The Hudson River Regional Festival 2004
Text & illustration by Jan Hughes
There is a movement afoot to bring us all back to the river as the root as well as the route connecting our small towns: a vital link to our past and future as thriving communities along the great Hudson River. The Hudson River Regional Festival began as a trickle of an idea when community members in Hudson and Catskill got together a few years ago to discuss coordinating a summer music program. Those early discussions, fostered by arts councils, mayors, and members of the business community, centered around the notion of using the river as a means to connect tourism and development, says Peter Marotta, owner of the Hudson Valley Arts Center, a gallery of fine craft located on Warren Street in Hudson, and Program Director of the Festival. Realizing there were probably other communities along the river in a twenty-five-mile stretch that might be interested in utilizing the river as a means to allow the flow of arts and ideas, the small grassroots organization hatched the concept of the Hudson River Regional Festival.
"From August 5th to the 22nd you will re-discover how things come to life along the Hudson River," says Marotta. "We will turn it from a boat canal into a vital cultural and community link." For three weeks the towns and villages of Tivoli, Saugerties, Catskill, Hudson, Athens, Coxsackie and New Baltimore will host a series of cultural, historical and recreational events showcasing their small communities and tying them together with the thread that connects them all, the Hudson River. There will be lighthouse tours, visits to Dutch ships, historic walks, paddleboat tours, hikes, kayak expeditions, historic reenactments as well as art, music, and theatre.
Now in its second year, the festival has gained new impetus as the idea of using the river as a means of communication, both literally and figuratively, has evolved. News of the festivities has spread beyond the boundaries of these small villages and towns. The events being planned give us an opportunity to explore the river in new ways, and invite us to some of the villages we haven't yet ventured to. There is an infectious fervor about this festival; it is uniting people and towns in ways that haven't happened before, and I hear enthusiasm in every person I talk to. The mayors of the towns, the county tourism and arts councils, and an incredible number of individual volunteers have been working diligently since January to get this extravaganza off the ground.
Upriver, the small west bank community of Athens is making a concerted effort to revitalize its center and bring new life to the village, largely due, it seems, to the encouragement of Ronald A. Coons, Sr. Ron, retired and an artist, pressured the village to donate an empty building which he has christened the Athens Cultural Center. When Dawna Johnson saw what he was doing, she joined right in and became his co-director. During last year's Hudson River Regional Festival they organized an art show there. When word got out that a show and sale was being planned, sixty artists from the far reaches of Greene County, excited that a venue was opening up in their own territory, showed up with work. I spoke with Dot Chast, an Athens artist who participated in that show.
"Athens came alive for the first time in a long time as people flocked to the village," said Dot. "People were going all over the valley looking for things. We never had anything like this in Athens, and we sold a lot of art work." This year the Athens Cultural Center will host an art and photography show during August. There will also be painting in the park on Sunday mornings, and a "paint-a-thon" of historical buildings throughout the village.
Downriver in the east bank village of Tivoli, Deputy Mayor Tom Cordier has been enthusiastically promoting the Hudson River Regional Festival for months, bringing the business community together in a joint effort to encourage tourism in the village. The culinary richness of the Hudson Valley is thriving here. The Cajun, Mexican, and Japanese restaurants, and the cafes and pubs in this small village will offer "A Taste of Tivoli" during the three-week festival. Discount tickets for meals at the restaurants will be available at the Tivoli Artists' Co-op, where its forty members will present "Another Taste of Tivoli," a show and sale of small works and fine crafts.
Jean McAvoy, education coordinator at the nearby New York State Department of Environmental Conservation's Hudson River Research Reserve, has organized music and canoeing events in celebration of the river. The music group Betty and the Baby Boomers will kick off the Tivoli portion of the Hudson River Regional Festival at the Tivoli Bays Visitor Center in the Watts dePeyster Fireman's Hall. The Boomers will present a free acoustic concert of music inspired by life and work in the Hudson River Valley. The Tivoli Bays Visitor Center will also host "Crafting a Hudson River Tale," a storytelling workshop that is one of their free Family Friday events for children and adults.
For those who have never boated on the Hudson there will be the opportunity to explore the river on guided canoe trips being offered free during the festival. Here is a chance to discover the river and its estuaries in quiet meanderings through both Tivoli North Bay and Stockport Flats. These canoe trips are part of the Summer 2004 Public Canoe Trip Series. No prior canoeing experience is necessary. Canoes and safety gear will be supplied; reservations are required.
"The Gallery Trail" has been created to link the art, artists, and galleries in the participating communities, as well as at the historic sites of Olana, Clermont, and Cedar Grove, the Catskill home of Hudson River painter Thomas Cole. Over fifty gallery exhibitions and openings will take place during the eighteen days of the program. The village of Saugerties is reprising its very successful artists' studio tours this year. An exhibition of paintings by Thomas Locker will be on view at the Hudson-Athens Lighthouse and can be viewed by riding the riverboat Spirit of Hudson from either Athens or Hudson.
Although there are a great number of free programs, some fifty entertainment programs will charge an entry fee. Some of these events are bringing world class artists to the area, including dance troupes at Kaatsbaan International Dance Center in Tivoli; StageWorks, an equity stage company, appearing in its first summer season at its new home in Hudson; and jazz, opera and classical performers in programs at the Pleshakov Music Center in Hudson. Riverfront concerts will feature bluegrass in Saugerties, gospel in Hudson, and big band and rock and roll in Catskill.
"August will be a showcase of the best of life in the Hudson Valley," says Peter Marotta, but the Festival has bigger year-round objectives. "There is potential to expand some of the events to nine months, such as kayaking and canoeing, people coming to experience the river and the wetlands, getting people in to use the river. That in turn should increase support for the B&B, dining, and cultural industries in the smaller communities." Other towns with river access are looking for ways to join in the future. Criteria for being a part of the festival involve a commitment to utilize the river in accordance with the goals of the group, as an active link between small towns on opposite banks, tying the region together as a valley rich in culture and environmental beauty.
Developing a long term funding base to promote arts-based resources in the Upper Hudson Region as well as providing a link between the arts and local economies through tourism are two of the primary goals of the Hudson River Regional Festival organization. They hope to be in a competitive position for acquiring some major funding for the 2009 Henry Hudson Festival that will highlight the exploration of the Hudson River and the Champlain region.
I have highlighted only some of the planned programs and performances of the Festival. People are calling in to Peter Marotta daily with requests for involvement, so the scale of this festival broadens as each new participant is added, flooding the valley with good things for all of us to enjoy in August. Specific information about the events mentioned in this article can be found at www.greenetourism.com.
