “Kid’s Stage” in the Capital One Bank parking lot on Third Street, where rides, games, creative activities, a magic show, face painting, clowns, and live performances will take place.
A snapshot of the artists
Dave Lambert is the vocalist and lead guitarist of The Fuzzy Lemons, and also plays the harmonica and mandolin.
When asked why his band decided to take part in the festival, Lambert said: “How could we not?
“Hoboken is our hometown, our turf, our stomping ground, our alma mater,” Lambert said. “We first did it three years ago in 2008; the first summer after the band was formed. We haven’t been able to do it again until now, and we’re thrilled to be back.”
Lambert said his band plays “good old fashioned rock’n roll, with lyrics that the whole family can enjoy.”
The Fuzzy Lemons will perform on the 3rd Street family stage at 12:30 p.m. and 2 p.m. The other stages are between Newark Street and Observer Highway, and at Sixth Street on Washington Street.
The band Mad Dog Mary, which is made up of four born and raised Hoboken residents, will perform at the festival for the second year in a row.
“We play classic rock,” said Tom Wassman, the drummer for Mad Dog Mary. “We play music that everybody is familiar with, and throw a little Mad Dog Mary energy and crowd participation, and it’s a pretty good show. Last year was a blast and the crowd was very receptive.”
The artists aren’t only from Hoboken.
Megan Avery, a Weehawken-based artist, said she takes part in the festival because “it’s a great way to promote [her] local business” and she loves “the community vibe” of the festival.
Avery will present work from her sewing studio, which is based in Hoboken, and will teach sewing projects for kids and adults. Avery’s booth will be in front of the Cold Stone Creamery on the west side of Washington Street between 1st and 2nd streets.
Jean Lin is an artist living in downtown Jersey City, and will be demonstrating quality and designer fabrics, as well as glass beads, semi-precious stones, and Swavorski crystals.
Ricardo Roig said his life as an artist changed since he took part in the fall Hoboken Arts and Music Festival.
Roig is a 27-year-old Union City resident, and creates oil paintings and sculptures. Roig has travelled across the state to display his work, but always makes time to come to Hoboken, and has become somewhat of a local fixture.
In addition to having his work featured on a local news blog, he has donated paintings to the Rotary Club, raised over $400 for local teenagers, and also raised over $250 for the Elysian Charter School in an auction in February. Roig recently began a series of paintings of local bars and restaurants in Hoboken.
“I paint representationally as to communicate better on a sort of common ground with the viewer,” Roig said. “If they familiarize themselves with the work, the environment, space, and atmosphere of the work, they are able to enter the world of the painting – the fourth dimension as I call it – and transcend themselves into art.”
Artist Tara Metzler uses her sales to donate a percentage of profits to a local animal organization to help feed, shelter, and give medical attention to homeless animals in the area.
The above are just some of the approximately 15 bands and over 300 artists who take part in the festival. For a complete schedule of events, check out next weekend’s Hoboken Reporter.
Admission to the festival is free, and will take place rain or shine on Washington Street downtown on May 1, beginning at 11 a.m.
Ray Smith may be reached at RSmith@hudsonreporter.com